hi all
first time poster, hopefully i'll give all the info needed so you guys can help me :grinthumb
background: my PC is a custom built PC with all parts ordered and put together by the site i ordered it from. i got my PC in june 2004, used it a good amount until august 2004 when i went abroad to study. then from jan 2005 up until today, it was used on a daily basis, with more than 3/4 of that time having the comp on 24/7, almost for months at a time.
cpu specs (as i remember them):
120 gig western digital hard drive
ATI 9800 120 mb graphics card
pentium 4 3.4 processor
1 gig of DDR ram
4. something creative sound card
6 fully functioning fans
blue lights on the interior and exterior of the PC that are on all the time
500 watt PSU (can't see if it's name brand or not, don't have that vantage point
windows xp home OS
problem(s): as stated in the background, the cpu has been under heavy usage for almost a year now, with it being on much of that time. recently, as in a month ago, it started to do 2 thing where when i shut off the comp and turned it back on. 1) it would do a loop where it would reboot, reach the windows load screen no problem, and then restart. this would go on endlessly, and my chances of getting into the actual OS were like 1/20, the worst ever being like 1/30. 2) everytime it would boot up, mid way through the boot it would come to a screen where it asked me to insert the boot disc...my average for this was to manually restart like 6 times in order for it to successfully load into windows.
2 weeks ago, my comp began to shut off every like 4 days, with me still having to go through the loop. today, it shut off 15 minutes into me actually getting into the OS. then, when i turned it back on, and was going through the loop, it shut off again, during the loop, which leads me to believe it might be a PSU problem, though i can't varify this since i really don't claim to be a cpu specialist or anything. after my comp shutoff, i would try and turn it on immediately after. the comp would turn on for like 2 seconds, then shut off immediately after. then i shut off the power going into the PSU by flicking the switch on the back of the PSU, waited a few minutes, turned it back on, and then started the process all over. the only thing is guaranteed me 3/4 of the time was that it wouldn't shut off 2 seconds after i press the power button, leaving me an avg 15 minutes in order to go through the loop.
additional info: as far as i can tell, there are no viruses on my comp, though i use an online virus scan (trend micro). i'm not sure as to whether or not i have spy ware on my comp, though i'm not even sure what effects spyware can do to a computer. if it is spyware that's doing this to my comp, i'm worried i won't even be able to get rid of it if the average shut down time is 15 minutes, with no guarantee of even being able to log in.
to be honest, i have no idea what to do. if anyone has any idea what these problems indicate and how i can fix it, i'd be eternally grateful. thank you in advance for reading and offering suggestions, no matter how big or small they may be. thanks :grinthumb
phil
first time poster, hopefully i'll give all the info needed so you guys can help me :grinthumb
background: my PC is a custom built PC with all parts ordered and put together by the site i ordered it from. i got my PC in june 2004, used it a good amount until august 2004 when i went abroad to study. then from jan 2005 up until today, it was used on a daily basis, with more than 3/4 of that time having the comp on 24/7, almost for months at a time.
cpu specs (as i remember them):
120 gig western digital hard drive
ATI 9800 120 mb graphics card
pentium 4 3.4 processor
1 gig of DDR ram
4. something creative sound card
6 fully functioning fans
blue lights on the interior and exterior of the PC that are on all the time
500 watt PSU (can't see if it's name brand or not, don't have that vantage point
windows xp home OS
problem(s): as stated in the background, the cpu has been under heavy usage for almost a year now, with it being on much of that time. recently, as in a month ago, it started to do 2 thing where when i shut off the comp and turned it back on. 1) it would do a loop where it would reboot, reach the windows load screen no problem, and then restart. this would go on endlessly, and my chances of getting into the actual OS were like 1/20, the worst ever being like 1/30. 2) everytime it would boot up, mid way through the boot it would come to a screen where it asked me to insert the boot disc...my average for this was to manually restart like 6 times in order for it to successfully load into windows.
2 weeks ago, my comp began to shut off every like 4 days, with me still having to go through the loop. today, it shut off 15 minutes into me actually getting into the OS. then, when i turned it back on, and was going through the loop, it shut off again, during the loop, which leads me to believe it might be a PSU problem, though i can't varify this since i really don't claim to be a cpu specialist or anything. after my comp shutoff, i would try and turn it on immediately after. the comp would turn on for like 2 seconds, then shut off immediately after. then i shut off the power going into the PSU by flicking the switch on the back of the PSU, waited a few minutes, turned it back on, and then started the process all over. the only thing is guaranteed me 3/4 of the time was that it wouldn't shut off 2 seconds after i press the power button, leaving me an avg 15 minutes in order to go through the loop.
additional info: as far as i can tell, there are no viruses on my comp, though i use an online virus scan (trend micro). i'm not sure as to whether or not i have spy ware on my comp, though i'm not even sure what effects spyware can do to a computer. if it is spyware that's doing this to my comp, i'm worried i won't even be able to get rid of it if the average shut down time is 15 minutes, with no guarantee of even being able to log in.
to be honest, i have no idea what to do. if anyone has any idea what these problems indicate and how i can fix it, i'd be eternally grateful. thank you in advance for reading and offering suggestions, no matter how big or small they may be. thanks :grinthumb
phil