BlueMak

My mother's pc keeps crashing, even under safe mode, even without doing anything. Just goes to blank screen.
She has a Celeron 1.7 and a S3 Graphics SavegeProDDR.
I couldn't find anything wrong with that, and I tried, just in case to do a hard disk error check, the one that requires the windows/pc to restart.
It restarted ok and when it was about to start the hdd check it says cannot open volume and then goes on to continue loading windows without checking the hdd. I have never seen that before, any ideas?
Also I checked the even viewer for errors and it has two types of errors one about hfrherc something and one about VCL or close to that and something about concreate or somethign that looked like a command in a program. Also one of the errors had something about cannot open some file on the d:/nt.... drive, but the D is the cdrom, so....
Also, some times after she opens the PC it says that CPU settings are not correct, I changed them to optimised, reboot, and after a few times reboot it reappears.

Is the PC going to leave us?
I am out of ideas.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

coldfrontt

sounds to me like the motherboard is slowly dying. You can still find relatively inexpensive S478 boards . If funds allow, it'd be good time to upgrade.

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[color=blue]TANSTAAFL![/color]

BlueMak

So you don't think it is a graphics issue?

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

H3X4D3C1M4L

I think the CMOS battery may be dying.

Have you got a multimeter? If so pull out the coin cell battery on the motherboard and check to make sure it still gives 3V

coldfrontt

The errors when the board posts on startup makes me think it's not graphics related. It could be the CMOS battery, but I think it sounds worse than that.

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[color=blue]TANSTAAFL![/color]

BlueMak

Hmm, I guess that is a cheap way to find out. Are all CMOS batteries the same?
I thought those batteries had several years of life in them. She only bought the PC 2-3 years ago.
But, I will give it a try.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

H3X4D3C1M4L

They can die quickly for example if you unplug your rig alot or turn the switch on your UPS/PSU/power bar/surge protector off alot.

What you're looking for is a 3V coin cell battery which can be found most anywhere