# What the duck just happened with my desktop??!!



## isaac12345 (Jul 22, 2015)

Hi all!

Something very weird happened with my desktop yesterday evening!

While watching a video on youtube, my desktop abruptly switched off. Thinking it was a PSU issue, I switched it off from its own switch as well the plug socket from the back and switched it back on. But the computer would not even go into POST. What would happen is that the fans would come on for a second (no HDD spin) and then switch off. This kept repeating but it never went it POST. Thinking that my PSU had died, I unplugged the desktop from the extension board and filed a tech support ticket with corsair. 

Now, coming to today morning, I remembered that I forgot to check the system from another socket. So I unplugged all the peripherals(keyboard,mouse,etc) from it and switched it to another socket and LO AND BEHOLD! The system switched on and booted up as normal. Suprised and weirded out, I then plugged it back into its original socket (which was from an extension board) and it booted up properly! Thinking it might be a problem with the extension board not being able to take the load of all the appliances plugged into it, I plugged everything back as normal and it booted into the OS! It even ran a 1080p HTML5 youtube video for 15 minutes. Completely weirded out I switched the system off and unplugged it from the extension board.

But now I am completely confused as to what happened?!

Can you please help me figure this out?

Here's my configuration -

Samsung Syncmaster 540N
Altec Lansing VS2321 2.1 speaker system
A Thompson cable modem and a Binatone wifi router

Desktop - 
 PSU - Corsair VX450W
                Motherboard - Gigabyte P35 S3G
                CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 2.2GHz running at stock clock speeds at the time of the incident. Sometimes overclocked to 2.5Ghz for gaming.
                GPU - MSI 8800GT Factory overclocked
                HDD - A Samsung Terabyte and a Samsung 320GB
                Optical Drive - Samsung DVD reader and writer
                Accessories - One large coolermaster cooling fan that came with the case plugged into the motherboard fan pins.
                                      PS/2 Keyboard, USB Microsoft Mouse, Logitech HD webcam, the occasional Ipod shuffle or USB drive plugged in.

All of the above are plugged into an old Goldmedal GL225 extension board that has 4 sockets, one of which has both the modem and router plugged into it with a multipurpose plug. So in total there are 5 appliances plugged in. The extension board is itself plugged into a power socket. 

Thanks!


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## slashragnarok (Jul 22, 2015)

Wait when you said socket do you mean electrical socket or USB ports? Because you are writing "_unplugged all the peripherals(keyboard,mouse,etc) from it and switched it to another socket_" Which is this socket where you plug your peripherals?

But when your PC shut off, why did you assume it was a PSU issue. Why not simply try to start the PC as we would normally, using the Power button on the cabinet? Also does your extension board have a MCB? It may have tripped. Another thing that comes to my mind is that maybe there was a power outtage or someone was working on your power line. As weird as it sounds, I have seen instances of fans spinning for a moment and then switching off using nothing but residual power from the PSU, even in off condition.


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## isaac12345 (Jul 22, 2015)

slashragnarok said:


> Wait when you said socket do you mean electrical socket or USB ports? Because you are writing "_unplugged all the peripherals(keyboard,mouse,etc) from it and switched it to another socket_" Which is this socket where you plug your peripherals?
> 
> But when your PC shut off, why did you assume it was a PSU issue. Why not simply try to start the PC as we would normally, using the Power button on the cabinet? Also does your extension board have a MCB? It may have tripped. Another thing that comes to my mind is that maybe there was a power outtage or someone was working on your power line. As weird as it sounds, I have seen instances of fans spinning for a moment and then switching off using nothing but residual power from the PSU, even in off condition.



Sorry for the confusion.

1)  By socket I meant electrical socket. I unplugged all the peripherals plugged into the desktop, like vga cable, keyboard, mouse ipod,etc, removed the desktop from its electrical socket on the extension board and then plugged it back into another electrical socket in my room.

