SAFETY FIRST:
If you know what you are about to do, by all means continue. If not, take the CPU to the computer store for them to clean (better safe than sorry). If you don’t know what to do but am bold enough to try, some tips. DISCONNECT all power connections to the CPU before handling. Some ungrounded computers have current leaking all over and touching the metal case would send a jolt of electricity through you (IT HURTS BELEIVE ME!!!). There are a lot of wires and connectors inside and outside of the computer system so use labels if you deem them to be necessary or if you have the manual with you that would be the best. You can also get your digital camera to snap a few pictures of the outside wires (especially the ones inside, a wrong connection can destroy components). Most computers have color coded connectors but some after market accessories don’t, so if you’re not sure ask questions just to be safe. The tools you would need are: can of air (store bought that is void of moisture), contact cleaner, possibly a vacuum cleaner (so you don’t send dust flying all over) a set of screwdrivers, sometimes a pair of pliers and some containers to store screws.
An overheating processor may also mean that you failed to clean the internal parts of your CPU for the past year or so. Dust that accumulates on the several hundred if not thousands of chips inside the metal box some call the CPU acts as a very good insulator keeping the heat in and preventing the fans from venting it out of the casing. It can also fry the chips (literally, burnt odor from your CPU casing would be a good indicator of that) in their own juice, victim to long ours of playing online RPG games. Cleaning of your CPU and the other innards of your computer should be done at least once a year but if you happen to live or use the computer in a very dusty environment, the more frequent the better. A can of air (the type you get from the electronics store that is void of moisture) can easily blow out all stubborn debris and dust bunnies that have been growing in your PC. Also consider getting a can of contact cleaner that cleans the contacts of the various components of the CPU safely taking away the corrosion and other grime.
Back to the problem, it may be a software problem that has resulted in a fatal windows error that may be too hard for it to handle, but based on my several years experience in managing and maintaining PC’s its most probably an indicator of a bad bank of memory modules or an overheating microprocessor (more commonly known to the rest of us as the CPU). Overclockers would know what to do with this (their ability to do such means they have an intimate knowledge of the things they have done) for they tend to do a lot of tinkering with the settings in the BIOS that sometimes it kinda’ messes all things up.
Everybody who has been using windows for quite sometime may have encountered the blue screen of death but more often in Windows NT or newer versions of operating systems based on it. The blue screen is a memory stack overflow error that has resulted from an illegal operation that in other words means you’re in deep trouble. If you just happened to be doing your term paper and you failed to set the auto-save function to a shorter interval or do an actual hard save (or back-up) and this happens when the application or document is open, pray. For office users, you might get some luck with auto recover information that sometimes results from such operations.
Be ready with any eventuality. Keep a set of tools that you can use anytime your PC bogs down. These tools should be placed strategically where you can reach for them in times of need.
You may invest on basic items such as screwdrivers for use in attaching or removing components; needle-nose pliers; tweezers for getting jumpers and hard to reach items; lint free cloth for cleaning and wiping parts; compressed air clears gummed up fans and vents to be used in reviving blinded optical drives and for data connections; electrical contact cleaner solution to improve electrical conductivity and a hand-held vacuum for sucking dirt, hair and other embedded particles.
One day you may be in panic for finding out your files have vanished from your PC. Whether the problem involves software or hard drive, you can actually pull through the mess.
So you may have added a stick of RAM and then suddenly your PC seemingly crashes down: boot routines fail and there are sudden shutdowns. This can mean you have a case of bad memory upgrade.
Also, new addition to your memory may not be compatible with the existing one. In this case try to boot your PC and enter the memory settings. From there you can reboot again and wait for results that will show how the two memory sticks react to each other.
To diagnose power supply failure, try to find out first whether or not the power is able to come on. You can determine through the fans and drives motors. If you hear beeps or sound of these two devices churning, and there are little lights on the CPU case, then it indicates power is on.
Remove the plug at once if the system case is hot since this can be a ground failure. In the case of PC’s, you can also tell if the power supply is coming with a live screen since monitors are powered independently. However it is a different case with laptops because a live screen may not always be a sign of a working power supply.
Microsoft Windows users can easily detect the available drive found in the computer by going to My Computer. By opening this window, you can see a list of the following different types of drives: a) 3 ½ Floppy b) Local Disk C; c) New Volume (D); and d) New Volume (E). These are all hard disk drives installed on this computer.
Lastly the Compact Disc (F) is the optical disk drive in the computer which could be the computer CD-ROM, CD-R, CDE-RW, RVD, DVD-R and others. If you double click icon, you will find the contents of the disk on the drive.
Overheating in CPUs is mostly caused by handling during shipment. The heat sink probably fell off. This is often left unchecked until such time that the CPU starts to overheat because people seldom check items that reach them from shipping, What they usually do is just run a virus scan then back up the system and open the PC case to look inside, but with no particular concern whatsoever with the heat sink.
If you suddenly smell burning while working on your PC, you should unplug the unit immediately. Don’t look around anymore for the source of burning wherever it may come from. Just disconnect it at once. Next thing you should do is call the manufacturer if the machine is still under purchase warranty.
The following faults are commonly associated with memory related failures: 1) Windows program is unstable 2) There is continuous beeping sound from the system during power up 3) There is no display, only the blue screen on the monitor during boot up 4) There is totally zero video display on the monitor 5) The system hangs or reboots after prolonged use.
Upon determining that there is failure in your pc memory, proceed by recognizing the defective module. This may not be very easy, and one has to be knowledgeable about PC’s to be able to make a precise diagnosis.
SAFETY FIRST:
