Computer dirty crashing after about 10 minutes?

[ZeroTheEro]

I can still remember my computer getting a hard crash because of dirty-as-fuck heatsink while I was playing Doom 2016.

 

Also my GTX480 gave up the ghost after my session running Arma 3 with friends, though I had to reset manually because it didn't actually crash. That convinced me to go ahead and upgrade to a GTX1050ti.

 

 

[Jello]

37 minutes ago, CBM said:

I think it might be a side effect of most classic doom fans being 40+ :)

I really don't think age has much to do with it. I've been on forums where people in their 70's are acting like macho teenagers. "I've fought in World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnams!". Really visit the Fark forums, or the Fox News forums. Or any forum related to firearms. Age doesn't seem to have any impact on decorum and civility.

 

It seems odd that a forum based on a "Mass Murder Simulator" has one of the most civil, well behaved, and congenial communities on the internet. 

[Maes]

Well, looking under the hood can't hurt. Look for the usual aging/neglect signs like bulging capacitors, layers of caked-on dust, hair, blocked fans etc.

 

If you are so inclined, check the PSU's output voltages directly with a multimeter. Everything should be within +/- 10% of its nominal value, except the 12V line. That should really be within 5%, otherwise it's clearly straining. I'd also open up the PSU itself for a visual inspection of bulging caps etc. Forget about monitoring programs for voltages, the readings reported by most mobos are FAR off.

 

RAM can also go bad more often than not, so running a proper memtest86+ diagnostic at boot can't hurt. If you suspect a bad GPU, just swap it out for a "known good" one.

[Jello]

2 minutes ago, Maes said:

Well, looking under the hood can't hurt. Look for the usual aging/neglect signs like bulging capacitors, layers of caked-on dust, hair, blocked fans etc.

 

If you are so inclined, check the PSU's output voltages directly with a multimeter. Everything should be within +/- 10% of its nominal value, except the 12V line. That should really be within 5%, otherwise it's clearly straining. I'd also open up the PSU itself for a visual inspection of bulging caps etc.

 

RAM can also go bad more often than not, so running a proper memtest86+ diagnostic at boot can't hurt. If you suspect a bad GPU, just swap it out for a "known good" one.

Sounds like he figured it out. Giant wad of cat hair in the heatsink.

[Maes]

Yup, read through the thread now. Still, it wouldn't hurt to do these diagnostics from time to time, and especially now after such a stressful period.

[Jello]

9 minutes ago, Maes said:

Yup, read through the thread now. Still, it wouldn't hurt to do these diagnostics from time to time, and especially now after such a stressful period.

Yeah, that is very true. After reading the original post I started memtest before I went to work. Got home, it took 3 1/2 hours, but 0 errors. Hooray. I haven't opened up my tower in awhile though, so I'm probably going to give it a lookover tomorrow... or later today I guess, since I don't have to work.

 

Maintenance is the key. Especially now that I know cat hair can get in there and clog things up.

[CBM]

42 minutes ago, Jello said:

I really don't think age has much to do with it. I've been on forums where people in their 70's are acting like macho teenagers. "I've fought in World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnams!". Really visit the Fark forums, or the Fox News forums. Or any forum related to firearms. Age doesn't seem to have any impact on decorum and civility.

 

It seems odd that a forum based on a "Mass Murder Simulator" has one of the most civil, well behaved, and congenial communities on the internet. 

hehe true... maybe it is because many users are content creators too then?

[Murdoch]

2 hours ago, CBM said:

I think it might be a side effect of most classic doom fans being 40+ :)

 

Quite possibly but there are still a lot of young people here whose behaviour is generally very good.

[Doom_Dude]

Haha, so it was cat hair! That's still better than having a spider infestation.

 

[Murdoch]

21 minutes ago, Doom_Dude said:

Haha, so it was cat hair! That's still better than having a spider infestation.
 

