Okay so this is a long story but I figure I will include all the details so as to get the best possibly chance to finding a solution. Alright here it goes.
Okay to preface this my house got it's wiring redone not too long ago and I am assuming this has something to do with it, although I'm not certain.
This all started around almost a month and half ago when one day I went to start up my computer and I just got a black screen with the error message, "A disk read error has occured. Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart." After looking around online for solutions, I saw one possible solution was to reset your BIOS settings. So upon starting up my computer I held Del to launch the BIOS settings, but when it did it was completely unresponsive. So the next option was to manually reset it by taking out the motherboards little watch battery for 5 to 10 minutes, then putting it back in. I did so and, voila, it started up! However, it only worked for a single boot up. So everyday when I would go to start up my computer I would open up the case, take out the watch battery for a little bit, put it back in and start it up.
However after a week of this I just got fed up with it and took the computer into my local PC repair store so that they could determine the issue with it and I could take whatever necessary precautions to fix it. So they took it in, and apparently the first thing they do with it is just completely take it apart, dust it all out, and put it back together. After doing that the issue seemingly vanished, so they determined the issue came most likely from something in the computer that might have just gotten knocked loose and wasn't allowing the computer to read the hard drive.
So I take it home and works for about two days without issue, until I got to boot it up again and the same issue starts to occur. At this point I tried to just self diagnose and replace the motherboards battery, but that didn't fix it. So I continued to just reset the BIOS everyday for a couple more days until eventually I just couldn't get it to start at all. So once again, I brought my computer back into the PC repair store and told them what would happen. They said they would try their best to replicate the issue.
They kept the computer at their store for a week constantly trying to replicate the issue. They would leave it on overnight, open up every program at once, overheat it, etc. just doing anything in their will to try and get it to not be able to start up, but they simply couldn't. The computer had absolutely no issues at their store. From this we concluded that the issue didn't lie with the computer itself, but rather with how I was getting the power to the computer. So the issue was either
A. The power cord
B. The power strip/surge protector or
C. The outlet
So first I replaced the power cable. Still wouldn't start up. Then I replaced the power strip. Still wouldn't start up. Lastly I tried every other outlet in my room. It still would not start up. At this point I was completely baffled, but figured my last hope was to take the computer to a completely different part of the house and try it their. So I lugged my computer over to my brother's room where he keeps his computer and plugged his monitor and power cable and everything into my computer, and lo-and-behold, it started up with no issues. So i determined that their is some kind of issue with the outlets in the general area of my house that my room is in. I even tried running really long extension cords to adjacent rooms in the hallway my room is in but not even that worked, so I assume the issue goes throughout my whole hallway.
After figuring this out I went to Home Depot and asked the one of the people who worked there (I am by no means an expert electrician so if anything I am about to say is just completely moronic I apologize) if their was any sort of external device I could use to somehow reroute more power to my computer. Like if say I used two outlets to plug into one device that then combined the collective power of the two outlets and ran it through one cable so I could get more power to the computer, but they insisted their isn't (and I believe them but if anyone wants to prove them wrong it would be greatly appreciated). However they did show me this nifty little device that I can plug into an outlet and it will tell me if theirs anything wrong with it. It looks like this
http://static.musiciansfriend.com/derivates/19/001/387/373/DV020_Jpg_Jumbo_330266.744_110v.jpg
So I bought one of those and took it home and plugged it into the outlet in my room. However, it told me that their was seemingly no issue with the outlet.
Now I am at a total loss and have to come to tomshardware in the hopes that someone here will have enough knowledge on electrics and computers to hopefully find a work around to this issue without having to call an electrician (as that would obviously be pretty expensive). If someone could just tell me what the issue is definitively that would be enough for me, because at this point that's all I want to know. To be honest, I would probably prefer it if someone would just straight up tell me my computer is completely broken and their's nothing I can do to fix it, because at least then I would know what to do. However, as of right now I don't even know 100% what the issue is.
I realize a lot of you might just tell me that I should just move my computer somewhere else in the house. And while I would do that, I am currently 18 years old (still living with my parents) and my 4 younger siblings. There really isn't another place in the house where I would suitably be able to move my entire set up to (I have a pretty large set up).
I would just call an electrician, but now I am afraid that that isn't even the issue considering that the outlet tester I bought can't seem to find an issue with the outlet.