2) I did try to start the PC normally, from the pwoer button on the cabinet. And what I described above was happening. The CPU, GPU,PSU and case fan would spin for a second and then power down. Then spin again and power down. And that kept happening, till I switched off the PSU itself. Normally when I switch on my PC I can hear the hard disks spin up and then the motherboard makes POST beeps and then the BIOS comes on the display but that never happened. It was as if there was never enough power being supplied by the PSU to the computer. 

3) I'm not sure if my extension board has an MCB on it or not. Here's a photo of it - *i.imgur.com/WKYjXLi.jpg?1  The green circle was for the led light which doesnt work from a long time. And there's an on/off switch on top of it to the top left. Currently the modem and router are plugged in.

4) I imagine that if someone was working on the power line it would have affected the whole house. But if my memory serves me correctly, all the other appliances in the house were running fine. We had an air conditioner running at that time.

Do you think the problem could lie with the extension board or the mains socket?


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## slashragnarok (Jul 22, 2015)

I personally don't think there's anything wrong with your electrical sockets. I think the problem may lie either in the PSU or Motherboard. Sometimes these tend to correct themselves temporarily and show up some time later. But till it happens again you cannot be sure. If you cannot reproduce the error, you cannot troubleshoot it. But mostly I've seen that Power surges can do that to PSUs.


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## isaac12345 (Jul 22, 2015)

slashragnarok said:


> I personally don't think there's anything wrong with your electrical sockets. I think the problem may lie either in the PSU or Motherboard. Sometimes these tend to correct themselves temporarily and show up some time later. But till it happens again you cannot be sure. If you cannot reproduce the error, you cannot troubleshoot it. But mostly I've seen that Power surges can do that to PSUs.



Can you say why you think so please? Just trying to figure this out.
Also, are there extension boards which can protect from power surges?


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## bssunilreddy (Jul 22, 2015)

isaac12345 said:


> Can you say why you think so please? Just trying to figure this out.
> Also, are there extension boards which can protect from power surges?



Just buy an APC UPS which protects from computer components from every known danger related to electricity buddy.

Because I have been using APC UPS's since 10 years and none of my components got damaged in any way other than my GPU's going bad. So trust me and buy an APC UPS.OK.


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## isaac12345 (Jul 22, 2015)

bssunil said:


> Just buy an APC UPS which protects from computer components from every known danger related to electricity buddy.
> 
> Because I have been using APC UPS's since 10 years and none of my components got damaged in any way other than my GPU's going bad. So trust me and buy an APC UPS.OK.



I dont think I would like spend money on a UPS when I dont even know what exactly the problem is right now. Plus to get a decent one would cost me around 3k to 4k. How many times have you needed to change or repair your UPS in the past?


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## slashragnarok (Jul 22, 2015)

isaac12345 said:


> Can you say why you think so please? Just trying to figure this out.
> Also, are there extension boards which can protect from power surges?



An UPS would allow your PC to get a clean voltage immune from surges.

Anyway, why I think there's nothing wrong with your sockets is because sockets are simple constructions having no electronic components except if you have MCBs in them. So if it works, it works. Otherwise it doesn't. They can't work one second, not work the next and then start working again in my experience.

I am facing a problem with my PC where my PC is working fine and suddenly Windows freezes and all USB ports lose power. Only option is a hard reset. I believe my mobo is to blame. Although it could be the PSU. Surges can do that to your PC. So buy an UPS or atleast a surge protector strip from Belkin.


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## isaac12345 (Jul 22, 2015)

slashragnarok said:


> An UPS would allow your PC to get a clean voltage immune from surges.
> 
> Anyway, why I think there's nothing wrong with your sockets is because sockets are simple constructions having no electronic components except if you have MCBs in them. So if it works, it works. Otherwise it doesn't. They can't work one second, not work the next and then start working again in my experience.
> 
> I am facing a problem with my PC where my PC is working fine and suddenly Windows freezes and all USB ports lose power. Only option is a hard reset. I believe my mobo is to blame. Although it could be the PSU. Surges can do that to your PC. So buy an UPS or atleast a surge protector strip from Belkin.



