Pc Overheat / Virus Problem

futureal33

futureal33

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Afternoon all

Just wonder if anyone can offer any help / advice...

I have just installed some software (a game) which, upon installation warned of a virus. I cancelled the installation and did a scan of it - it came back clean.
So I gave it another go - this time it didnt warn me of any virus and installed as per normal software.

However, about 10 minutes into playing the game, the FPS became laggy and within seconds of this, the PC just switched off. Now, it wont turn back on. Well, if you press the power button, the fan comes on at about 1/4 speed but nothing happens and the PC doesnt POST. Nothing is displayed on the monitor. On the GFX card there are two red LEDS constantly showing, having googled the codes under the LEDs, this it returns the codes of:

1) Gfx card overheat
2) Gfx card aux input fault

I have now removed the card and dusted the PC out and given it a massive clean up. The PC was switched off for around 10 mins. I then tried to start the PC again, and nothing had changed - it wouldn't turn on.

Does anyone have any idea what this could be?

Could a virus do something like this?
Could I have fried my gfx card?
Could my gfx card just need time to cool down (it felt hot to touch)
Could I have mobo issues?

Im going out now for 3-4 hours and have left my PC unplugged with the side off - hopefully allowing it to cool down more.

Thanks for any help
 
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Sounds like graphics card has fried something. Can you get into bios?
You'll have a mono reset jumper somewhere, try that.
 
as long as you downloaded it from a reputable source (i.e. steam) then id imagine its a false positive. although you could do a boot scan to be sure.

id say your GPU fault is unrelated.
 
have you tried safe mode? while its powering up? one of the F buttons should get you into it.

If you have Revo uninstaller then you can get rid of everything that program has installed in the registry, or in safe mode system restore may help.

Realspeed
 
if it wont post then safe mode wont help :)

im wondering if the GPU heatsink has come loose and/or maybe the thermal pad/compound has given up. how old is the card/what is it?

do you have an onboard GPU you can revert to at all so that you can check the rest of the PC is working?
 
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The virus was probably a false positive, basically a virus has been detected somewhere on the planet, it's CRC value (like a file serial number) is faked so that it's the same value as a valid game installation file. Probably nothing to worry about unless your AV starts deleting stuff it shouldn't.
I've seen cases where the AV has deleted system files and completely messed up the PC.

As for overheat/shutdown, you probably had a tonne of dust in your tower OR the air intake was pushed up against a flat surface, causing it to overheat.


Oh and ermmmm........ Forget reset jumpers, just pull the mains and remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes.
 
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Hi guys,

Just returned home after my photoshoot, tried the PC and it still wont turn on :(

In simple terms, could someone give me a step by step on how to reset the jumper, or remove the battery etc?

It makes a very quiet whirring noise, but the gfx card has red LEDs just constantly on.

Could a virus cause this?

Thanks
 
Do you have on board graphics as well as your graphics card?

If so remove the graphics card, connect your monitor to the on board graphics, try and restart the PC
 
futureal33 said:
Hi guys,

Just returned home after my photoshoot, tried the PC and it still wont turn on :(

In simple terms, could someone give me a step by step on how to reset the jumper, or remove the battery etc?

It makes a very quiet whirring noise, but the gfx card has red LEDs just constantly on.

Could a virus cause this?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I'd say hardware fault.

Can you provide some more of the requested info?
 
Sorry Neil, missed your earlier reply

The card is an ATI 4890 xfx model. It is about 6yrs old at a guess, but uptil now has been flawless. I have never touched the thermal compound on it, so it could be very likely that this has decayed/come off over time, but surely the PC would still turn on if this was simply the case?

I dont have onboard gfx so cant try the mobo gfx unfortunately.

I cant get the PC to POST so booting in safe mode isnt an option. If you press power, the fans spin up (albeit at about 1/4 speed compared to what they should sound like) and literally nothing happens... no beeps, no hard drive whirring, no dvd drive clunking, nothing at all - and no output onto the monitors whatsoever.)

Could the earlier mentioned jumper on the mobo be worth a try? If so, could anyone suggest where this might be?

Thanks :)
 
Forget the jumper.

Take everything out of the board, including the video card, unplug drives etc. leave the memory in.

Does the main fan then spin up on the processor and stay running.

Try that first to see if the main board at least tries to run up.

If it doesn't post, indicated by a series of beeps telling you there's no video then it's either main board or psu.

See if you can borrow a psu before going further if it doesn't.
 
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Its a little plastic cap over 2 pins.... usually there are 3 or 4 tiny pins in a row that say CMOS above them.. out the jumper on the pins they arent already on (probably 2 & 3 if a 3 pin) turn pc on, turn pc back off and out jumper back to its original position and turn on again... cmos all reset.

Also could be a psu fault if the other things arent spinning up... or overheated ram?.. take 1 stick out at a time replacing the previous as you go and try booting after each? Worth a try
 
Didn't see a reply earlier....was the game from a reputable source or a....less reputable one? Favourite of malware people these days is to bundle bitcoin mining software onto your machine which will stress your GPU.
 
mid_gen said:
Didn't see a reply earlier....was the game from a reputable source or a....less reputable one? Favourite of malware people these days is to bundle bitcoin mining software onto your machine which will stress your GPU.
Click to expand...

