Major Problems

Post by **SPiKed X** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:46 am

My home pc is seriously screwed! Don't know if it's a virus or a serious hardware malfunction. Here's what it's doing:

1. When starting up, it goes to a "Energy" page that at the bottom it says, "To change BIOS settings press DEL, to Continue press F1"

I've tried both, I can enter the BIOS set up and I've tried loading the "Default settings" and that didn't help. I can continue by pressing F1 and it goes into normal boot up.

2. At first yesterday, I could click on my log in and go to websites and use the mouse etc. But the keyboard would not work correctly at all. Also the left click wouldn't work right, it wouldn't "click" lots of things. Like say I went into "My Computer" It wouldn't click and open the files, instead I had to hover over them and highlight the file then goto "File" at the top and click "Open" from there.

3. Ctrl+Alt+Delete would not work! Of course this is the first thing I tried! But it wouldn't do a dang thing.

4. I unplugged the keyboard and the mouse and plugged them back in but to no avail.

5. I turned the power off via my surge strip and elft it off all night. Well this morning it started up great...the first time...I could even click on my name to go into my Windows. So I took my shower and when I got out I tried to use the puter thinkg allw as gonna be ok now and the pointer wouldn't move! Nothing at all would work so I figured well it's locked up due to sitting so long with out me using it...done that before. So I powered off via the Power button and then turned it back on, well what do ya know it goes back to the ENERGY screen like the day before! Once I got hit F1 it went to the "Account" screen, and I couldn't even move my mouse to freakin click my name to go into my Windows.

6. Now I'm just screwed cuz Idk what the heck to do. I also tried System Restore yesterday, which I could get open, but it wouldn't let me click "Next" to begin the restore to previous date!

Any ideas would be very helpful. I can only access the web now via work cuz also my flippin laptop's power cord is bad apparently. I can use the wife's mac but she don't like me to and I don't like that thing at all

PLEASE HELPP!

Post by **-=[MC]=-SCREAMER** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:05 am

i had similar problems about 3 days ago x , mine was down to a system overheat tho , my date and time changed which really screwed things up for 1 , have you tried flashing the motherboard , also have you tried a different key/mouse in it ? stupid i know , but small things can sometimes really screw a system up

Post by **Kashu** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:12 am

Try to enter Windows in safe mode (press F8 during boot i think).
It won't load many processes, so if the problem comes from there, it won't crash and you will be able to do what you want (scan your hd for viruses, delete useless processes which load @ boot of windows, etc.).

Post by **SPiKed X** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:32 pm

Yeah I started to boot in safe Mode yesterday as well but my keyboard doesn't seem to be right lol during even that screen

What's "flashing the motherboard"?

Post by **SPiKed X** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:38 pm

SPiKed X wrote:Yeah I started to boot in safe Mode yesterday as well but my keyboard doesn't seem to be right lol during even that screen

What's "flashing the motherboard"?

Looked it up on Google and printed off the info. Will try it sometime soon. Thanks for the tip.

Post by **Kashu** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 1:24 pm

If you had no problem with the same motherboard and without changing any hardware, imo flashing the motherboard won't solve anything. if the keyboard doesnt work, it might come from motherboard or the keyboard itself.

Post by **SPiKed X** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:27 pm

lol let me make this more plain, EVERYTHING is screwed. Just all of a sudden BAM, keyboard's acting funny, mouse stopped working, browser header, (I.E.) changed. Honestly it makes me think it's a virus but I didn't open any attachments or dl anything anywhere, and up to 11pm it worked fine. The next afternoon, (yesterday), I turned the pc on, and at first it wouldn't even come on! The light would light up, (the lil "running" light showing the pc is processing), but the big power light itse;f wouldn't light up and my monitor was not receiving the signal to start up either. I hit the power button 3-4 times with nothing. Then I powered down the surge protector and turned it back on, and finally I got the thing to start up, but it goes to this page asking if I want to modify the BIOS or just continue. It also says something on it about "BIOS Gaurdian being enabled" and it has in the upper right hand corner the "Energy" symbol. (If you're familiar with buying appliances that are "Energy" rated you know the sign

).