Which do you have installed? A UPS or surge protector? Can you please tell me the model number and how's it performed for you over the years?


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## slashragnarok (Jul 22, 2015)

Like I said, my PC was hit by a surge, according to my belief. So it naturally follows I wasn't using any of the two devices mentioned. A surge protector is basically an extension cable with a built in fuse which shuts off the power during surges (I'm not sure how this works i.e. whether it is like a normal fuse or not). An UPS is like an inverter. APC is a good brand as Sunil suggested.


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## isaac12345 (Jul 22, 2015)

slashragnarok said:


> Like I said, my PC was hit by a surge, according to my belief. So it naturally follows I wasn't using any of the two devices mentioned. A surge protector is basically an extension cable with a built in fuse which shuts off the power during surges (I'm not sure how this works i.e. whether it is like a normal fuse or not). An UPS is like an inverter. APC is a good brand as Sunil suggested.



Right. Thanks!


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## Vyom (Jul 23, 2015)

I don't think it's a UPS problem. I have been facing this issue too and this is way too random. The issue I face is this:

Sometimes when I power on my PC, it seem to start, but display doesn't come. Upon opening the cabinet I can see that fan starts to rotate (both fans, heat sink and rear fan) and then they slowly stop spinning. Then again start to rotate and then again stops. This cycle continues until I do hard shutdown (that is powering off the UPS). Then when I remove the RAM, refit it and just shake of any dust from mother board (not thorough clean, I mean just little blow of air), the PC starts normally the next time. I faced this issue a few month back when I had a Intex UPS. I changed the UPS two weeks ago to Microtek one. But still I faced this issue few days back.

This issue is totally random. Sometimes I think issue is with motherboard, sometimes I think it's just moisture which is known to cause issues in monsoons. So no way to solve it, I guess.

For the record, following are specs of my PC:
Core i5 4570, MSI H87M-G43 Motherboard, Corsair CX430v2 power supply, WD Blue 1 TB HDD, 4 GB Gigabyte DDR3 RAM.


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## isaac12345 (Jul 23, 2015)

Vyom said:


> I don't think it's a UPS problem. I have been facing this issue too and this is way too random. The issue I face is this:
> 
> Sometimes when I power on my PC, it seem to start, but display doesn't come. Upon opening the cabinet I can see that fan starts to rotate (both fans, heat sink and rear fan) and then they slowly stop spinning. Then again start to rotate and then again stops. This cycle continues until I do hard shutdown (that is powering off the UPS). Then when I remove the RAM, refit it and just shake of any dust from mother board (not thorough clean, I mean just little blow of air), the PC starts normally the next time. I faced this issue a few month back when I had a Intex UPS. I changed the UPS two weeks ago to Microtek one. But still I faced this issue few days back.
> 
> ...



AAH! Thanks for sharing. Try this - CPU fan turns on and off, wont boot - Homebuilt - Systems


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## kARTechnology (Jul 24, 2015)

Vyom said:


> I don't think it's a UPS problem. I have been facing this issue too and this is way too random. The issue I face is this:
> 
> Sometimes when I power on my PC, it seem to start, but display doesn't come. Upon opening the cabinet I can see that fan starts to rotate (both fans, heat sink and rear fan) and then they slowly stop spinning. Then again start to rotate and then again stops. This cycle continues until I do hard shutdown (that is powering off the UPS). Then when I remove the RAM, refit it and just shake of any dust from mother board (not thorough clean, I mean just little blow of air), the PC starts normally the next time. I faced this issue a few month back when I had a Intex UPS. I changed the UPS two weeks ago to Microtek one. But still I faced this issue few days back.
> 
> ...


Ram error. Faced same issue with a intel proc+gigabyte mobo +corsair ram

When I tried that ram on my fully stable amd cpu + gigabyte mobo, it was blank, no bios screen also.

Replaced ram with a new one(rma) and now its 100% stable.



