Interesting problem, Need Guidance

[mjdurrbeck]

I am helping my brother in law deal with a random computer problem he is having. His computer boots normally and he can start surfing the net, playing games, etc. Then he will here a long beep, just the beep nothing happens. Then shortly after, his computer crashes. When it reboots, and he send the error report it points to a hardware failure in one of four areas, PSU, RAM, MOBO, or CPU. He then can use the computer and sometimes it will work fine and other times it decides to crash again. No particular pattern or regularity. I tend to think it may be a PSU start to go on the fritz. Here is what I know about his computer:

Older Dell
1.5 gz P-3
512 mb Rambus (Hope this isn't the problem, I will never find the parts)
ATI Radion 9000 series card 128mb video ram
Sound Blaster Audio Card
PSU - Dell's OEM stuff, it was ethier 200 - 250 watt

Like I said above it is very random, but is occurring more and more. And he said he has heard a pop sound from his case as well. Which also tells me it may be the PSU. Any guidance or insight or getting him up and running would be apperciated.


mjdurrbeck

PS> Would there be any issues putting a Antec PSU in this older computer or any issues I may want to consider in doing so?

[glc]

1. It could be bad ram or an overheating processor. If he still has the Dell resource CD, you can bot with it and run Dell diagnostics on all the hardware. If not, you can download Memtest86+ and use that to at least test the ram.

2. Dells of that era tended to use a proprietary PSU, using a standard PSU will destroy the PSU and possibly the motherboard too. Need to know the exact model Dell to advise you here.

[mjdurrbeck]

I will see if I can get some more info for you GLC. By sheer luck, I have a older Dell as well that is comparable in speed and age. I believe the PSU are similar but I wont know for sure until I take both boxes down. Luckily the Rambus on my older Dell could be a replacement for my brother in law if the memtest comes back bad. I will report back with further findings or info so you can brainstorm with me.

mjdurrbeck

[Stevp]

Like GLC said it could be an overheating problem for the CPU. What sort of temperatures are there? the bios should be able to tell you this. It may be worth checking to see if the CPU fan is spinning and also that the heat sink is not clogged full of dust as does tend to happen on older systems. The heat or memoy problems would explain the random crashes both depending on what the system is doing at the time.