So I know it's not a bad keyboard, and not a bad mouse. It's either something internal or a virus. So I'm open to trying all things

Post by **Kashu** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:45 pm

did you do a virus scan ? it looks like a virus.
btw, viruses can infect your computer trough security holes. So don't forget to update windows and the softwares you use

Post by **SpikedCoffey** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 5:35 pm

Its not a virus in this case X, hmmm, how can I break this too you gently?

Take your computer out into a nice quite shot in the back yard, ask it to turn its head, then shoot it!.

OK before you actually do what I mentioned above try these 2 things. I have delt with 2 similar problems with a comp doing exactly what you said.

1) remove any after market RAM from your computer. Or even the factory RAM, but try the after market one first. But remember u gota have atleast one piece still in there

2) If that doesn't work, remove your aftermarket graphics card, unless thats the only graphics card in your comp.

My money is on a bad stick of RAM especially if you went with the kingsley? kingston? something king RAM. That stuff neevr last very long.

If neither of those work, try a bigger power supply. You may have been pushing your old power supply too hard to where it finally gave up on you.

Post by **BoBo** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 5:38 pm

do you have every thing backed up like you should i would recommend eather downloading a live linux distro like knoppix and seeing if it works alright when you boot to that. (would sho it is a software problem not hardware.) if you dont do that you could always just try to reinstall windows

Post by **SpikedCoffey** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 5:40 pm

if hes having power failure guys its not software related. And since his computer gradually died over a few days, thats exactly what happens when a RAM chip goes bad, even if its just one and the other(s) still work. Had the exact thing happen to the box I'm on now. All because I bought the cheap RAM instead of springing for the nice PNY brand. I learned my lesson the hard way.

Post by **BoBo** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 5:48 pm

if you think it is a memory problem i would recomend again to download knopix and burn it to a cd it has a lot of realy good tools for cheaking memory. and you dont have to installit the hole operating sytem boots and runns off a cd

Post by **SPiKed X** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 5:52 pm

You could be right Mike. I have one stick of Kingston in there and I can't remember what the first stick is that I bought. Also it is a wierd power issue. Today I went home and was gonna boot to safe mode...if even I could. Well I turned the surge protector back on, opened the door to the pc, (it's in my desk cabinet...pretty well ventilated as I always keep it open in the front when on the pc to help it stay cool), and the thing was running...not completely though. It was doing what I described above with the whole "working light on, but main power light not on and monitor not on). And honestly today this is as far as I could get it again. I could never actually get it to boot and be at full power.

This sound like the RAM deal or power supply deal? I can try pulling a stick of ram out tomorrow and seeing what happens. I don't have the original ram anymore but there are 2 seperate brands in there with the Kingston being the newer of the 2, both 1/2 GB.

Post by **P4in** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:17 pm

Yeah,strange 1 that,i didnt have the patience to read all the replys,so my advice is to pull your grapthips card.

Had a similar prob some time ago,turned out to be the case was twisted slightlly and this meant the grapthics card wasnt seated squarelly,caused no end of problems.

Post by **-=[MC]=-SCREAMER** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:14 pm

i still say motherboard issue , hence the flashing , as your bios has reset and wants you to do something with it , the idea is flashing it basically resets it , so any minor thing in the bios could affect the system

Post by **SPiKed X** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:43 pm

Hard to flash if I can't even get to the BIOS

The thing won't even power up completely now m8

Post by **-=[MC]=-SCREAMER** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 8:10 am

you dont need to have the pc powered up to flash the bios ,. check your mobo manual and find how how to cross the cmos jumper, that resets the bios completely !!

Post by **SpikedCoffey** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 9:06 am

X, take out your kingston chip and it should fire right up. Now that you told me you did buy one I can tell you with 99% certainty thats your problem. Kingston brand RAM went bad in my box a while back and it did exactly that same thing, and a band RAM chip will prevent your computer from powering up. Always buy PNY brand. Please try this before anything else.