CMOS reset will boot system temporarily but ram errors pop up.crashes.bsod

Edit: both rigs have cx430v2 and no ups. Only sinewave inverter.


Please do a memtest for a night.


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## isaac12345 (Jul 24, 2015)

kARTechnology said:


> Ram error. Faced same issue with a intel proc+gigabyte mobo +corsair ram
> 
> When I tried that ram on my fully stable amd cpu + gigabyte mobo, it was blank, no bios screen also.
> 
> ...



I'll do a memtest after I get a power surge protector just to be on the safer side.
I understand why it wouldn't switch on. But why would it switch off abruptly? That's what I dont get.


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## kARTechnology (Jul 25, 2015)

isaac12345 said:


> I'll do a memtest after I get a power surge protector just to be on the safer side.
> I understand why it wouldn't switch on. But why would it switch off abruptly? That's what I dont get.


Yes. Fans run for 5 seconds, switch off, repeat cycle again and again....

If u reset CMOS it will boot but crash/bsod occurs.


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## kARTechnology (Jul 25, 2015)

slashragnarok said:


> I am facing a problem with my PC where my PC is working fine and suddenly Windows freezes and all USB ports lose power. Only option is a hard reset. I believe my mobo is to blame. Although it could be the PSU. Surges can do that to your PC. So buy an UPS or atleast a surge protector strip from Belkin.


I hit the pc cabinet very hard on the top edge. It literally did that bounce effect like moving back and forth. Case is corsair spec 02
My pc froze. No power to USB as you experienced.
I use a ssd. 
Why????


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## slashragnarok (Jul 25, 2015)

kARTechnology said:


> I hit the pc cabinet very hard on the top edge. It literally did that bounce effect like moving back and forth. Case is corsair spec 02
> My pc froze. No power to USB as you experienced.
> I use a ssd.
> Why????



I hope you did not do it intentionally  I believe you caused some connectors to lose connection for a split second. Remember, the USB port is very sensitive. In fact EM interference from my tubelight switching on causes my USB devices to disconnect and reconnect. Now I have two tubes in my room, only one does this. It could be because it's directly on the same circuit as my PC. Anyway, is the problem repeating even after a restart?


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## kARTechnology (Jul 25, 2015)

slashragnarok said:


> I hope you did not do it intentionally  I believe you caused some connectors to lose connection for a split second. Remember, the USB port is very sensitive. In fact EM interference from my tubelight switching on causes my USB devices to disconnect and reconnect. Now I have two tubes in my room, only one does this. It could be because it's directly on the same circuit as my PC. Anyway, is the problem repeating even after a restart?



it was an accident, I would never hit my pc that hard. actually while getting up from the chair my shoulder hit the pc hence this happened,
It was fine after a restart. but the cables are tight, I only assemsbled, didn't think PC's cant handle such small things

change your tube lights to Elecronic choke T5, energy efficient, if you are on old copper choke-starter-T8 tube


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## slashragnarok (Jul 25, 2015)

Yeah but energy efficient chokes do nothing to filter the interference. I think an UPS or Power Filter would serve me better.


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## Vyom (Jul 25, 2015)

kARTechnology said:


> Please do a memtest for a night.



I faced the issue again today. When I powered on the PC, it failed to start. Fans kept starting and stopping. I removed RAM and attached it again. It allowed me to boot then.

I am ready to do MemTest today night. Just wanted some more suggestion. 
Will be using this tool: MemTest86 - Offical Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool

What option do I select? Tests will take hours. So I want to save the report in the end. But the comparison chart shows free version don't have the ability to save results to disk. I don't want to loose the results of hours of test only because I don't have the paid version. Any suggestion?

