Need Diagnosis Confirmation on PC Hardware Issue

[Krylo]

I was using actual q-tip brand q-tips. Thus it is fine.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Long-term lurking has been broken because the suggestions in this thread just hurt my head.

General questions: Does it crap out when only using programs that require moderate to significant system resources or does it just crap out when idling?

If the computer runs fine enough when idling/not running any games then go to control panel's Administrative Tools and look in the event viewer. Error code and if possible the IRQ number if it is a hardware related issue*. Peruse Microsoft's Technet and Knowledge Base with said numbers.

A few preventative measures to take into consideration: dust out the computer regularly, do a memtest, check hard drive for bad sectors, perform a burn-in test on the processor and compare later tests with it to see if processor ain't actin up to snuff. Usual defrag and other stuff repeated ad-nauseum blah blah blah.

*this will save a LOT of guesswork, just sayin.

[Nikose Tyris]

Originally Posted by Grandmaster_Skweeb

Long-term lurking has been broken because the suggestions in this thread just hurt my head.

General questions: Does it crap out when only using programs that require moderate to significant system resources or does it just crap out when idling?

If the computer runs fine enough when idling/not running any games then go to control panel's Administrative Tools and look in the event viewer. Error code and if possible the IRQ number if it is a hardware related issue*. Peruse Microsoft's Technet and Knowledge Base with said numbers.

A few preventative measures to take into consideration: dust out the computer regularly, do a memtest, check hard drive for bad sectors, perform a burn-in test on the processor and compare later tests with it to see if processor ain't actin up to snuff. Usual defrag and other stuff repeated ad-nauseum blah blah blah.

*this will save a LOT of guesswork, just sayin.

I feel absolutely foolish at not trying this sooner.

Anyway yes we have confirmed it is the power supply but the one I sent him is apparently not gonna cut it- The motherboard according to the individual is proprietary and has two 20+4 Ports.

Thanks for all assistance.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Originally Posted by Nikose Tyris

The motherboard according to the individual is proprietary and has two 20+4 Ports.

That's one of the biggest problems right there. He's going to have to go through Dell because Dell has a raging hard-on for the word proprietary.

This really is A+ stuff and sadly people really tend to over complicate hardware troubleshooting. General nugget of wisdom is always check the event log if you can.