I’m back, with new PC components !
(17 votes, average: 4.53 out of 5)
Loading...Sorry to have been a way for almost three days, everyone, I swear I had not planned to have my power unit fry something inside, and have my video card actually catch fire under my eyes one day later 
Apparently everything’s back to normal as it is, hopefully the shit is sorted out, my PC works again, I’m “just” 139€ poorer, for a PSU and a video card. I shudder at the thought of notepad/notebook users who can’t just replace easily a broken component and have to re-buy their whole computer, brrr, the waste of money and of rare resources.
There was only one collateral victim (take that, Bush, Obama, only one collateral victim, woot), my latest hard disk, a WD Caviar Green 2TB. This disk doesn’t work anymore inside the tower, but works fine inside an outside USB rack (meh, it’s 80x slower to transfer data to/from it).
Me and the PC repairman played all tests with it, giving it a brand new SATA cable, exchanging the sata cables between my 4 HDDs, exchanging the power plugs, exchanging the plugging spaces on the motherboard. But no matter what we tried, that disk was recognized during bios boot, but would make win7 freeze at the “animated windows logo” stage.
I wonder if a disk formatting would solve the issue (it’s a possibility, according to my PC shop repairman, he’s seen a rare few cases like that) or would just postpone an actual problem until the warranty dies out ¬_¬
Anyway. I’m back, that’s what matters, and thanks to HurpDurp for the shares he put up while I was offline 
PSU's are probably one of the few components I would never consider buying from a cheap brand ever again. If they crap out on you, there's a high chance some other component will get damaged too. I've had two cheap PSU's die on me in the past, and both times, they took a perfectly good motherboard with them. I read somewhere that it's always good to check your components for any bulges on the capacitors after a PSU dies. If you find some of those bulged capacitors, it might be good to replace the component even though the component still works. It indicates that a capacitor has been damaged. It may not be worth it for a regular PC enthousiast, but if you've got a system that's more expensive than your regular supermarket PC, it's always good to be cautious, before more problems occur.
The problem with your harddrive is curious though. Does it spin up in your PC, and if it does, do you hear any sounds coming from the drive other than spinning?
Honestly, I'm unable to tell the brand of my PSU, but when I buy a PC I clearly mention that I don't want low-cost power units, at least
Actually, my PC is cheaper than the average PC you'll find in a supermarket, half because I see no reason to buy flaming new hyperpowerful hardware, half because of the durability, only when a component dies will I buy a replacement for it.
if the HD doesnt work in the tower anymore, consider transfering all data from it into your new HD in the tower and use the earlier as external HDD
It's an old PC, the USB speed is low.
Internal data transfer between SSD and 3.5'SATA : 80 MB/s (not b, B)
USB data transfer between any external USB disk and local hard disk : 2 MB/s
Meh
Transferring a 800 MB movie would take almost 7 minutes. This is so slow even backups are made close to impossible.
Basically, until the day I see USB transfers at 15/20 MB/s, and that won't happen with my PC sadly, external storage is for occasional backups, not for everyday use
Have you ever try booting with the harddrive in safemode???…due to my past experience with my recent laptop, i think some software or driver might have been corrupted on your laptop during your recent event, probably the ones that usually starts rite away on boot up. i had very similar problems with my laptop in the past. i've brought a Lenovo ideapad awhile back which i've used to play games with even now. Overall the computer is great and runs quite smoothly when everything works properly but somehow every time after the used it to play my online game and shut of the computer(i play Heroes of Newerth on it but every time i play it, i have to disable my antivirus guard off due to some incompatibility with the game), the next time that i try to start the computer again for some unknown reason i get stuck in the windows loading screen and the only way to get out of it is to force close my laptop. every time when this happens i have to reboot my computer to safemode and try to restore my computer to an earlier backup when the computer is operating normally which in certain case removes updates that i might have done or softwares that i might have installed prier to the restore point. This was pretty much what i did for roughly two to three months and i've tried to look up why this might be happening to my laptop on the web but i couldn't find any solutions. i always thought something might have been corrupted by a virus or something since this mostly only happens when i turn the guard off but not every single time. that's is when i decided to mess around with the pre-loaded softwares that first came with Lenovo when i brought the laptop (i forgot why i decided to mess around with them). i decided to disable most of the start up softwares that came with Lenovo and to my surprise my laptop never froze in the loading screen again for two weeks. when i turn the software on again the froze happen again so i know it was because one or all of those softwares that making my computer froze and i decide to test each of them out and i found that the BioExcess which was my pre-loaded finger scanner somehow gets corrupted. i've never had another problem with the computer freezing up again after i completely disable that software(i didn't completely remove it, just disabled it).