- - - Updated - - -

Did some reading up, and came to a conclusion that,
1. I should use MemTest86+ which is open source version of Memtest,
2. Should run it for about 5-6 passes and/or (7 hours, since I can't leave PC on, while I am away in morning )

Sources:
*www.wikihow.com/Test-PC-Ram-with-MemTest86
*superuser.com/questions/547822/how-many-passes-are-enough-with-memtest


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## kARTechnology (Jul 26, 2015)

Vyom said:


> I faced the issue again today. When I powered on the PC, it failed to start. Fans kept starting and stopping. I removed RAM and attached it again. It allowed me to boot then.
> 
> I am ready to do MemTest today night. Just wanted some more suggestion.
> Will be using this tool: MemTest86 - Offical Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool
> ...




leave those and use MEMTEST86+ as you said, opensource.
USB Installer ->>   *www.memtest.org/download/5.01/memtest86+-5.01.usb.installer.zip
and simply boot from usb, it will auto start scanning without any user interaction/keypress.
I'm not sure weather if it can save reports or not(I think it won't)

put it on at night, sleep in PC's room , wake up @ morning and see if any errors popped up.

PS: if your system is again looping fans on and off, clear cmos which will make it boot successfully.

My PC always stays in 24x7 and I sometimes use remote desktop connections from college

- - - Updated - - -



slashragnarok said:


> Yeah but energy efficient chokes do nothing to filter the interference. I think an UPS or Power Filter would serve me better.



Elecronic choke is interference free compared to copper choke which make buzzing sounds(interference)
I have experienced them. CCTV cameras & mic catch interference from old copper choke tube lights(audio playback give back a errrrr sound) where as electronic T5 and LED lights do not distort the quality of the audio(clean)

I would say no ups in india has power filtering except few models of apc. others advertise but have no circuitry in them to filter/simply do not work.
*
Whenever i turn on my ceiling fan my PC turns on!!!* this started happening after installing a cheapo USB mouse. before it was fine when using a logitech one. I use mouse click to wake my pc up.


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## slashragnarok (Jul 26, 2015)

kARTechnology said:


> leave those and use MEMTEST86+ as you said, opensource.
> USB Installer ->>   *www.memtest.org/download/5.01/memtest86+-5.01.usb.installer.zip
> and simply boot from usb, it will auto start scanning without any user interaction/keypress.
> I'm not sure weather if it can save reports or not(I think it won't)
> ...



Okay thanks dude. I'm gonna try install an electronic choke on the tube giving me problems.


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## Vyom (Jul 26, 2015)

MemTest86+ wasn't able to make my USB bootable. So I had to resort to MemTest86. Anyway, so I completed all tests with one pass and didn't find any problem.
Looks like I will *have* to leave it for overnight.


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## kARTechnology (Jul 26, 2015)

slashragnarok said:


> Okay thanks dude. I'm gonna try install an electronic choke on the tube giving me problems.


Try to get whole fitting changed to t5.
28w compared to your previous 40W and it costs around rs.350


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## slashragnarok (Jul 26, 2015)

Sometimes errors are reported on Pass#5 & 6. So better to do 7-8 passes.


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## isaac12345 (Jul 26, 2015)

Sorry to hijack my thread back , but I need some advice on this.

Since the day I had the strange problem with my computer, I have also noticed random electricity drops. It happened the day before and tonight. The day before even the people living in our building on the ground floor had it. The day before I called Tata power to check whether its a problem from their side and they checked our meters and all the equipment there and said it was fine from their side. It could have been a problem from their backend when switching between equipments. And a certified electrician visited our house a week or so ago to check the mains supply and said that everything was ok. So now I am confused as to what the problem is,especially that i noticed recently that there is fresh sealen in my house? and what should I do about it? Is it a problem with my RAM, house electrical connections or with Tata Power? :S


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## kARTechnology (Jul 27, 2015)

isaac12345 said:


> Sorry to hijack my thread back , but I need some advice on this.
> 
> Since the day I had the strange problem with my computer, I have also noticed random electricity drops. It happened the day before and tonight. The day before even the people living in our building on the ground floor had it. The day before I called Tata power to check whether its a problem from their side and they checked our meters and all the equipment there and said it was fine from their side. It could have been a problem from their backend when switching between equipments. And a certified electrician visited our house a week or so ago to check the mains supply and said that everything was ok. So now I am confused as to what the problem is,especially that i noticed recently that there is fresh sealen in my house? and what should I do about it? Is it a problem with my RAM, house electrical connections or with Tata Power? :S


What is that "strange problem"


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## isaac12345 (Jul 27, 2015)

kARTechnology said:


> What is that "strange problem"



Here's the description from my original post - 

"Hi all!