I have actually found dead spiders and cob webs in some customer's computers. One guy bought his ancient desktop in complaining about it not working and I could see rust on the case. Opened it and found not just rust but mouse shit all through it as well. I point blank refused to touch it any further and said it was basically a health hazard. He said he would clean it out and bring it back to me. He never did and I cannot say I am sorry at that particular outcome. He seemed genuinely baffled by the idea that rodents excreting and urinating over an electronic device would be bad for it. I remember another computer very early on in my career which had what essentially looked like a strange growth all over the inside. The culprit? Brand new super plush carpet.

 

Edit: haha found the pic, shared it again on FB not long ago...

Edited October 16, 2020 by Murdoch

[Doomkid]

Holy crap, that is foul. The closest thing I’ve ever encountered to that was a Sega Genesis a friend of a friend gave me for free that was all sticky and when I took it apart I found a bunch of roaches inside (as in the bugs). I was about 14 when this happened so like an idiot I just said “fuck that” and threw it away. I wouldn’t be surprised if it would have worked after some TLC, and I wouldn’t so lazily/thoughtlessly bin a device like that these days.. but it was just so nasty that my instinct to toss it overrode all else.. So I can definitely empathise with not wanting to handle a rat-shit-filled rig!

[Maes]

Heh, threads such as these remind me of my HellDesk/IT Dungeon years, where I saw my fair share of dead bugs, "strange growths" and even dead mice inside desktops' cases or even printers. And of course dust. The kind that an industrial-strength blower takes three or more minutes to remove, looking like a yellowish cloud of acrid, toxic smoke (only do this out in the open air, kids).

 

Also, since I like collecting vintage electronics, needless to say I encountered my fai share of strange-smelling appliances as well. They don't even need to be shit-old for that to happen: an otherwise pretty nice looking and working Sony Walkman from the early 2000s (so a late model by all accounts) with a metal case (so not a BOTL model) just reeked of ammonia, probably from rodent or roach urine.

[Murdoch]

10 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if it would have worked after some TLC,

 

Yes you might have been able to save it. The comparative simplicity of the older consoles and computers often work in their favour when it comes to repairability. I remember 8 Bit Guy managed to get a Commodore Vic 20 working again that had basically been sitting outside for a decade or something crazy like that.

 

4 minutes ago, Maes said:

Heh, threads such as these remind me of my HellDesk/IT Dungeon years, where I saw my fair share of dead bugs, "strange growths" and even dead mice inside desktops' cases or even printers.

 

Two other big problems - coal fires and smokers. Fortunately do not see too much of the latter anymore thank Jebus. The tar must atomise somehow and blend with the dust and it's fucking gross. And coal fires put out a lot of crap that computers suck in. I had one computer in not long ago for a clean that I had also cleaned not that long ago before that. The build up over a short period of time was shocking. The lady was very pro coal fires but I gave her pause when I pointed out to her that if the computer is sucking that is, so is she and her family.

 

I also remember another case which was tarnished and dusty as hell. The dust was basically acting like a sponge. I felt so bad because the lady had like 3 kids and they were breathing this crap in as well. The house had to be horrible. Anyway it came back six months later and you would never know I had cleaned it. The tarnishing had gotten so bad it interfered with the earthing of the PSU and blew the motherboard.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Murdoch

[Dark Pulse]

5 hours ago, Jello said:

And I also learned a new computer repair technique: Look for cat hair.

 

"That furry little girl wants to destroy my computer so I can spend more time letting her actively ignore me." I wouldn't put it past her.

Joke's on her. You know what Bob Barker said.

 

She will only find out afterwards.

[Doom_Dude]

@Murdoch Ahhhh that IS nasty, especially with the mouse piss and crap. One of the worst I've seen was actually a crt monitor that was caked with nicotine.

[ReaperAA]

4 hours ago, CBM said:

I think it might be a side effect of most classic doom fans being 40+ :)

 

Actually, the majority of members on Doomworld are in their 20s or 30s :D

[kalaeth]

4 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

 

Actually, the majority of members on Doomworld are in their 20s or 30s :D

the poll results agree with you.

[Doomkid]

41 minutes ago, Doom_Dude said:

@Murdoch Ahhhh that IS nasty, especially with the mouse piss and crap. One of the worst I've seen was actually a crt monitor that was caked with nicotine.

