Windows not loading every 3 or 4 days

[Yankee fan]

Hello. I have a 6 yr old Dell Desktop 3.2 ghz, Pentium 4,250GB HD, memory 8MB. The last 2 weeks the following is happening about every 3 or 4 days: Power up Computer --- screen appears that shows Windows XP Pro with the loading bar. Then, normally it would go to the screen showing the 3 users in my household, but, instead, screen stays black and "green lights" on front of terminal go to "yellow" and everything stops. The only thing I can do is push and hold power button till yellow lights go off. I wait a minute and push power button again, and it comes on normally and works fine.

I tried hitting F12 at startup and ran the hard drive test. It passed. I also ran the system tests and passed.

Not sure what is up --- hard drive problem, power problem, or?????

Any thoughts?

First thing I would look at would be the power supply.

[Yankee fan]

OK --- but I am no expert at this stuff. Is there a test that can be done to check the power supply?

[glc]

What is the exact model of this Dell, what is the brand and model of the power supply, and what does it have for a video card?

8mb ram???????

[Yankee fan]

Sorry --- it is 4 GB RAM not 8 MB. It is a Dell Dimension 4700. Radeon X300 video card. All original. Can I find the make and model of the power supply without opening up the tower? It would be whatever Dell put in these models

[Yankee fan]

Update: This morning, it did its "yellow light" thing twice on me. Bot times I had gotten 1 step further---I had selected the "user" both times and had seen the user desktop and then it went dark and the yellow light came on. I thought it had just turned off the monitor after 10 min., but hitting any key or moving the mouse would not get it back to green...

[glc]

No, you have to open the tower to look at the power supply. However, it should be strong enough for a X300.

I would open the tower and blow all the dust out on general principle. Dust can cause overheating and flaky connections.

[Yankee fan]

Thank you! Will do that tonight and also get the power supply info when I have it opened up...

[Yankee fan]

Hello --- I opened up the tower and dusted it thouroughly (pretty dusty). When open I got the info off the power supply:
Dell Model PS-6311-1DS DC Output 305 W

All the info on the computer: Dell Dimension 4700 ; Pent 4; 4GB Ram; 3.2 GHZ.

It started up fine, and I saw it was time to run mt "PC Fine Tune" program from earthlink, the does a lot of system checking and registry cleaning, etc. Part of that program is a "Jetfrag" defragmentor. That part of the program didn't run. It got an error which told me to run CHECKDISK. Whe I ran CHECKDISK, it started up saying that "One of mt disks had to be checked for consistency (I only have one hard drive). I checked the box to "automatically fix system errors, so I don't know if it found any. When it was done running, the system rebooted and started up OK. It also started up OK this morning...

That is where we are so far...

[glc]

You had some file system corruption. I would run hard drive and memory diagnostics again.

[Yankee fan]

Thanks! Will do!

[Yankee fan]

Ran the hard drive and memory diagnostics. Passed all tests. Still starting OK (2 days in a row) since I dusted it out, etc. Is there an easy way to test the power supply?

Also --- If I were to replace, do you have a recommendation for my system (Dell Dimension 4700, 3.2 ghz, Pent 4, 250 gb dhard drive, 4 gb ram current power supplt 305 w...or should I have it done by a pro)

Thank you...

[Yankee fan]

I will be replacing my hard drive after cloneing it with a new WD Caviar Black 750 gb.

Is there any type of test I can do on the Power Supply to make sure it is OK? It has been starting up OK now (and staying on) for past 5 days. Do you think it is OK after the cleaning or an accident waiting to happen...

[Yankee fan]

HELP! It all happened again, and it started up OK on the 2nd try, but it did the "green to amber (yellow) light thing at startup again this morning. I have not changed out the hard drive yet...

If it is the power supply:
---Is that something I can check and change myself easily or do I need the Geek Squad or something equivalent? I have changed hrd drives, DVD drives, added sound cards in the past, but nothing with the power supply.
---If it is something I can do fairly easily, can you recommend a power supply for me to get for this system (Dell Dimension 4700, Dell Dimension 4700 ; Pent 4; 3.2 ghx; 4GB Ram; 305 w power supply, all about 5-6 yrs old)? I got an email from New egg yesterday with a sale for beginners or "entry items" or something like that, and there was a 350 w power supply for $19 (reg $29)...would that be a good choice?

This is the item New Egg has for $19.99 now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc..._-17371003-L0D . How would I know if it would be OK for my system (sorry --- so many questions...)

Thanks for any recommendation and help you can give...

[glc]

At that price, BUY IT whether you need it or not. Try it, if it doesn't fix it, you will have a good spare and you are only out 20 bucks.

If you can change drives and cards you can change a power supply.

[Yankee fan]

OK --- I bought it! Hope it comes with good instructions....Wish me luck...

[glc]

No instructions. It should be fairly obvious. Disconnect the cables, remove fastening screws, remove power supply, install new power supply, connect cables. It will probably have more cables than the old one, don't worry, all you have to do is connect cables to the same things you removed the cables from.

[Yankee fan]

UPDATE---OK --- I replaced the power supply! It was pretty hairy, and I had to move a fan to get it in, but everything went back and all worked! Miracle! Thank you!!!

I am now going to clone and replace the harddrive, as that is 5.5 yrs old, so I'll do it before it goed out on me...

I have 2 questions (,aybe the wrong forum, so I apologize and will move it if you want..

The new and old drives are WD, so I am using ACRONIS for WD to do the cloning,
1. Current drive is "System C". When cloned, will the new drive be "System C", or do I have to do drive renaming, as it has to be "System C" when all is completed? Not sure and can't find it in the "HELP" of the Acronis software...
2. My current drive has 3 partitions --- one reads "47 MB FAT"; one reads "228.40 GB NTFS"; and the last reads "4.37 GB FAT32". Is the first one "FAT16" when I set up the clone? I know that the first and last are to be the same size and the middle is the one that gets the extra space (new drive is 500 GB).

I will be cloning from the Acronis boot disk. Anything else I should be aware of?

Thank you...

[glc]

1. As long as you remove the old drive before trying to boot it with the new drive, you won't have an issue.

2. Acronis *should* recognize everything for what it is. If the clone is not successful, you can always try again.

[Yankee fan]

Excellent!

Of course, I have 1 more question --- I noticed when changing out the power pack that my currend hard drive has a "jumper" on the very last pins (to the right). I am thinking that I put "no" jumper on the new drive when I clone it, but do I put the jumper in the same position on the new when I take out the old drive after the cloning process?

Thanks...

[glc]

Are these IDE or SATA drives? If IDE, leave the jumper on CS. If SATA, leave the jumpers alone.

[Yankee fan]

They are both SATA...

So by "leave them alone" do you mean "as they are" (so put the jumper on the "new" drive in the same place as the old AFTER the cloning process)?

Thanks.

[glc]

No, DO NOT TOUCH the jumper on EITHER drive either before OR after the clone. SATA does not have master/slave. The jumper is for other purposes and should only be touched for a specific reason.

[Yankee fan]

Got it! I will not put any jumper on the new drive after the cloning...Glad I asked...

[Yankee fan]

Final update (I hope)....Cloning ne HD went fine, Very easy with ACRONIS for WD (from the boot disk). So now I have a new HD and new power supply and all is working very well as of day 2...Very nice.

Thank you for all the help!