i know this is a long response but hopefully my experience would help you with your computer issues. i also think that if you reformat your harddrive, it would fix the problem.
Actually, no, I didn't think of doing it in safe mode.
I'll have to give it a chance…
Yep. Do consider the clean boot option Oli, I'm a tech support for a certain company and should any startup problems occur it is usually the startup programs, go to ms config -> services tab-> check the hide all microsoft services check box, click disable all, go to startup tab and click disable all. Reboot and see if that works, coz if it did its something software related. Should it still hand, try safe mode by pressing f8 before the windows logo screen appears and choose safe mode from there.
Oooo, a techie :3
Then I'd like to ask you, is there a way to save a "list" of services with their current configuration ?
As you know, there are hundreds of services. If I turn all of them off save the few microsoft ones, and find this doesn't solve the problem, I'll really really hope to have a way to restore the previous configuration without manually reactivating them one by one, status by status…
Back up your data, then try formatting the hard drive.If you have any doubt, send the HD back if it's still under warranty.
The problem is, as I wrote initially :
IF, that is to say, IF, formatting fixes the problem, will it mean that
– formatting fixed the problem for good, case closed
– formatting temporarily allows the disk to work again but does not fix what actually caused the problem, postponing the problem until my warranty dies out
Well, actually, that was a backup disk, so, where do I backup its contents ? ^^;;
Oliver: Have you tried fdisk /mbr?
I don't format a disk when there is not yet a guarantee this is an actual fix instead of a band-aid plastered on a wooden leg :o
fdisk /mbr only rewrites the master boot record. Look it up if you need to.
Use fdisk /cmbr if the affected hard drive isn't your primary drive.
Slash cmbr ? Gotta take a mental note, thanks !
The trouble is also that windows won’t load with that disk plugged. I’ll have to find where I’m keeping my WinSeven disk, sigh. Or, heck, download a copy just for the sake of running a command prompt -_-
Oliver, I had similar experience with you, but in my case the collateral damage (after PSU) is GPU..
I'll repost my comment from your previous post "it's a mad world"
—>
Oliver, be careful, from my experience, when the PSU is failed, it can lead to another disastrous event, the first victim (after PSU) most likely be GPU.. and it can be worse
I also have similar experience, first the PSU is burnt, after replacing the PSU with new good one (not generic), the same thing happens again and burnt my GPU. The main culprit is electricity, you should also call electrician checking your electric socket where you plug your PC and checking your house' electricity condition
(that comment was in the spam folder, I just saw and restored it)
Thanks for the advice
My stepfather’s began working as electrician and has now been working in electricty standards compliance certification for two decades, I can at least guarantee my flat’s wiring and plugging is good, we moved recently in a new flat and he took the tour to make sure everything was okay ^^
Maybe that has to do with the way my PC’s plugged is plugged into the wall’s plug, you may mean, then ? Well, who knows O_o
– If Windows does not boot anymore, always begin by trying to start in safe mode, like dan said.
– When it's done, restart as normal ( assuming it does boot in safe mode, it will solve the problem eventually ).
– If it fails again, do the msconfig as DGZeron said ( with this you can also disable most of the software or services that runs when starting Windows, Don't worry you can always enable them again ).
– Another option is the command "CHKDSK /F"
– In any case, check the S.M.A.R.T info of your HD, it will show you pending physical problem.
( You can also download a check up software from the website of the HD constructor if available )
One thing that it could be is that if you have multiple HDs in your tower the new PSU may not be providing enough power to the drive. I have had similar problems before. So if you the replacement PSU has the same or more watts as your old one then trying placing the one drive on a different power line than the rest.
