Going Home To Fix A Friends Comp For X-mas. Want Some Advice.

[slidai]

Merry Christmas everybody.

So tomorrow i am going home for xmas and i will be helping a friend fix his computer. Here is the problem. He said it started to just cut off on him. After looking loser at the problem, he said that the screen will get all weird as in colors and what not, then the screen will go. Shortly there after, the whole thing shuts down.

At first i thought it might be the motherboard. But i was wondering about the video card. The video card is like a 7600 gt or something. Less then a year old. Wouldn't the system still run with say itunes playing music and all that even if the video card went bad? You would just not be able to see anything correct?

I dont have really any of the spec for his computer, other then the video card. Any thoughts on whats up?

 

[PCKid777]

If the video card is going bad, it can perhaps crash the whole computer (had a similar problem with an X800 XL). PC would suddenly flash multiple colors and sometimes showed just RGB - completely unusable at that point. Replaced the GPU, and all was well.

 

[Shadow703793]

Its either the graphics card or the PSU, more likely the PSU. Can't help much without full system specs.

 

[zenmaster]

If the video card was bad, Windows may not even start correctly.

 

[slidai]

OK so a quick update. I didn't get a chance to go home but my buddy got his hands on a video card. He said everything was working perfeclty fine. Even booted up and ran the Nvidia card with no problems (he had an ATI card before the nvidia and he didin't installed any drivers for the nvidia card).

Called him today and apparently about 2 hours after i got off the phone with him, it died again. He said it started up, the screen shook and then died. Now it wont even cut on.

He said he sees some error on the screen that he had never seen before. It says CPU ID,OFF2. Something like that.

Any ideas?

 

[boner]

well the cpu is frying itself to death

 

[slidai]

Its an old +3200 AMD... I was thinking maybe a new CPU nothing high end (he only plays wow), a new mobo and a zulman heatsink/fan would do him well and wouldnt cost that much.

 

[Shadow703793]

^Agreed. I recomend a P35-DS3L+ E21xx+ a cheap Video card ( I got a 8400GS for $20, which plays WoW fine), and a Good PSU.

 

[slidai]

Yea i am going monday and if i cant fix it there i will just give him my notebook so he can play till i get it fixed. I will keep this updated if anyone is interested.