whats wrong with my pc?

[Gogandantes]

my desktop pc isnt working. it keeps restarting by its self. ive seen it restart on its own 3 times in a row when i turn on the power to the pc tower to boot up. i turn it on & it just keeps restarting. finally it will actually stay on my desktop & boot up but then immediately freezes before i can use it. whats wrong with it & how do i fix it? ive got windows vista & its a compaq about 9 years old.

 

[1etherer]

Sounds like a RAM issue.

What PC model do you have?

I think you need to try running a memory test to confirm the issue.

How many RAM sticks do you have, it could be just one is faulty, you could try one at a time to confirm.


Finally,
If you only have one RAM stick and the memory test fails then you will need to buy new RAM, just let us know the RAM details or take a pic of it.

 

[carnageX]

Moved to hardware repair board.

 

[MidnightShadow]

I'm going to put my money on a bad hard drive mainly because of the age of the computer but also because if it's rebooting immediately after POST, it's failing to access the HDD. I've seen this symptom so many times it's not even funny. Only once in 8 years of doing this full time has it been RAM. Every other time it's been HDD. Curious to see the results, though!

 

[1etherer]

I'm going to put my money on a bad hard drive mainly because of the age of the computer but also because if it's rebooting immediately after POST, it's failing to access the HDD. I've seen this symptom so many times it's not even funny. Only once in 8 years of doing this full time has it been RAM. Every other time it's been HDD. Curious to see the results, though!

POST doesnt just check HDD, it checks CPU, other bus connected hardware, RAM, GPU, and I/O, mouse and keyboard etc.

 

[MidnightShadow]

if it's rebooting immediately after POST, it's failing to access the HDD.

 

[Dauntae]

Had a system come to me doing the same, also was a old vista machine running Windows 7 and it turned out to be the ram in that one, but it could be either doing the reboot as soon as it posts.

 

[Gogandantes]

i can get online with it right now to check this topic but usually it wont work at all. just lucky today. how do i run checks/tests or whatever to find out?

also it used to make a grinding sound that it stopped making. it still worked just noisey. it stopped after a while of days/weeks whatever & worked just fine. now this has been taking place.

 

[Gogandantes]

SR5210NX
PRODUCT: GN571AA-ABA
SERIAL: CNX7331KG9
Compaq Desktop.
9-10 years old.

Also any reccomends on great laptops if I cant fix this & it dies forever?

 

[Gogandantes]

I could really use help please if anyone knows what I have to do to fix my pc?