I replaced a 500W by a 650W PSU, so the underpower hypothesis is most unlikely, at least
I know it sounds unlikely but the issue is not how much power the PSU has but how much power the cables coming from the PSU carry. The problem that I had was that I had like 3 HDs on a single cable from my PSU and I was having trouble and as soon as I moved one off that cable to the other everything worked.
It is quite possible that this is not the issue but it was a thought.
Oh, I see what you mean, now. But, nah, the problem is here even with only one hard disk plugged, the faulty one.
Have you tried letting it do its thing for like 45 minutes or so when it freezes? I used to have a similar problem and it *eventually* loaded windows just fine. If that's the case i'd consider giving this a go: http://www.dposoft.net/hdd.html as it saved me on that one
May sound a little retarded, but put the HD in a bag & stick it in the freezer for at least 24 hours – then take it out, leave it to warm up to room temp then try again.
« And then at least you'll know why it doesn't work », rite ?
Hi,
before doing anything funny to your HDD you should check it with a diagnostic software from the constructor. For your HDD download it at this page, install it and launch it. It can check external HDD.
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?group…
If you don't trust my link you can go to western digital website to download it.
Just and advise: don't put your HDD in the freezer, it's the best way to lost it.
Just forgot to tell you. If you plan to format your HDD a "windows format" command will not repair your HDD. I hope your PC shop repairman would have recommended you a low level format. It's what is used by HDD constructor when you send back a bad HDD before replacing it.
You can do it with the software I linked earlier but there's no warranty it will repair it.
Besides just check If your HDD make unusal noise like big "clac" . If so back up everything on it quick and change it. If it's still on warranty by your shop then no problem, if not check on WD website, you should have 3 or 5 years warranty. Run the diagnosis software, note the error code and send it to WD (everything's explained on the website).
Hey Oliver, I told some other dude to do this in the comments on here, but this program called "HDD Regenerator" is a pretty cool guy.
http://www.hentairules.net/2012/06/02/candy-girl-…
There are links that still seem to work there too apparently.
Oh well, I might give it a look. I'm extremely conservative, but gathering info can't hurp, er, hurt, thanks
The freezer tip works sometimes, i personally made an old 200GB drive to work again this ways.
Obviously you must place it into an hermetic bag to prevent condensation.
It' s not a voodoo trick, only basic physics, the cold make materials contracting a little, sometimes it' s enough to free some blocked mecanisms inside.
About your PSU, what was the old one/new one' s brand ? (really, it must be writed on it, and if not you have a great chance of having a nice, other timebomb installed.)
Really, your awesome 650Watts means pretty much nothing as some generic PSU magically labeled 480W can' t even handle 250W in the awful reality of serious stress test…
The new CanardPC Hardware #14 have a nice article about PSU i recommend you reading.
(Sounds like ad, but they are pretty much the only one to seriously and regularly test PSU)
It is possible that a glitched MBR causes this problem. I had something similar with another HDD of mine a while back.
Contrary to what you seem to believe, you can use FDISK and CHKDSK on drives connected over USB.
Do not attempt the freezer trick; performing it destroys the HDD within an hour or two after removing it from the freezer due to water vapor condensation inside the device. It’s a desperate solution.
HDD Regenerator is snake oil. Period.
Backing up the drive is very much recommended, even if it may take a significant time.
LOL ….. seems like the so-called "Freezer trick" equates to … wait for it …
"OMAE WA MO SHINDEIRU."
(by now, most visitors here would know what that refers to).
xD xD xD xD xD
This just in – something I learned from … of all places … TV Tropes:
"If your hard disk drive (HDD) starts making clicking sounds, it is already dead."
That exact scenario occurred last Sunday. Fortunately (in my case), all data and documents are or were backed up on a RAID server and not on the now-dead HDD, plus, according to my shop's records, the HDD is still under warranty. And, until my desktop is repaired, I have my laptop.
The investment in a RAID Server has paid for itself – if not in full, then in sufficient part to justify doing it. If anyone is interested, I can post the cost (I'll put it in US$ and those so interested can convert to their own currency, for easy reference).
B)