PC crash

[winos5]

Tried to wake up my HP Pavillion PC on this morning at home and it was booting up terribly slow. When Windows 7 finally came up and I logged in it loaded bery slowly. I attempted to close all the open/operating programs and run a virus scan. Eventually an HP maintenance window came up informing me is was doing routine maintenance and was in the middle of defragging the disc. I tried to cancel it. About that time I had to leave for work so I just left it running to see if it would eventually complete the tasks. When I got home I had a blank red screen on the LCD monitor. Couldn't get windows to come up. Restarted. Wouldn't boot up and the monitor said it wasn't getting a signal and put itself to sleep. Turned the power completely off and tried again to no avail. Put my balls on it to no avail.



Am I completely fucked? The PC is only about a year old. Anychance I can salvage this with a rescue disk or should I take it to someone professional? Thoughts, suggestions ect......

 

[The Count Dante]

geek that deal with hardware will tell you that hard drives have the lowest mean time between failures. They are the cause of the majority of failures. Replacing the drive with just a cheap one will tell you if you have bigger issues. I dont know the Hp Pavillions by heart, is the RAID controller built into motherboard? If so that may also be an issue.



Next place to investigate is the memory DIMMs. Although that is not as commonly and usually more relating to motherboard issues in which case, go shopping for new.



If you dont actually have a copy of Windows, you can get a copy of Ubuntu (a free very user friendly Linux version, 15$ cd at best buy i think) to see if it can see the replacement drive. If ubuntu can see the drive, all you need is a new drive and rebuild. If it cant or doesnt get that far, you can play with memory, or go shopping, knowing you only lost a few bucks on a copy of ubuntu and a crappy lil drive.

 

[supraman]

The boot issues sound like a motherboard issue, or video issue.



I have my doubts on the hard drive being the issue because even without the harddrive you would still boot to POST and it sounds like you aren't getting anything.



but the sluggish response issues do indicate a hard drive on the fritz.

 

[Tater]

Are there any beep codes when you try to boot up or just completely dead?

 

[howcho]

Boat Anchor

 

[BigPete]

If it is under any kind of warranty, pursue that first. It may be a hardware defect. In the meantime, look on HP and Windows support pages to see if other people are reporting the issue.



If you don't want to do all of that yourself, send it to a PC geek for hire.

 

[TSD]

Yeah if you are getting no video period, there is something "probably" worse going on than a crashed HDD.



Does it turn on? (i.e. are the fans spinning, power light comes on) but you simply get no video/sound.



Its rare at least in my experience for multiple things to go out at once. Your HDD dying shouldnt kill your video, and your video card on the verge of shitting out shouldnt make your computer slow(like what you experienced before the shit hit the fan), you would more than likely see weird screen artifacting/lines etc. So I am inclined to think its something that can affect all components so I am inclined to agree with supra.



So the process of elimination is to remove parts until bad things stop happening. Do you have integrated video or a Video card? most new pcs have integrated, so if you have a card to you can pull the card reset CMOS and it will default to the onboard video. Try resetting cmos anyway. I cant even begin to say how many no boot issues that simple task resolved for me. If you have your manual, there should be a jumper on your motherboard, and now adays alot of motherboards have a reset button on them (mine does).





If its still under warranty though, Id just be like **** it, call them and tell them their shit dont work, fix it.

 

[winos5]

Sounds like I'm completely fucked. Can't even get the monitor to stay on, power comes on but windows never boots up. It does whir and click a little, Keyboard and mouse are dead. Computer was in a computer desk with one of the narrow compartments for the tower. I'm leaving it unplugged all afternoon and will try again when I get home just incase it's an overheating issue. If that doesn't work I'll plug it in and let it try to reboot itself for a prolonged period of time.



Having said that major component repairs sound expensive at a PC geek. Think I paid @ $750 new. Warranty expired already, only came with one year and I never buy extended warranties on anything. Sounds like it might be easier to make it a boat anchor. The only redeeming thing is at least the data is backed up on line and I can salvage some of my music/photos.



Final question. Could interupting the disc defrag by hard reboot caused a registry error, serious windows error or corrupted the hard drive?



Edit: Got no error codes, only a blank red monitor screen. Then when it reboots the monitor puts itself to sleep immediately after coming on.

 

[The Count Dante]

Naw, without anything on the monitor, you should be able to at least get to BIOS/POST regardless of the hard drive. If you have another machine around you can try to swap the video card and give it a try, but I am guess Supra is right: If it is motherboard, might be easier to just brick it. I have been a puter geek for like 20 years and I dont rebuild, I buy new.

 

[jakobeast]

**** it. Buy a new one.





My monitor went out on my desktop. It just doesn't come on. The 'puter is fine, as I hooked up and old crt monitor to it and it works ok.

 

[TSD]

Sounds like I'm completely fucked. Can't even get the monitor to stay on, power comes on but windows never boots up. It does whir and click a little, Keyboard and mouse are dead. Computer was in a computer desk with one of the narrow compartments for the tower. I'm leaving it unplugged all afternoon and will try again when I get home just incase it's an overheating issue. If that doesn't work I'll plug it in and let it try to reboot itself for a prolonged period of time.



Having said that major component repairs sound expensive at a PC geek. Think I paid @ $750 new. Warranty expired already, only came with one year and I never buy extended warranties on anything. Sounds like it might be easier to make it a boat anchor. The only redeeming thing is at least the data is backed up on line and I can salvage some of my music/photos.



Final question. Could interupting the disc defrag by hard reboot caused a registry error, serious windows error or corrupted the hard drive?



Edit: Got no error codes, only a blank red monitor screen. Then when it reboots the monitor puts itself to sleep immediately after coming on.

Spinning and clicking is about the most sure sign as you can get as far as HDD failure. Ive had 3 drives fail on me and thats exactly what happened, started clicking then boom disappeared and it would totally **** with the response time of the PC until it finally crashed. But as others have mentioned it wouldnt stop your PC from posting. You should see something on the screen when you boot it up. While rare, it really seems to me a few things went fubar on your system all at once.



If you are going to buy a new one and dont want to do it yourself, I seriously recommend smaller online boutiques, as they are generally run by people who love what they do and arent some giant conglomerate and really care about consumer happiness and the products they provide. HP could give a shit, you're one in a million.

 

[supraman]

Spinning and clicking is about the most sure sign as you can get as far as HDD failure. Ive had 3 drives fail on me and thats exactly what happened, started clicking then boom disappeared and it would totally **** with the response time of the PC until it finally crashed. But as others have mentioned it wouldnt stop your PC from posting. You should see something on the screen when you boot it up. While rare, it really seems to me a few things went fubar on your system all at once.



If you are going to buy a new one and dont want to do it yourself, I seriously recommend smaller online boutiques, as they are generally run by people who love what they do and arent some giant conglomerate and really care about consumer happiness and the products they provide. HP could give a shit, you're one in a million.

See it even might be whirring and trying to read. The read heads do make noise so the HDD might be fine (I aint promising anything) but if you aren't POSTing it is either video card or motherboard. Does your PC give you even a single short beep? (which is actually a code for everything posted fine).



I want to also add doing a hard boot while defragging could corrupt files but that would not cause your issue.

 

[winos5]

Nada. A soft whir continuosly thats it. No beeps or windows tones. Keyboard and mouse are dead to the PC/monitor. Monitor can't detect a video signal and puts itself to sleep. Pretty sure I'm hosed. Letting it sit all afternoon unplugged/cooled down did Nada.I have an old PC in the actic that is @ 6 years old. I'm probably going to buy a new PC, then one day when I'm bored I'll pull the 2 PCs apart and swap the motherboard, video card and HDD and see if I can get one of them to work again. Guess I'll be stealing the kid's laptops for a while until I can pool some cash together to get a new PC.

