Screw this piece of crap.

[Malibu Sally]

Piece of monkey **** won't work any more. If I try to play CoH, it goes for 5 to 10 minutes and then shuts off. Not just crashes.... completely shuts down and turns off. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[razoras]

I'd be happy to troubleshoot for you if I lived in Florida and you weren't afraid to give out your address.

My fee would be home cooking of some kind (blueberry muffins), or a coupon to some fast food joint even.

[Malibu Sally]

I think this computer is close to dying so we've been backing up all the files that are irreplaceable. Of course, once it goes we'll remember something we forgot to backup.

[razoras]

Most likely. That's how it has happened every time with me.

[Blackbat]

I think this computer is close to dying so we've been backing up all the files that are irreplaceable. Of course, once it goes we'll remember something we forgot to backup.

Dying as in the hard drives are going? Or a mother board issue? Either way, if you're backing up, why not back up the entire disk? That is if you have the space. If not, try creating a image of your HDD via Norton Ghost or some such other imaging program then you can safely retrieve anything you need later on your new comp.

[Krypto]

If it's completely shutting down, your computer could be overheating. Try checking your fan to make sure it's working, and keep your computer cool. That's happened to me several times, since my fan craps out on me sometimes.

[Malibu Sally]

Found the problem. This computer has three fans. All of them were working and were clean... or so I thought. When I looked closely, the one that blows on the video card had a huge layer of caked on crap and gunk between the blades and the heat sinks. Absolutely no air was making it through. D'oh.

Got all the schmutz off and everything is running great now.

[thebluecanary]

Found the problem. This computer has three fans. All of them were working and were clean... or so I thought. When I looked closely, the one that blows on the video card had a huge layer of caked on crap and gunk between the blades and the heat sinks. Absolutely no air was making it through. D'oh.

Got all the schmutz off and everything is running great now.

Wow. I have a long hair cat, and am a total slob, but even I don't have that kind of issue with my PC.

[Tsarmina]

Maybe it's gunk indigenous to Florida?? :P

I get dust bunnies the size of... bunnies. 3 cats, 2 dogs- one of each is long hair.

[Stalking Shadow]

You're lucky you caught that. I had a graphics card with that problem.

It melted. It has burn marks.

I keep it around to show people the importance of dusting out their cases once a year.

[Malibu Sally]

Wow. I have a long hair cat, and am a total slob, but even I don't have that kind of issue with my PC.
Maybe it's gunk indigenous to Florida?? :P

I get dust bunnies the size of... bunnies. 3 cats, 2 dogs- one of each is long hair.
You're lucky you caught that. I had a graphics card with that problem.

It melted. It has burn marks.

I keep it around to show people the importance of dusting out their cases once a year.
Yeah, it's pretty dusty here... especially the past six months. We're in the middle of a drought. I thought the computer was clean. The problem was the tiny space between the fan and the card's heat sink. It was so evenly coated that it did not look clogged. I thought that maybe there was some crud on the back side of the fan blades and used a Q tip to try and wipe them off, it accidentally disturbed the layer of crud and a piece came off. That was the only thing that alerted me to its presence.

[razoras]

I'd recommend you start setting aside money for a replacement card anyway, Sally. When a machine locks or freezes because of card overheats, damage has been done to the card and is not repairable. It's even worse if it happens multiple times.

[Tsarmina]

DOOM!

(but perhaps an opportunity to get an upgrade?)

[razoras]

Well, the card could last plenty long, but it's better safe than sorry. It's kind of like a heart attack. The damage is permanent, but folks with heart attacks can still live 80 years. Heat damaged cards can still have a standard lifetime, too. Though usually you'll begin to see trouble at heavy GPU loads and heat will tend to begin to cause trouble at lower temps than before.