Im Scared My PC Might Die

[Pedroc1999]

Well my computer has been active for just under 7years and im afraid one day it might die. I have only upgraded the hdd and added a graphics card. Is this putting the pc under stress. I dont really know the signs of a dieing PC. Could someone tell me what the signs are?

 

[paulpicks21]

Any PC could die at any time, but usually it's only one component that dies unless you are real unlucky and the psu goes taking several components with it.

You have replaced the HDD, that's a good thing.

Don't worry about it too much, if it stops working then you just need to figure out which bit died.

 

[Solarstarshines]

Any PC could die at any time, but usually it's only one component that dies unless you are real unlucky and the psu goes taking several components with it.

You have replaced the HDD, that's a good thing.

Don't worry about it too much, if it stops working then you just need to figure out which bit died.

lol Paul I fear this on a daily lol lol lol

The fear is always there if it has run 7 years with no issues consider yourself lucky some people can't get past the first 6 months let alone 7 years don't worry about it

But if you are thinking ahead why don't you put a few bucks aside untill you get a reasonable amout let's say 6 month period im sure you could drum up a couple hundred easy for some upgrades

 

[paulpicks21]

I fear it too Solar It's all part of the fun eh!

But more seriously, I can understand it being a more serious concern especially if you only have 1 PC and no funds to sort it out. All you can do is cross that bridge when you come to it make sure to regularly back up data if you can, keep the PC clean inside and just enjoy the PC while its working fine.

 

[Thorsen]

Different components show different signs when they start to fail.

For Power supplies, the amount of power put out will degrade over time. Hence its a good idea to get a PSU with more overhead than you expect to use and not to run the PSU at full capacity full time. When PSU's start to go bad, you will get random restarts or lockups or error messages on startup or during heavy or light loads. This is usually the first thing that will die in a computer over time.

You can test the output of the PSU with a multimeter and by looking at the specifications of the PSU to make sure that the 12v rail and 5v rail are supplying the correct voltage. Here is a good guide for that: How To Manually Test a Power Supply With a Multimeter
There are also devices you can buy to test the PSU that have all the connectors setup so you just plug it in: How To Test a Power Supply Using a Power Supply Tester

For motherboards, components on the mobo can fail. Since the motherboard is a group of components, this can be seen by many different problems. Usually, on the motherboard, this will be a complete failure or a partial failure. In a complete failure, the motherboard will not go to POST. with this, a component essential to functionality has failed and will usualy do so without warning. With a partial failure, the individual components will start to not work. The USB drives might start failing or not recognizing external drives or mice if the USB interface starts to fail. Problems with Hard-drive SATA connections can also occur causing error messages that would look like hard-drive failures. the northbridge or southbdrige could also fail. Northbridge causeing video and memory errors, the southbridge causing problems with USB, audio and IDE drives.Here is a good synopsis on the two bridges: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northbridge_(computing) (click link for southbridge on same page)

A partial failure is usually a warning sign of complete failure. The motherboard can still function with a partial failure, but a complete failure of the motherboard is usually expected. could be months, days or years though depending on the component that failed.

For the CPU (FYI: CPU's usually now include the Northbridge like Sandy-bridge and AMD Fusion) CPU's fail in one way. they burn out... The CPU is pushed to highest capacity before shipping to make sure the chip won't fail. if a chip fails at this time or shortly after being used new, it is called a Burn In Failure. if it passes this torture test, the component will usually last for quite a long time. The only thing to kill it would be heat. The symptoms of the CPU failing due to heat would be: system errors and system crashes, failure to POST, and the system starting but then shutting off. Sometimes, by the system starting up but with high fan usuage and won't load.


When Hard Drives start to fail, they can make noise like clicking or whirling sounds. This is not good. Also sometime before failure, a drive will start to be very sluggish. When it fails, the HDD could be not recognized in the BIOS or reported incorrectly in the BIOS. Usually the HDD maker will have a tool to check your hard-drives like Seatools: SeaTools | Seagate

When RAM starts to die, you can have single chips on the RAM Stick or the whole stick fail. this can be seen in the system not seeing the RAM at all or if you have an error message or crash that references the same location or error code repeatedly. You can use Memtest+ to test the RAM to see if it has any issues. Info on this: RAM Failure: Symptoms and Diagnosis

Edit: if I have made any errors in here, please correct me. I still have much to learn

 

[Layback Bear]

With you system specs and age anything can happen at any time. If I had to choose one piece of hardware to replace it would be your 250W power supply. That is a long time for a OEM power supply.

 

[Pedroc1999]

Yes, I have a old celeron wiv graphics just in case, also i still got old hdd, old ram and an old pc, thing is i love this one and have has lots of fun wiv it.


