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Did STO kill my PC?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Hey everyone

Patched last night, woke up, chatted to a friend online, started to download yet another patch...

And in the middle of the download my computer blacked out, and started to beep continuesly.

It does this everytime I put power to it, just beeping and nothing else

I called geek squad and they have ordered me a new gfx card and motherboard

Why would STO do this to my computer?

Any ideas, anyone?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    It's highly unlikely that STO itself 'killed' your PC. More likely is that one part has failed at a bad time, and that you're just going to have to wait and see if the new parts fix it. How old is the PC in question?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    tyman2480 wrote: »
    Hey everyone

    Patched last night, woke up, chatted to a friend online, started to download yet another patch...

    And in the middle of the download my computer blacked out, and started to beep continuesly.

    It does this everytime I put power to it, just beeping and nothing else

    I called geek squad and they have ordered me a new gfx card and motherboard

    Why would STO do this to my computer?

    Any ideas, anyone?

    What were teh timing of the beeps? 1 short, 2 long? 2 long 1 short etc. Beeps are programmed by your mobo/bios to alert you to a problem. Having a terrible tech support group like geek squad telling you, you need to buy a new mobo and gcard is just wrong. Theyre probably getting commission on top of that too.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    The only time I have had a fault the same as yours was with a bad RAM stick,the same beeping and nothing else,seems a bit strange they ordered you the new card and mother board without testing it...but then again I suppose they know more than me...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    I think Neocron "killed" my old laptop ;) But it was dodgy anyway so my guess your pc had an untimely seizure.
    If you're tech savvy you can check the 3d card in another pc etc.

    It does seem a bit weird that they just ordered parts without checking first..
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    The machine is only a year and half old, and still very much under warrenty, or I would be really cross right now. :p

    I recall someone having a problem like this on the beta forums... but they could at least boot to safe mode... this won't even load to bios so I'm really at a loss as to what happened, it surprised the geek squad guy too...

    He thought it was a software problem at first.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    You could try taking out your RAM and trying them to see if 1 is faulty,or run a memtest on them,all it costs you is time,if the RAM is the problem then you just saved some cash.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Unfortunately Laddy that does sound like a hardware problem. If it's a constant beep.. could be video, MB, CPU that's what I'd look at first... the geeks are probably right in their assessment with a MB and a VIdeo card. However just installing software isn't going to "kill" your PC ... It was just its time.

    In the the mean time you could try reseating your cards and ram just to see if maybe something worked a little loose and is causing a short.

    Good Luck
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Also the beep is a long string of beeps close together like

    Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep

    Hard drive sounds like it spins up and the CPU fan and the gtx fan spin up

    But no motherboard load screen like usual

    Just black screen and beeping... what fun
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    How many sticks of RAM do you use?

    Try taking out 1 at a time and try to boot up,if the same replace that stick and try another,like I said it could be RAM and only takes a few mins to check this way.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    tyman2480 wrote: »
    this won't even load to bios so I'm really at a loss as to what happened.

    hard drive TRIBBLE out? somethings causing it not to post.

    may have to re install windows.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Try carefully removing the expansion cards, memory and then replace them. Also check for blocked fans on the CPU, GFX card case fans as these can overheat your system and cause damage.
    If you can identify your motherboard you should be able to get onto their website and find out what the beeps represent.

    Good Luck
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Well.. it is a hardware issue. It isnt software.

    JUST.. in case.. Reset your bios. There is two little metal prongs sticking near each other somewhere on the motherboard, usually near the battery. If you got a PATA hdd, or CDrom, you can see there is a little bracket on the backside. This fits the prongs for resetting bios. If youdont feel comfortable with that, or your mobo does not have it.. which can.. happen.. just pull the battery out and wait a minute and put it back in. See if that works. Not likely, but it is the fastest most hopeful quick solution you got.

    Unhook your HDD
    Take out your Graphics card
    Take out all of your PCI cards, I.E. sound card.
    Take all but one stick of ram.

    Turn it on. See if it turns on and stays on. Should hear a single beep. If so, great. If not, then you can either yank out the stick of ram and instead put the other stick in. Repeat. If it works, great. If it does not, then...your CPU is fried if your fans/lights on the mobo turn on, which with beeping they do.

    Your culprit is one of three things.