How the hell? Just from sitting near a cigarette smoker for ages? I wouldn’t be surprised, I’ve seen house interiors stained horribly by it. Still, it’s crazy to think of a monitor being caked with the stuff.

[CBM]

32 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

 

Actually, the majority of members on Doomworld are in their 20s or 30s :D

ok, its just me thats an old 40+ fart then ... LOL

 

2 hours ago, Murdoch said:

I have actually found dead spiders and cob webs in some customer's computers. One guy bought his ancient desktop in complaining about it not working and I could see rust on the case. Opened it and found not just rust but mouse shit all through it as well. I point blank refused to touch it any further and said it was basically a health hazard. He said he would clean it out and bring it back to me. He never did and I cannot say I am sorry at that particular outcome. He seemed genuinely baffled by the idea that rodents excreting and urinating over an electronic device would be bad for it. I remember another computer very early on in my career which had what essentially looked like a strange growth all over the inside. The culprit? Brand new super plush carpet.

 

Edit: haha found the pic, shared it again on FB not long ago...

I was gifted an old IBM Server X3400 M3 in 2014 that had been in storage for 2 years.. it still worked and still does...but when it was booted for the first time in many years... a giant dust cloud was blown out of the case... it was quite an impressive sight... we did remove the side panel for max effect though :D

 

https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/product-spotlight/review-ibm-system-x3400-m3-small-business-server/

 

still a decent system in 2020 actually... just very noisy

[Doom_Dude]

@Doomkid It was nasty and I don't know how the girl using it could see anything when it was on. But yeah, I assume she smoked a lot near it. I knew she was a smoker, but holy hell that was mental.

 

@CBM I'm 54, so there's some older than 40's on here you old fart. haha

[Mr.Rocket]

I use to run a computer shop out in Florida and I still do here in Indiana, but things have been pretty slow lately. Nvl, It could very well be what a lot of people have said here. Reseat your memory, try running with 1 stick, then swap, try the other stick, repeat. Clean the fuck out of the system, though usually a system will shut down if it's a heat issue, but if the PSU is over heating it won't. ~ well there won't be warnings like on a laptop.. If you have an air compressor with nozzle, blow the power supply out too. Next I'm not sure how old the system is, but check the capacitors to see if their swollen on the top.

There's a few other things you can try:

Unhook the hdd(s) and CDROM, both power and cable interfaces, check and see if it boots up, if not, pull your video card if it has onboard. On older systems you will have to clear the cmos as the bios setting will still be set to init your video card as the primary video, clearing the cmos will put it back to defaults, that is if your system has onboard video.(usually it will default to onboard if the video card isn't detected, but some old systems will not and you'll have the clear the cmos anyway.) If it still doesn't boot, remove any other cards, leaving just the PSU, motherboard, CPU, and memory.. If it still doesn't boot? Replace the bios battery! If it boots, jump in the bios and check the temps..

If all else fails, replace the PSU and give it another shot.

 

Good Luck

Edited October 16, 2020 by Mr.Rocket

[CBM]

6 minutes ago, Doom_Dude said:

 

@CBM I'm 54, so there's some older than 40's on here you old fart. haha

hehe.. cool!

 

I love that classic doom still excites people from such a broad age span :D

[Doomkid]

lol, I know this is running pretty far afield of the original discussion, but someone needs to make some meme comparing how different products appeal to different age demographics, but Doom is literally the only one that has max appeal from age 7 to age 70. Based on what I've seen over the years, it genuinely seems accurate.. and the returns don't diminish at all imo. I've been wondering for 20 years now when I'd get sick of this game and the next hot game would come along and dethrone it. Still yet to happen. (Though of course my love of Doom coexists with love for many other games, old and new)

[Vorpal]

I bolted a shelf on to my desk to keep the PC about a foot off the ground, so as to avoid the majority of dog hair and general carpet nastiness.

 

Your machine probably is not damaged, those crashes are likely the system triggering a temperature failsafe before damage can occur. I think a cpu temp failsafe will cut power instantly, while gpu temp failsafes just lock the system for some reason (maybe the gpu temp sensors are not part of the motherboard, so exist in a different software layer? hell if I know).