No regarding updates i am rly short of

i cant upgrade ram cos ddr2 is to expensive, will wait till another mobo,
i cant upgrade psu cos it is oem case
cant upgrade mobo cos it is oem case
if i cant upgrade psu i cant upgrade nothing else tbh
cant upgrade case cos oem board

so you see what im at, it is either stay with this or get new pc. i am thinking abpout it and have got £150, i need roughly annother £100 for decent pc

 

[whs]

If it is s standard midsize case, upgrading should not be a problem. I put a new PSU and GPU into my stock HP case. This is a 2007 model.

 

[Layback Bear]

I understand where you are coming from. It's old and usable. Saving for a new system makes sense to me.

 

[Layback Bear]

Got to get me one of those table cloths.

 

[Pedroc1999]

It is the iMedia 2218b case

 

[whs]

Got to get me one of those table cloths.

Walmart is your friend.

 

[essenbe]

Actually, that's my table cloth. I just let Wolfgang borrow it.

 

[whs]

Actually, that's my table cloth. I just let Wolfgang borrow it.

We share this. I get it for the even years.

 

[LittleJay]

I have had PCs that have run for years with no problem, but the first laptop I bought managed to have the HDD and the LAN port die within 6 months. Fortunately HP repaired it and also paid for shipping both ways.

 

[King Arthur]

I have a circa 1998 laptop and a circa 1999 desktop both still running very well with no signs of imminent failure, computers will last a long time if you take proper care of them!

Of the parts you need to be concerned with, you basically need to be concerned with anything that has moving parts. This includes:
* Hard disk drives
* Fans
* CPU heatsink+fan assembly
* Power supplies (they usually have fans in them!)
* Video cards (higher-end video cards use a heatsink+fan asembly for additional cooling)
* Motherboards (some motherboards use a heatsink+fan asembly for cooling)

You also need to look out for capacitors that might fail and leak, though you can't easily fix this unless you're skilled with soldering electronics.

Of the parts I listed, the parts most likely to fail first are the fans. If you notice a fan acting funny, look to repair or replace them, their cooling is essential to proper functioning of a computer and to ensure a computer lives for a long time.

HDDs then follow second. HDD failures are somewhat random, but are more likely to occur if the computer is subject to physical shock (laptops are notoriously vulnerable to HDD failures). HDDs usually fail gradually, showing signs such as giving off clicking sounds and reduced performance. If you find that your HDD is acting strangely, look to backup and replace it ASAP! If you're somewhat knowledgable with computers, you can use software that can read SMART information off your HDDs; SMART is a set of information that users and technicians can use to diagnose the health status of a HDD with some degree of accuracy.

Capacitor failures and leaks are an evil bunch and depend on the computer and failure itself, but are more likely to occur on older computers due simply to being old. I've also heard that computer components of a certain era also had a bad string of factory-defective capacitors used (it's gotten better now!), which can manifest as leaking and failing capacitors over time. As I said, if you have soldering experience you might be able to fix them, but it's all a guess at best since capacitors aren't usually meant to be replaced.

Overall, keep an eye on your fans, HDD, and PSU for signs of failure and replace them as necessary. Most other parts besides capacitors shouldn't fail unless they happened to be factory-defective or you did something really bad to your computer.

And last but not least, you will have to accept the sad fact that computers will die at some point. Whether it be through your own mishandling or something completely out of your control like a power surge or a flood, there's only so much we can do to prolong a computer's life until the world decides to troll you.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

afaik, the only parts that have a lifespan you can worry about are PSU, fans (any fan), HDDs. Theoretically the capacitors on the mobos (the non-solid-state ones) do have a limited life, but i've seen only a few mobos that died of old age (capacitors showed signs of death) in hundreds if not thousands of mobos that travelled through the shop since I started working here.

Top killer is cheapo crappy PSU going chernobyl at a random time and murdering everything with overvoltage or whatever. With added smoke, of course.

 

[pscowboy]

Bob is right. Low-spec'd power supplies are main killers. Best to get one 50% more capacity than what you need, with an 80plus rating. It will never be stressed.

On the other, good, side of the coin, you can have pc's run a long time without a problem.

I've got a pc museum in my shop; down to 8 running units now.
One is a 27 year old, $1500 cost, Leading Edge XT - still good. I turn it on every day. Remember MS-Dos 2.0?
Another has a Gigabyte PII board, 14 years old, that is running W7 with the help of a Power Leap cpu adapter housing a 1.4 Celeron o'clkd to 1.56.
One 12 yr old Compaq, an old Gateway, 26" high, 486 tower, etc, and on and on.

I've serviced thousands in my 20 some odd years. PSU's & h/d's go more than anything else.

Only seen 3 mobo's go on their own.

You're running seven years - means you have a good one. Stay with it!