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I have a three year old (to me) refurbished HP desktop that I have been happily using without so much as a hiccup since I bought it.
This afternoon, however, I was working then took a break to run downstairs and have a drink with one of my sons. I left it on for this time, and when I returned to the computer after about forty minutes, the screen was blank, and the actual PC was doing what I can only describe as ‘revving’. The hard drive seemed to be spinning (or the fan running) in fits and starts, and nothing was visible on the screen.
Will my poor machine be revivable? Is there anything I can do with it here at home, or should I just take it in?
Is it likely to be fixable? Or was that behaviour similar to the old Mac’s ‘chime of death’?
It might have been installing a Window Update, but that would usually show on the screen. Did you turn it off, and if so, have you tried turning it back on?
I have indeed tried turning it off and on again a few times. The result is the same each time: seems normal for a second, then starts to ‘rev’, where the fan (or the spinning hard drive - not sure which) just keeps going ‘vvVVVvv’ *pause* ‘vvVVVvv’…
Could be overheating and switching off. Open up the case so that you can see if the fan or the the hard drive is making the noise. If the fan's not turning that'll be the problem - you should be able to replace it.
I can come and take a look tomorrow?
If it's compleatly unresponsive, unplug any network cables, and physically unplug the power suppy from the mains, and leave it for a good 15mins to drain any residual power.
Then try again and let us know what happens.
Had something similar a couple of years ago, Dell desktop.
Transpired it was a strange issue w D: drive that crashed the machine when it was in the main case, but in a caddy as external d: the machine was quite happy. Was precipitated by a thunderstorm power outage - anything recently that might have upset your machine equilibrium. .?
100£ to resolve w a local repair guy, but much cheaper than buying a new box....
Good luck!
You need to isolate the noise.
Where are you geographically, can you get it to me (or Molly)?
You need to isolate the noise.
Disconnect the fan and fire it up. If it still makes the noise it's the hard drive. Or just take the cover off and see/hear if it is the fan or HDD.
Coffee (or whatever you want) is on me!
Whatever I want? Single estate Malabar with Jersey milk, I also want a bowl of M&Ms with no brown ones, fruits de mer and ZZ Top.
(Not really)
I used to buy quite a few refurbished HPs and the PSU sometimes failed and caused those symptoms, the revving was the PSU fan - fairly easy to replace the PSU if it is but as others have said take the lid off and isolate the noise. Might be worth disconnecting the HDD before doing any diagnostics, esp if it is a mechanical (non SSD) one.
"Revving" sounds like one of the fans spinning up and down, easy enough to open it up and see what one is doing that. My money is on the CPU fan, by the way.
I had this on a build I did with my son: the motherboard started to power up (lights flashing, CPU fan spun up) then a few seconds later it reset and the CPU fan spun down, then motherboard started to power up... The CPU fan was doing the same vvVVVvv pause vvVVVvv you describe.
In my case it was because I'd failed to connect all of the power cables to the motherboard: enough for it to start bringing the system up, but not enough to actually do anything. I'd say check cables but the mobo power cable is hard enough to remove at the best of times!
If you're lucky its the PSU as has been said, they're easy enough to replace (depending on the cabling situation...) although buying a suitable replacement isn't always trivial.
Well, @molgrips has just left my house having only gone and fixed the thing.
He had the machine apart, in seconds and up and running within ten minutes.
If you haven't met him in the flesh, he wears a blue suit with a red cape.
Those of you who understand how these things work will have to ask him exactly what the problem was, but thank you all in the meantime for your help, and in the case of @Cougar, your implied offer.
Lol. That makes it sound like I knew what I was doing.
Seems like normal behaviour was a quick spin of the fans high speed and then down to quiet levels. It seems that it was doing this spin and then cutting out and rebooting, hence the fans on and off.
I removed and replaced the back up battery to reset the motherboard, and then it came up with a message on screen saying the system clock was incorrect. Good, it's actually alive. So now to diagnose which bit is faulty. I reseated the RAM just in case, then unplugged both drives. And it started with the network adapter looking for DHCP to do a network boot, as you'd expect. So I plugged the drives back in and up it came.
It may be that the battery removal was the thing, I dunno.
he wears a blue suit with a red cape.
Not quite true, the Captain America lycra suit didn't have a cape.
It may be that the battery removal was the thing, I dunno.
Dead mobo battery or semi dead?
My pooter also gives out noises from to time. I found out that it was the PSU fan so I give it a soft kick or strong tap and if that does not work I would use a bamboo skewer to stop the fan and let it run again. Also my MOBO battery is probably dead coz it does not hold charge for more than 8 hours, if I leave it for 8 hours and on reboot it will BSOD for at least 10 times before it got back to normally. My pooter is now 24/7 on with only occasional reboot. Arrghhh ... need to build up my spare computer soon but a bit lazy.
At other times when I randomly get BSOD I just tap the RAM or adjust it a few times and it worked. My pooter is very dusty inside so I guess that's causing a lot of problem.
Still need to find a PC blower to clean the inside. Was thinking of cheap leaf blower but can't find one at the shop.
Dead mobo battery or semi dead?
I don't think it was dead, just needed a reset. Whatever that bit of memory on there is called.
Edit: CMOS
For no boot or no display issues, clearing CMOS may help recover the boards because that restores the BIOS default settings.
From https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/support/articles/000025368/processors.html
CMOS
Yes, the CMOS is causing the problem for me. Need to change the battery I guess as my pooter is more than 15 years old.