Power stuttering and warning sirens - doesnt sound good

[chrisps]

Hi,

About 4.5 years ago we got a desktop pc (P3 733, Tyan P3 Mobo, 256mb RAM, GeF2 etc)

About two years after that we built our own pc, scavenging some of the componants (hdd and gfx card)

A week ago, we bought a new hdd and gfx card for the system, with the view to using it as a linux routing / file serving box for the computer in our house

We put the new hard disk in (80Gb Deskstar), and put the GeF2 (which for the past 2.5 years has been in our custom built pc) back into the original 733

It all seemed to boot fine, but the system kept completely freezing during the install of linux (freezing to the extent nothing at all was being outputted from the graphics card, and the power button didnt work at all - ie even holding it in for 4 seconds didnt power off the system - only switching it off at the wall worked)

Seeing as it seemed to crash during hard disk activity, we reseated the hard disk power and ide, and tried again, and it appeared to be fine - no freezes. Great!

However, the next day, we turned it on, and after about 1 second, we started getting a warning siren (a long beep, then a break, then a long beep etc)... According to the motherboard manual, this was "probably a memory problem" so we reseated the memory, turned it back on, and it worked fine

Then after about 2 days of use, the complete freeze re-occured, same thing - had to un plug it from the wall.

However, when we pluged it back in (after about 30 seconds), but before we pressed the power button, horrible stuttering noises started getting emmited, and the powerlight rappidly flashed on and off. We turned it off at the wall rather quick, and took the side off.

We turned it back on at the wall (but not pressing the soft power button on the pc), and for about 10 seconds, it appeared normal, but then slowly the stuttering started with the power light flashing, and the noise getting worse and worse... we also noticed the P3 fan was spinning up, then very abruptly, it all stopped and went back to normal. Slightly perplexed we pressed the soft power button, and everything started to spin up as normal, but nothing was being output from the graphics card... then about a minute later the monitor suddenly sprung into life, and the computer made the normal short boot beep, and it seemed to operate as normal... even after several shutdowns and power ups, it seems totally normal

We dont have a clue what is going on here - can anyone think of what could be happening?

Thanks, and sorry for the long post!

 

[chrisps]

It cant be overheating that is causing the sirens, cause the sirens started the second the pc was turned on, and it hadnt been running for at least 12hrs previous to the powering up

I didnt realise disks could be damnaged by low power =S

I see the point about taking it all apart, i might try that, but it is reasonably dust free as it is, as the case has air filters on it... I dont want to take the CPU off, as i dont have any thermal paste to put it back on with!

I will get this new PSU, take it all apart, and put it back together, and see if it helps

I deffo see your point, ceh, about is it worth throwing money at it, especially when i cand get a brand new system with new Celeron, and new mobo etc for £170ish

Thanks for all the help!

 

[chrisps]

Well I got a new PSU from a friend, and have put it in (its actually a 450W PSU), and when I took the old PSU there was burns and lumps of charcoal everywhere! So i guess it was a bit knackered!

So far so good with the new PSU - it has been running ok for about half a day, but seeing as the problems often didnt happen for days at a time, I cant be sure if it is fixed

I will get back to you!