Something very weird happened with my desktop yesterday evening!

While watching a video on youtube, my desktop abruptly switched off. Thinking it was a PSU issue, I switched it off from its own switch as well the plug socket from the back and switched it back on. But the computer would not even go into POST. What would happen is that the fans would come on for a second (no HDD spin) and then switch off. This kept repeating but it never went it POST. Thinking that my PSU had died, I unplugged the desktop from the extension board and filed a tech support ticket with corsair.

Now, coming to today morning, I remembered that I forgot to check the system from another socket. So I unplugged all the peripherals(keyboard,mouse,etc) from it and switched it to another socket and LO AND BEHOLD! The system switched on and booted up as normal. Suprised and weirded out, I then plugged it back into its original socket (which was from an extension board) and it booted up properly! Thinking it might be a problem with the extension board not being able to take the load of all the appliances plugged into it, I plugged everything back as normal and it booted into the OS! It even ran a 1080p HTML5 youtube video for 15 minutes. Completely weirded out I switched the system off and unplugged it from the extension board.

But now I am completely confused as to what happened?!

Can you please help me figure this out?

Here's my configuration -

Samsung Syncmaster 540N
Altec Lansing VS2321 2.1 speaker system
A Thompson cable modem and a Binatone wifi router

Desktop -
PSU - Corsair VX450W
Motherboard - Gigabyte P35 S3G
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 2.2GHz running at stock clock speeds at the time of the incident. Sometimes overclocked to 2.5Ghz for gaming.
GPU - MSI 8800GT Factory overclocked
HDD - A Samsung Terabyte and a Samsung 320GB
Optical Drive - Samsung DVD reader and writer
Accessories - One large coolermaster cooling fan that came with the case plugged into the motherboard fan pins.
PS/2 Keyboard, USB Microsoft Mouse, Logitech HD webcam, the occasional Ipod shuffle or USB drive plugged in.

All of the above are plugged into an old Goldmedal GL225 extension board that has 4 sockets, one of which has both the modem and router plugged into it with a multipurpose plug. So in total there are 5 appliances plugged in. The extension board is itself plugged into a power socket."


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## slashragnarok (Jul 27, 2015)

isaac12345 said:


> Sorry to hijack my thread back , but I need some advice on this.
> 
> Since the day I had the strange problem with my computer, I have also noticed random electricity drops. It happened the day before and tonight. The day before even the people living in our building on the ground floor had it. The day before I called Tata power to check whether its a problem from their side and they checked our meters and all the equipment there and said it was fine from their side. It could have been a problem from their backend when switching between equipments. And a certified electrician visited our house a week or so ago to check the mains supply and said that everything was ok. So now I am confused as to what the problem is,especially that i noticed recently that there is fresh sealen in my house? and what should I do about it? Is it a problem with my RAM, house electrical connections or with Tata Power? :S



What exact problem do you face?


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## isaac12345 (Aug 29, 2015)

Right!

So I called up a computer repair guy who took my motherboard for repair and got it back a few weeks ago. Unfortunately the problem is still there. The only improvement is that the computer restarts fully instead of cycling on and off again and again at POST. The guy didn't tell me exactly what he repaired but said that it was at 'the component level'.

I have called him again this time asking him to repair it again. I'll be pressuring him into telling me what he changed last time. Damn these repair men! If anyone knows any good computer repair shops in Delhi, please let me know. Thanks!


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## $hadow (Aug 30, 2015)

^^There are plenty but you can't trust any.


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