    CPU
    Graphics Card
    Ram


    You hearing beeps, seeing fans/lights, etc, means your chipset is fine. If you put in one stick of ram and it works but not with both, one of your sticks fried. If it works till your GPU, then that is fried..

    BUT...

    Even on a fried GPU you still get past post. Trust me, I have hehe. So i am leaning heavily towards CPU or Ram. If it was the GPU also, you would get either <No signal at post or <alot of tiny flashing dots. Your black screen comment might be the no signal? Or does the monitor turn on from a dead start? If it turns on, like clicks, the GPU is still sending the signal to turn on.


    So.. I am gonna say if the bios reset does not work.. pray it is the ram. If the ram isnt it, then your CPU is borked. Your motherboard is fine. It wouldnt tell you "Hey.. something is wrong here!" if it was fried. Dont listen to someone telling you it might be the mobo.


    Post for me more information.. try what i said. Might be a simple and easy fix. But no promises.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Hey thanks to everyone, but espeically Kuggy

    Apparently my case decided to heat and expand enough to tug my gfx loose!

    Or well I think it did.

    Reseated gfx card and started in safe mode with networking. Restored to 1/9/10

    Repatching as I type this, fingers crossed (hard I know!)

    Will see if everything keeps working :D

    Oh and to get to my bios battery I had to take the graphics card out anyways *ha!*
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    tyman2480 wrote: »
    Hey thanks to everyone, but espeically Kuggy

    Apparently my case decided to heat and expand enough to tug my gfx loose!

    Or well I think it did.

    Reseated gfx card and started in safe mode with networking. Restored to 1/9/10

    Repatching as I type this, fingers crossed (hard I know!)

    Will see if everything keeps working :D

    Oh and to get to my bios battery I had to take the graphics card out anyways *ha!*

    next time when u have a problem like that get the nerds not the geeks hehe nerds know computers geeks want to....
    oh and good luck and have fun u wil enjoy it
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Now I kinda want to see if the parts they send are better then what I have... probably not though :p
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Glad it worked out. Sometimes i give more instructions to make a issue seem more profound that it really is, but with pc's all being alittle different, I give the same routine I will try with my own.

    Again, glad it worked out and no issues. Everyone should be able to enjoy STO today!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Yeah, I wouldn't trust my computer with geek squad, I haven't heard the best of things about them...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Horatia wrote: »
    Yeah, I wouldn't trust my computer with geek squad, I haven't heard the best of things about them...

    nerds know things and love to solve pc problems and are socially 80% evolved max
    geeks are just wierd lol

    PS; i love nerds and hate geeks go figure....
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    I want to discredit sto from killing his computer as well but I just got done downloading the patches about 30 minutes ago and my computer just shut off on me as well. It wouldn't come back on either for about 10 minutes. I can't figure out why. I finally got it back on. It's running at 30.3 degrees Celsius according to my thermometer, so it's not overheating. And I built it myself, with quality parts. I can't figure out what might be causing it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    And it just shut off again. I think it really did do something to my pc, I just have no idea what. I'm on my wife's computer posting this...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    mcveyla wrote: »
    I want to discredit sto from killing his computer as well but I just got done downloading the patches about 30 minutes ago and my computer just shut off on me as well. It wouldn't come back on either for about 10 minutes. I can't figure out why. I finally got it back on. It's running at 30.3 degrees Celsius according to my thermometer, so it's not overheating. And I built it myself, with quality parts. I can't figure out what might be causing it.

    Just a guess but maybe you had a power cut :p

    Also did you update graphics drivers as advised this could be the problem?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Not yet, last update wasn't too long ago. I would if it would let me though, lol. I'm not sure, it does almost seem like maybe my power supply just went out though. But I just don't know. Just saw this thread right before it happened and thought it coincidence so I posted just in case it started happening to a bunch of people.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    mcveyla wrote: »
    Not yet, last update wasn't too long ago. I would if it would let me though, lol. I'm not sure, it does almost seem like maybe my power supply just went out though. But I just don't know. Just saw this thread right before it happened and thought it coincidence so I posted just in case it started happening to a bunch of people.

    got under a hour to figure it out.

    Did the PC just do a full shutdown? Like everything went dead the same instant, or did the fans/etc linger for a second or so? Did the monitor click, shut off, then followed by the system going down? Do you have anything OC'ed?
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