Okay to preface this my house got it's wiring redone not too long ago and I am assuming this has something to do with it, although I'm not certain.
This all started around almost a month and half ago when one day I went to start up my computer and I just got a black screen with the error message, "A disk read error has occured. Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart." After looking around online for solutions, I saw one possible solution was to reset your BIOS settings. So upon starting up my computer I held Del to launch the BIOS settings, but when it did it was completely unresponsive. So the next option was to manually reset it by taking out the motherboards little watch battery for 5 to 10 minutes, then putting it back in. I did so and, voila, it started up! However, it only worked for a single boot up. So everyday when I would go to start up my computer I would open up the case, take out the watch battery for a little bit, put it back in and start it up.
However after a week of this I just got fed up with it and took the computer into my local PC repair store so that they could determine the issue with it and I could take whatever necessary precautions to fix it. So they took it in, and apparently the first thing they do with it is just completely take it apart, dust it all out, and put it back together. After doing that the issue seemingly vanished, so they determined the issue came most likely from something in the computer that might have just gotten knocked loose and wasn't allowing the computer to read the hard drive.
So I take it home and works for about two days without issue, until I got to boot it up again and the same issue starts to occur. At this point I tried to just self diagnose and replace the motherboards battery, but that didn't fix it. So I continued to just reset the BIOS everyday for a couple more days until eventually I just couldn't get it to start at all. So once again, I brought my computer back into the PC repair store and told them what would happen. They said they would try their best to replicate the issue.
They kept the computer at their store for a week constantly trying to replicate the issue. They would leave it on overnight, open up every program at once, overheat it, etc. just doing anything in their will to try and get it to not be able to start up, but they simply couldn't. The computer had absolutely no issues at their store. From this we concluded that the issue didn't lie with the computer itself, but rather with how I was getting the power to the computer. So the issue was either
A. The power cord
B. The power strip/surge protector or
C. The outlet
So first I replaced the power cable. Still wouldn't start up. Then I replaced the power strip. Still wouldn't start up. Lastly I tried every other outlet in my room. It still would not start up. At this point I was completely baffled, but figured my last hope was to take the computer to a completely different part of the house and try it their. So I lugged my computer over to my brother's room where he keeps his computer and plugged his monitor and power cable and everything into my computer, and lo-and-behold, it started up with no issues. So i determined that their is some kind of issue with the outlets in the general area of my house that my room is in. I even tried running really long extension cords to adjacent rooms in the hallway my room is in but not even that worked, so I assume the issue goes throughout my whole hallway.
After figuring this out I went to Home Depot and asked the one of the people who worked there (I am by no means an expert electrician so if anything I am about to say is just completely moronic I apologize) if their was any sort of external device I could use to somehow reroute more power to my computer. Like if say I used two outlets to plug into one device that then combined the collective power of the two outlets and ran it through one cable so I could get more power to the computer, but they insisted their isn't (and I believe them but if anyone wants to prove them wrong it would be greatly appreciated). However they did show me this nifty little device that I can plug into an outlet and it will tell me if theirs anything wrong with it. It looks like this
http://static.musiciansfriend.com/derivates/19/001/387/373/DV020_Jpg_Jumbo_330266.744_110v.jpg
So I bought one of those and took it home and plugged it into the outlet in my room. However, it told me that their was seemingly no issue with the outlet.
Now I am at a total loss and have to come to tomshardware in the hopes that someone here will have enough knowledge on electrics and computers to hopefully find a work around to this issue without having to call an electrician (as that would obviously be pretty expensive). If someone could just tell me what the issue is definitively that would be enough for me, because at this point that's all I want to know. To be honest, I would probably prefer it if someone would just straight up tell me my computer is completely broken and their's nothing I can do to fix it, because at least then I would know what to do. However, as of right now I don't even know 100% what the issue is.
I realize a lot of you might just tell me that I should just move my computer somewhere else in the house. And while I would do that, I am currently 18 years old (still living with my parents) and my 4 younger siblings. There really isn't another place in the house where I would suitably be able to move my entire set up to (I have a pretty large set up).
I would just call an electrician, but now I am afraid that that isn't even the issue considering that the outlet tester I bought can't seem to find an issue with the outlet.
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