PC died

[SilverHood]

Windows crashed on me, and I managed a reboot, which then failed. A further reboot left me at my motherboard logo.

I did the usal, resetting my CMOS, giving me access to my BIOS.

Anyway, I'm now unable to detect either of my two HD's - one is SATA and one is IDE. Both can't be detected in the bios.

Furthermore, one my my 1 gig RAM sticks was causing memory errors, so I've taken it out.

I can now get to a boot stage, where my CD drives are recognised, but I can only get the windows installer up some of the time. Some times it doesn't acknowledge that there's a disk in the drive, and sometime it does. The BIOS doesn't seem to always save my settings either.

So, that's 2 HD's and a RAM stick gone, and erratic behaviour.

I'm thinking my PSU is bust, and it's prolly knackered other components. Anything else I can do, bearing in mind I have no access to other components

 

[Kryten]

It's probably right. It could be a cmos battery issue, which can be replaced easily enough, normally a CR2032 battery - however the symptom's you're describing seem a little more and a PSU would probably be the "easiest" first port of blame.
If you've a really trusting and udnerstanding friend, it might be wise to try with another PSU.
Trouble is with PSUs, and I can never stress this enough, they';re the most important part of your whole system and if it pops, can literally take any other component of your PC out with it, none, some or all.

Memory won't "just fail" - generally something has to effect it - physical damage, over-volting (from a PSU failure for instance) or defect from manufacturer. This is another reason why I could suspect the PSU.

I'd avoid trying any other hardware within your system on your PSU as it's possible you'd cause damage to that too, which might upset the owner of said hardware

Might be worth getting hold of a bootable liveCD such as a linux distribution of choice, or getting memtest86 or other diagnostic software to see how it stands up under that.

 

[SilverHood]

Right, so I've played the unplug game, and plugged everything back in. A further CMOS reset and I'm back, with everything working, though I've lost my mouse drivers and all my setting for firefox / IE.

However, attempts to use the duff ram stick means the PC wont boot, so that could be the problem. It's Corsair XP ram, and still under warranty, so guess I'll go badger them about getting a replacement.

 

[Kryten]

aye, should be easy enough through Corsair - although if you got them from somewhere like Overclockers, you might have fun :|