[Jello]

6 hours ago, Dark Pulse said:

Joke's on her. You know what Bob Barker said.

 

She will only find out afterwards.

Eh, she was spayed when she was brought to the shelter as a stray. Apparently she attacked the vet that did the operation afterwards, and bit the stitches out, so they had to re-stitch it. This all happened before she was adopted. She has a bit of a temper, but generally she's a sweetheart. She is very protective of her stomach though, and I think it probably has to do with the spaying. You can scratch her chin, her chest, head, back, rump, but don't touch that belly.

 

I don't think she was always a stray, probably got out of the house as a kitten and she never went back, since she's always been pretty comfortable around humans. At the shelter she was just doing her damndest to get adopted. "Oh, look at me, I'm shy, but approachable. Let me stick my little paw through the cage and touch your hand. I don't have my claws out. Aren't I sweet?" As soon as someone at the shelter took her out and I held her, she was just rubbing her head against my chin and purring.

 

Only got out of the house once, probably three months after she was adopted, chased her around for 30 to 45 minutes. There's two large fields near here, and a highway close by, and I was scared as hell. If she got into the fields, I wouldn't be able to find her, on the highway she probably would've been ran over. And there's another large field on the other side of it.

 

Eventually she just sat down in a neighbors yard two houses down, I walked up behind her, picked her up, and took her home. She hasn't tried to get out since then. I think she realized that being an inside cat is far better than being an outside cat. Still likes looking out the windows, but when I open the door she walks away from it, instead of running towards it.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Jello

[Jello]

7 hours ago, Doom_Dude said:

@Murdoch Ahhhh that IS nasty, especially with the mouse piss and crap. One of the worst I've seen was actually a crt monitor that was caked with nicotine.

Had a roommate years ago and his girlfriend worked at Best Buy. Apparently they had a guy who was a heavy cigar smoker bring in a tower for repair. Once the techs opened it, they evacuated the store. The smell was so bad nobody could be around it, and they just took it outside the building and gave it back to him.

 

And I was going to mention that as well, when I had a PSU failure, I was also smoking in the house, oftentimes right next to the PC. I used to get 3 years out of a tower. I stopped smoking in the house, and I'm almost at 7 years on my current PC, and it's still working like the day I got it. So yeah, if you have to smoke, do it outside.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Jello

[DooM Bear]

10 hours ago, Doom_Dude said:

@Murdoch Ahhhh that IS nasty, especially with the mouse piss and crap. One of the worst I've seen was actually a crt monitor that was caked with nicotine.

 

Hahahaha my cars windscreen is like that :-P

 

Have to clean it off every year or so and last time I did it I didn’t have any windex so figured I’d use a razor blade... won’t be doing that again! Ended up looking like a big ball of opium on the razor blade!

 

My PC should be safe though (apart from my cat :-P) as don’t smoke in the house :-)

[Doomkid]

After 2 days of pretty solid use, the PC is behaving totally fine after giving it a thorough clean and removing the wad O' cat hair.. Unsurprisingly! Thank you all again for the suggestions and general quality posts in this thread.

[Martin Howe]

As a tech repairing/refurbishing PCs and training people how to do it, I love this thread. Seen many of the horrors herein described (and as a 'older member' at age 55, I've seen a *lot* :p). My personal best is dismantling a Gateway (aka E-Machines) laptop from 2007 every few months to remove a 10mm wad of cat fur due to my then-cat loving the heat from the exhaust vent (and the intake vent was underneath and very near to it).

 

[CBM]

1 hour ago, Martin Howe said:

As a tech repairing/refurbishing PCs and training people how to do it, I love this thread. Seen many of the horrors herein described (and as a 'older member' at age 55, I've seen a *lot* :p). My personal best is dismantling a Gateway (aka E-Machines) laptop from 2007 every few months to remove a 10mm wad of cat fur due to my then-cat loving the heat from the exhaust vent (and the intake vent was underneath and very near to it).

 

thats odd... each time a use a computer at home.. be it laptop or desktop... an orange soft entiy suddently appears, similar to the one you pictured here

 

sometimes there will also be a grey entity