 

[supraman]

Nada. A soft whir continuosly thats it. No beeps or windows tones. Keyboard and mouse are dead to the PC/monitor. Monitor can't detect a video signal and puts itself to sleep. Pretty sure I'm hosed. Letting it sit all afternoon unplugged/cooled down did Nada.I have an old PC in the actic that is @ 6 years old. I'm probably going to buy a new PC, then one day when I'm bored I'll pull the 2 PCs apart and swap the motherboard, video card and HDD and see if I can get one of them to work again. Guess I'll be stealing the kid's laptops for a while until I can pool some cash together to get a new PC.

That is really pointing to a failed motherboard or graphics card. I can't remember if a PC will post without a graphics card but I'm pretty sure it won't.

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

Tried to wake up my HP Pavillion PC on this morning at home and it was booting up terribly slow. When Windows 7 finally came up and I logged in it loaded bery slowly. I attempted to close all the open/operating programs and run a virus scan. Eventually an HP maintenance window came up informing me is was doing routine maintenance and was in the middle of defragging the disc. I tried to cancel it. About that time I had to leave for work so I just left it running to see if it would eventually complete the tasks. When I got home I had a blank red screen on the LCD monitor. Couldn't get windows to come up. Restarted. Wouldn't boot up and the monitor said it wasn't getting a signal and put itself to sleep. Turned the power completely off and tried again to no avail. Put my balls on it to no avail.



Am I completely fucked? The PC is only about a year old. Anychance I can salvage this with a rescue disk or should I take it to someone professional? Thoughts, suggestions ect......

My computer crashed last year and I panicked because I didn't have much extra cash.



I was pleasantly surprised when I went to get a new one, I picked up a decent PC (not good for gaming or anything) for only $300 at Tiger Direct. It's worked perfectly fine for anything I've needed (even porn).



Gone are the days of NEEDING a $700-800 computer.

 

[winos5]

I'm thinking I'll just buy to computer sans peripherals, and use the LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer ect.. that I already have. That should save me some money. The computer is used for some games, but not much. Mostly home office, internet surfing, movies/videos, music, photos and school work. Doesn't need to be top of the line.



I guess it might be worth it to get a new motherboard and/or graphics card and see if it will boot up 1st. Shopping trip this wekend I guess.



Another question for the geeks. Will replacing the motherboard/graphics card require wiping the hard drive and re-installing the operating system and other software, or is it just plugging in the new hardware and installing/updating the associated drivers?

 

[klemmer]

Something to look into is PC repair shops. Many times, they have refurbed units that are a steal for the dinero.

 

[LordKOTL]

Ehh, I try to avoid pre-built machines...there tends to be a lot of bloatware in them. I'd rather take the time and build the machine clean and right.



Any way you look at it--try to swap out the main peripherals that could be at issue (HDD, Video card, RAM) and try them connected to another machine. If you have an aftermarket disk enclosure/disk toaster it could be a lifesaver in this case. If you can bring the disk up on another machine it should be fine. If your machine has both on-board video and a graphics card, pop the graphics card and try the onboard video. If not, try the graphcs card in another machine if you can, or try another card in your current machine.



You also might want to look at the power supply and any fans on the machine. If they are clogged with dust you may have temprature issues. I had a Northbridge fry on me that way.



My $.02.

 

[supraman]

I just had a thought, it could be memory. The other geeks might verify, but if the first slot memory is bad I don't think it will boot. If you have multiple memory sticks in there you can pull out the first slot and put a different one in there.



I think the only things you need to post are a motherboard, processor, memory, video.

 

[TSD]

Nada. A soft whir continuosly thats it. No beeps or windows tones. Keyboard and mouse are dead to the PC/monitor. Monitor can't detect a video signal and puts itself to sleep. Pretty sure I'm hosed. Letting it sit all afternoon unplugged/cooled down did Nada.I have an old PC in the actic that is @ 6 years old. I'm probably going to buy a new PC, then one day when I'm bored I'll pull the 2 PCs apart and swap the motherboard, video card and HDD and see if I can get one of them to work again. Guess I'll be stealing the kid's laptops for a while until I can pool some cash together to get a new PC.

Might not be possible. 6 years ago you are borderlining on whether that old PC is using a whole lot of interfaces that are incompatible with a machine from a year ago. It was about 6 years ago the switch really stated being Made to SATA from IDE and AGP to PCI-E.