Post by **Kashu** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 9:36 am

Yeah, try to use only 1 ram chip. or try to use memtest86 during one night (burn it on a cd and it loads itself at boot).

btw, just to be clear, when i mean "flashing mothderboard", i think about its firmware, not about the cmos jumper.

Post by **SPiKed X** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 5:45 pm

Hmm Screamer that would be great IF I had a motherboard manual lol. I bought my pc prebuilt so there is no seperate book for the moboard. Maybe I can find something on the web, I'll look tonight...at work again for 12 hours

Tried the ram removal, nothing different. Tried removing the vid card too, nothing different.

It's like the pc starts up but doesn't if you know what I mean. Actually today as soon as I plugged the pc in again, the cpu fan started automatically! Tried to hit the power button a few times and still it won't power up completely, and by completely I mean power up and even the monitor show that it's trying to boot up. My power button is sposed to glow green around it, and it doesn't, only the lil "working" light below it comes on and I hear the cpu starting up, or atleast the fan, and you hear it checking the a drive, but then it stops and nothing else happens cept the fan runs and the lil orange working light is on.

Suppose if both ram chips went bad then maybe your ram idea would be it Mike, but I don't have a spare chip to put in there so I'm going to look up the deal on the cmos jumper.

Also, bought a new power cord for my laptop today and it didn't work either

This sucks! Niether of my puters are working.

Post by **SPiKed X** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 9:28 pm

Searchin Google brought me to the very real possibility it could be the power supply. Seems this is the weak link in e_Machines. They're only about $30 too so no big expense there. Think I'll work on jumping the cmos out tomorrow and maybe finding a new cmos battery, as this could be a possibility as well. But really most post I've seen on my model with the same probs believe it's the power supply. Only prob is I haven't found anyone that replied back saying that fixed it lol or not

Post by **P4in** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:28 pm

[quote="SPiKed They're only about $30[/quote]

<b>oh my gosh</b>,i'm trying to get away from all you US dudes,and here i am posting on a mixed forum.

No, only playin wit u,check out my clan forums if you have the time,these guys are almost as cool as you lot.

http://www.thedawgpound.net/dow/

Post by **BoBo** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 1:50 am

you should have said it was an ematchien. i would have told you to cheak the powersupply. at school last year we had to replace 36 emachien power suplies. and i hade to replace 2 of my personal ematchein powersupplies.

also you should buy your self a new pc. e machiens are horible. i am surprised you havent had to replace your hard drive yet there hard drive crap out all the time.

http://newegg.com

[!!!]xX · Post by **[!!!]xX** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 2:45 am

u guys hit the prob on the head b4 i got round to responding, had same problem about a year ago with a dying PSU, started gradual, would boot to start screen then restart, then to post screen, basically getting something different every time, but try a diff psu b4 it completely blows, it could take other bits with it

Post by **SPiKed X** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 7:08 am

Well, sure enough power supply went bad. The really bad part, it took out the mobo and cpu too

I bought the new PS and installed it, got nothing. Took it to the service people I bought the PS from and he checked it out, called me later, and told me the mobo and cpu are gone. So oh well, I'll be off the game for a while as honestly I'm not in too big a hurry to get a pc going again. I will though, one day, use the parts from this one and build a new one.

The really bad news, he says my laptop is gone too

I tried the new power chord/charger and got nothing from it either. He told me that means she's junk too, so now I'm left using my wife's mac...which I hate, and the secretary's pc here at work to check my email, the forums and stuff.

Think this was God's way of telling me He don't want me doing Real Estate either lol, cuz I used the pc's for it mostly. lol He told me before and I stopped but then got back into it...guess this way He really told me

Anywho, don't worry, I'll still be chekcing in here daily as of course I gotta keep up wit my email and stuff too. But as for gaming I'll be taking a break...proabably a well needed break allowing me to be productive in other ways

L8r