So I'm having some issues and i'm not sure where to post this, but I'm running windows so I thought I'd give this a shot.
My home build computer--see profile for full description--has always had trouble shutting down. it was an occasional problem where when i would shut the computer down through the normal windows fashion it would power down and seem like it was gonna shut off, but then just restart. this is happening all the time now.
some things that have happened recently are:
there was a fire at my extremely janky house. the shed in my backyard burnt down. the shed had power and we're 99% sure that it was an electrical fire. when the shed started burning the lights in the house flickered a lot. once the fire department showed up the power to the house was turned off. my computer was on at the time of the fire. I would be highly surprised if any of the wiring in the house is grounded--the house is really old and our landlord is a jerk. i have surge protectors but, i don't know if they are still effective if the wiring in your house isn't grounded.
after the fire i started getting blue screens and mini dumps and messages that my virtual memory was low. i decied that it couldn't hurt to wipe my system and reinstall windows. which i did.
after i did this i still got blue screened a couple times...though usually when i left a bit torrent client running for a long time.
so i did some reading and decided that two things were probably happening...my CPU might be over heating and my paging file might be too small/corrupt.
I bought some more RAM and new thermal paste, and cleared my paging file. I shut down my computer and installed my new RAM. I then went about taking off my heat sink to clean off the dust and reapply thermal paste to the CPU. well my CPU came off with the heat sink...which made me really nervous.
I unstuck them cleaned off the dried up thermal paste, cleared out dust and then put the CPU back in place, applied the paste, and put the heat sink back on.
I booted up and the first thing i saw was a message about the processor having been changed and that my computer is running in failsafe mode. the message also said to check the BIOS settings.
I did and everything seemed fine--though i don't know much about what all the BIOS settings do. I continued into windows, which boots fine, reset my paging files to a size appropriate for my new amount of RAM and restarted.
i got the same fail-safe mode message again, but not the processor has been changed message. i get this message every time i boot up now.
but i haven't gotten any more blue screens or low virtual memory messages.
what i am getting is freezes. it has happened twice while running my bit torrent client--which i have laid off till i figure out exactly what is up--and once while typing an erlier version of this post--with only firefox and trillian running. the last time something inside my case made a little "i'm kind of messed up" squeak/beep/gritty noise. not a system beep, but more of an electrical type noise.
i'm really worried that seriously messed something up when I did my spring cleaning.
thanks ahead of time, because everyone that replies here is super nice and has really good advice.
also nothing is overclocked or modded.
My home build computer--see profile for full description--has always had trouble shutting down. it was an occasional problem where when i would shut the computer down through the normal windows fashion it would power down and seem like it was gonna shut off, but then just restart. this is happening all the time now.
some things that have happened recently are:
there was a fire at my extremely janky house. the shed in my backyard burnt down. the shed had power and we're 99% sure that it was an electrical fire. when the shed started burning the lights in the house flickered a lot. once the fire department showed up the power to the house was turned off. my computer was on at the time of the fire. I would be highly surprised if any of the wiring in the house is grounded--the house is really old and our landlord is a jerk. i have surge protectors but, i don't know if they are still effective if the wiring in your house isn't grounded.
after the fire i started getting blue screens and mini dumps and messages that my virtual memory was low. i decied that it couldn't hurt to wipe my system and reinstall windows. which i did.
after i did this i still got blue screened a couple times...though usually when i left a bit torrent client running for a long time.
so i did some reading and decided that two things were probably happening...my CPU might be over heating and my paging file might be too small/corrupt.
I bought some more RAM and new thermal paste, and cleared my paging file. I shut down my computer and installed my new RAM. I then went about taking off my heat sink to clean off the dust and reapply thermal paste to the CPU. well my CPU came off with the heat sink...which made me really nervous.
I unstuck them cleaned off the dried up thermal paste, cleared out dust and then put the CPU back in place, applied the paste, and put the heat sink back on.
I booted up and the first thing i saw was a message about the processor having been changed and that my computer is running in failsafe mode. the message also said to check the BIOS settings.
I did and everything seemed fine--though i don't know much about what all the BIOS settings do. I continued into windows, which boots fine, reset my paging files to a size appropriate for my new amount of RAM and restarted.
i got the same fail-safe mode message again, but not the processor has been changed message. i get this message every time i boot up now.
but i haven't gotten any more blue screens or low virtual memory messages.
what i am getting is freezes. it has happened twice while running my bit torrent client--which i have laid off till i figure out exactly what is up--and once while typing an erlier version of this post--with only firefox and trillian running. the last time something inside my case made a little "i'm kind of messed up" squeak/beep/gritty noise. not a system beep, but more of an electrical type noise.
i'm really worried that seriously messed something up when I did my spring cleaning.
thanks ahead of time, because everyone that replies here is super nice and has really good advice.
also nothing is overclocked or modded.
