Crashing Computer

M

malcolm622

New Member
Hi
I am new to this forum and desparately need help with my computer which is driving me crazy!!
Every time I go to turn it on it starts up and almost immediately there is a beep. About five seconds later before anything even gets to the monitor it turns off. I am running windows XP with an Intel Pentium 4 processor. I am really not clever with computers and my brother-in-law (who is) looked at it. It has just had a new hard drive installed. The memory, motherboard etc. are only just over a year old. I would be grateful if anyone can pooint me in the right direction

Thanks
Malcolm
 
First of all Welcome to the Computer Forum! http://www.computerforum.com/70672-official-welcome-thread.html Please be sure to review the http://www.computerforum.com/52038-forum-rules.html

It wouldn't be the monitor itself turning off but the board. Do you still hear any fans running after or is everything simply quiet? Most like the board can be ruled out since you are hearing the default beep for the moment. If the power supply is now seeing a bad cap there won't be enough power to see the system start up. Another common problem is the battery on the board itself going after a year's time. A bad cpu, memory, or video card will generally sound an alarm with a series of beeps.
 
Where is the monitor plugged in? Is that fed directly off of the supply inside? I suspect you are seeing a bad board or supply problem if a replacement battery fails to see results. Take the battery with you somewhere for matching it up unless you see the number shown in the user manual. On a good number of common atx boards that will be a CR2032 in a store. But the battery itself often may have a different number.

Spending on a few batteries never hurts since those are low cost items. Hopefully that's all it is. Boards and cpus as well as memory start seeing higher price tags real fast. You'll know all too soon if a new battery doesn't work.
 
I am no expert and am struggling to solve my own problems. However, what you have shared here seems to be likely a power problem because the computer hasn't got the chance to even heat up.

I would suggest you puck out the power supply and measure the voltage to see if you are getting a constant power source (if you know a little about elect).

I have experience tripping after using it for a couple of hours but those were either over heating issue or virus, etc.

Hope it is of some help
 
A weak or dead battery on a board will stall a system completely. You need the battery to maintain the cmos which holds the bios program information. Without that there is no time and date along with anything needed to start the system. You will note that when you remove a battery and put it back in what is the first thing that comes up? The time and date screen for the bios setup.

If something on the board is shorting to ground that will pull the power down as well causing shutdowns. But that is something seen with new build where the board has to be remounted. A bad cap on the board or in the supply?
 
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