My computer is sick.

[Karoht]

I'm pretty reasonably certain it's the power supply (4 year warrenty ran out in may last year) but it might be the hard drive which is... easily 8 years old, maybe 10?

Fans spool up, then spool down, then spool up, then spool down. It sounds like the box is breathing heavy, gasping for breath just to live.
Likely, it is powering up, then hitting peak, then trying again, then hitting peak. Or, it's trying to access the hard drive, the hard drive is saying "oye, I'm on vacation here" only for the system to knock on the hard drive's door a moment later.

It's weird how it makes me feel awkward. Almost naked even. Stupid technological dependancies. This machine is a big part of my life, it's practically a member of the family, so this is like watching your child or pet be sick.

[shawnhcorey]

Sounds like it's overheating. When was the last time you cleaned it?

[Karoht]

Weekly. At which point I usually run a temperature test under high stress. Temperature test is clean. Tuesday is raid reset night. I clean out both our computers and run diagnostics every tuesday prior to streaming.

I spoke with the IT guy at my work, he's also of the mind that it's power supply. For it to power up and overheat THAT quickly on a bootup (as in, under 10 seconds) but pass a temperature test the week before? Very unlikely.

I'll be picking up a new power supply after work and giving that a go.

[factotum]

It certainly doesn't sound like hard drive--a faulty hard drive would be very unlikely to prevent the machine fans starting. Easy enough to test, of course, you could just unplug the hard drive data cable and see if the machine POSTs without it!

Might also be worth checking the state of the capacitors on the motherboard--the only machine I can remember having exactly the symptoms you describe had blown a motherboard capacitor, which caused the power regulation to go squiffy and prevent it booting.

[Nai_Calus]

Don't forget to check other components. Recently had my desktop refuse to turn on at all, thought it was the power supply at first but a new one did nothing. Then as I was poking at it I noticed the blown capacitors on the graphics card. Pulled it out, hit the power button, computer cheerfully booted right up into Windows.

[Karoht]

Hard to check other components when nothing is working. Aside from the obvious stuff like fans not spooling up, odd smells or damaged looking components and the like.

Swapped out the power supply, works fine.
Corsair, 850w, 139 + 4 year warrenty =170.

And now I know how to swap out power supplies. Huzzah.

[shawnhcorey]

And now I know how to swap out power supplies. Huzzah.

Welcome to the world of hacking. :smallsmile:

[Karoht]

Welcome to the world of hacking. :smallsmile:
Buh?
So I can swap out components of my own PC, that makes me a hacker? Wha?
Sorry, you lost me. Please clarify?

[shawnhcorey]

Buh?
So I can swap out components of my own PC, that makes me a hacker? Wha?
Sorry, you lost me. Please clarify?

Yes, you're a hardware hacker. You have done something 99.997% of the population will never do. Before long, you'll be building a render farm out of GPUs. :smallwink:

[Karoht]

Yes, you're a hardware hacker. You have done something 99.997% of the population will never do. Before long, you'll be building a render farm out of GPUs. :smallwink:
That counts? Oh. Okay then.

[factotum]

He's using "hacker" in its original sense of a general computer enthusiast--it's really a modern usage to mean "someone who breaks into other people's software or systems".

[shawnhcorey]

"someone who breaks into other people's software or systems".

That would be a cracker, not a hacker.

[Grinner]

That would be a cracker, not a hacker.

No! That's a black hat!

Moralizing labels are worthless.

[nedz]

Yes, you're a hardware hacker. You have done something 99.997% of the population will never do. Before long, you'll be building a render farm out of GPUs. :smallwink:

But most people I know have done this ?

[Weezer]

But most people I know have done this ?

The people you know aren't a representative sample.

[Don Julio Anejo]

I really, really want to build a supercomputer out of a bunch of GPU's. Except I have neither the 20-30 grand it would cost me to do so, nor even the remotest idea of what I could use it for.

[Grinner]

I really, really want to build a supercomputer out of a bunch of GPU's. Except I have neither the 20-30 grand it would cost me to do so, nor even the remotest idea of what I could use it for.

It's not just the hardware you need. You also need purpose-built software for it to work. In the news, I've seen a twenty-five GPU cluster capable of cracking Windows passwords in six hours. There has also been talk a massive neural network being made on a similar rig by researchers, and people also sometimes use them to mine Bitcoins.

Really, the only respectable application of this kind of technology is Dwarf Fortress. :smallamused: