DescentBB

My friend's PC has been exhibiting some bizarre symptoms ever since I smacked it with a metal sign. Actually, it's been exhibiting these symptoms for a while, but they only became unbearably common after I dropped a 2-pound metal plate sqaure on the top of the case. Now the computer reboots whenever it experiences the slightest vibration. My friend, after some troubleshooting, replaced the hard drive and CPU (mobo and memory were brand new). No dice, same problem, except the new hard drive was DOA (click of death). So he sent the HDD back to NewEgg and received a replacement, which didn't exhibit click of death, just, well, death. Angrily sent that one back and got a refund, and in frustration went to Staples to get a new HDD off the shelf.

The magic blue smoke got out when he turned on the PC. Burninated.

So now we're up a creek without a paddle. Or water for that matter. Tonight, we decided to recreate the problem. With the computer turned on its side, we independently smacked the HDD and the case. The first time the video gave out as if it was rebooting but it came back a few seconds later with a helpful error box similar to the Windows-supplied critical error boxes that said "Your video card has been reset because it was not responding to driver commands." The second time, it gave a BSOD (Stop 0x7F), which the MS Knowledge Base helpfully describes as a possible software, hardware, or everything else problem. The third time, it had the decency to let out a BEEP before restarting. Here are the possibilities we have "narrowed" it down to:

1. Power supply is on the way out (Antec 350W). It could have damaged the mobo so that it doesn't handle shaking well, and/or it ate the replacement HDDs.
2. My friend has the worst luck imaginable and got three DOA HDDs.
3. The video card is conspiring against him and is really causing the reboot problem (but then why the smoking HDD?)
4. Everything is broken.
5. God hates my friend.

Specs:
-Intel 3 GHz P4 w/ HT
-Asus P4P800
-HDDs... the two from NewEgg were WD's, and the original and one from Staples were Maxtors
-ATI Radeon 9600 XT
-1 GB PC2100 RAM (512 MB are Crucial, 2x256 Generic, tested with Memtest86 so they're not the problem)
-SB Audigy 2
-IBM EtherJet NIC

Can anyone shed some light as to WTF is going on here? My friend is leaning towards #5 here, and I'd prefer if he didn't associate broken computers with Satanism.

I'd take a close look at the power supply. With the video cutting out and the hard drives dying, it sounds like something got knocked loose in the powersupply and it cant deliver stable voltage anymore.

We just confirmed power supply isn't the problem; we swapped it out and it happened again.

start swapping hardware. I'd start with the vidcard.

Toss the case, PSU and every ribbon cable in the whole PC. Check the power cord too. Once you are sure the cheap stuff is good, start swapping out more expensive parts.

have you tried doing a benchtest?

as in the original meaning of the word: take all the components out and run the PC just as it's bare components sitting on the desk. no case.

while running, taking care to keep yourself staticly earthed, slap each individual component around a bit. start with the PSU (pick it up, give it a shake, press on it in various ways), then the MOBO (don't be too rough with this of course as you were with teh PSU, also careful - static).

for some time my pc would reset whenever you pressed on the top of the case. an annoying unexplained feature that was a laugh for others at LANs (walk past my pc, press on it - "roid has left the game").

with your friend's PC i suspect it's SOME connection problem. connections that i have seen that can cause problems are
- PCI/AGP cards, tarnished connections or just wobbly seating. creating a form of "dry joint".
- cable connections to the outside (joystick, video, speakers) can be the cause of trouble - see if you can recreate the problem by wiggling various cables. (they are quite suseptible to dry joint problems, since the plugging/unplugging action puts stress on the solder)

or it could also be loose screws, metal shavings or some other conductive material (dust even) in the case. basically take the whole PC apart and give everything a good WIPE clean witha damp cloth or something. if you use a damp cloth be careful not to turn the PC on unless you are sure all water residue has evapourated (this may be hard for you atm since it's winter there).
after (well more like during) this clean, benchtest the whole CLEAN setup before putting it back into the case. just to see if it helped.

(edit: also, krom's suggestion is a great idea - CABLES)

Don't use water to clean a PC... if you must use something wet use alcohol.

DCrazy wrote:We just confirmed power supply isn't the problem; we swapped it out and it happened again.

here's a thought: check the current consumption on the circuit the PS is plugged into.

Like, is it sharing current with a major appliance?

Flip, moved it from circuit to circuit without remedy.

roid, that's the next step. We were hesistant to do it in case the PSU fried the only working spare parts we had.

The problem is his entire house is carpeted. It drives me nuts to see him working on his computer on the carpeted floor. Neither of us owns a wrist strap.

We never got around to the video card. That's an exercise for tomorrow.

If you touch anything in his house and get shocked regularly then you might have to worry. I've got carpet in most of this house and I've only had a static shock on the sliding glass door handle and we've lived here for 10 years. Working on the carpet hasn't been a problem and we've got 4 PCs in this house.

Sorry, I know this doesn't help but thought I'd post anyways. I'd tend to agree with #5 myself after all the problems he has had.

blue smoke?

something fried, have you found the source of the burning?


look under the seatings for the motherboard for a loose screw missing motherboard risers

they let all the smoke out of a hard drive, thereby rendering it non functional.

Yeah, the HDD is what burned.