The game was of the less reputable sources, which is why I am more concerned about it being a virus. Although, my PC knowledge isnt great enough to know whether a virus could stop the PC from even getting to POST and BIOS screens?

If the fault is hardware related, in particular the graphics card, its not the end of the world - the card was pretty old in fairness and only recently I was actually asking about upgrading it. However, if its a motherboard issue, then my understanding is that I would need a complete new Windows install - which is a lot more painful. I do have a system backup from around a week ago, but unsure if this would work if the machine had a new motherboard in it?

Just checked and my PC does actually have on-board gfx, so tonight, I will remove the ATI card and run off on-board graphics and see if I can get it to boot - fingers and toes crossed..

Thanks for the help :)
 
If your mobo is goosed, just buy the same board then you won't need to reinstall.

But before worrying about that try

Is your cmos battery dead? Pull it out and test it if you own a fluke. Should show 3v.

Are your psu and CPU fans spinning? Or do they start and then stop.? Could be your psu has failed.

You can test the output from the psu for 12v 3v 5v etc

connector_atx_pinout.gif
 
neil_g said:
make sure its the same down to the last detail. I rma'd a board and got back the same model with same chipset etc etc but a slightly different revision, wouldn't boot without a fresh install.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know what you mean, I work on control systems and so called same boards, save revision have different chips on them.
 
Gr8Shot said:
If your mobo is goosed, just buy the same board then you won't need to reinstall.

But before worrying about that try

Is your cmos battery dead? Pull it out and test it if you own a fluke. Should show 3v.

Are your psu and CPU fans spinning? Or do they start and then stop.? Could be your psu has failed.

You can test the output from the psu for 12v 3v 5v etc

connector_atx_pinout.gif
Click to expand...

Will try this tonight, thanks.

The fans are spinning, when you press power, the gpu, cpu and system fans all spin up - but much slower than they should.
Normally, pressing power results in all the fans quickly going to 100% and then slowing down to idle while the system boots.... now, the fans are just going straight to idle speed and the system isnt booting.

Will try the CMOS trick tonight, and also check charge in it.

I do find it ironic that I was playing a game, on the hottest day of the year (so far) and my PC was in direct sunlight at the time, and the room was warm, when this happened - but would have expected a blue screen of death, rather than just a proper black screen crash if it had overheated.
 
Gr8Shot said:
If your mobo is goosed, just buy the same board then you won't need to reinstall.
Click to expand...

neil_g said:
make sure its the same down to the last detail. I rma'd a board and got back the same model with same chipset etc etc but a slightly different revision, wouldn't boot without a fresh install.
Click to expand...

The OS might also have a spaz, because the serial number of the mobo will have changed, it'll assume your trying to cheat/clone a genuine OS onto another PC. A phone call to Microsoft may be required.
 
Lyonspride said:
The OS might also have a spaz, because the serial number of the mobo will have changed, it'll assume your trying to cheat/clone a genuine OS onto another PC. A phone call to Microsoft may be required.
Click to expand...

assuming its an OEM install then yes. however this was a full copy. :)

more of a driver issue and blue screens/hangs/failing to launch windows etc.
 
As suggested earlier, take your machine back to absolute basics.

Remove the graphics card, all ram, except one module, optical and hard drives. USB connectors, sound card connection plates etc.

Once you have done this, it will be easier to troubleshoot the issue.
 
Not sure what happened there, another duplicate!
 
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Ok bit of a live update kind of thing:

First bad of bad news.

Tried both removing the battery for a good 5 minutes, then refitting and trying it again - made no difference - no boot.

Also tried removing the gfx card and using on-board gfx - still no boot

So now I am going to try and check the PSU by using a multimeter...
 
futureal33 said:
Also tried removing the gfx card and using on-board gfx - still no boot
Click to expand...
Is the BIOS set correctly for this? Some you have to disable onboard to get PCI-e working, others have a priority order...
 
PS. you will need to have the PSU loaded to know if it is generating the right voltage.
 
arad85 said:
PS. you will need to have the PSU loaded to know if it is generating the right voltage.
Click to expand...

I have just done the "paper clip" test and the fans spin up, indicating that the PSU is working correctly. Scary test to do!!

So that concludes that

the gfx card isnt faulty - or at least removing it, hasnt cured the problem
the PSU is working correctly, or at least it is powering up and spinning the fans even when disconnected from everything else

How can I test for motherboard / cpu problems?
 
futureal33 said:
How can I test for motherboard / cpu problems?
Click to expand...
Do you have any spare bits/PSUs.

I had a PSU die on me last year that I was convinced was a motherboard fault (the box booted and worked apart from a couple of USB ports).
 
No, I dont have any spare bits at all :(

Ive just tried literally disconnecting everything other than the CPU and mobo and it just wont boot. I have just googled for a bit and found a thread which states if there is no beep, there is no CPU.

I am definitely getting no beep and no sign of life at all, other than the fans spinning up

Its looking like its time for me to start speccing up a new CPU and Mobo... any recommendations lol?
 
Budget? ;)
 
Was your system over clocked?
 
Might be worth while getting hold of another PSU, they are notorious for "testing" OK when they ain't :p

Just seen your overclocked post, so maybe not the PSU :gag:
 
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Over clocked CPU on hot day gaming......

Mmmmm time for a new CPU me thinks
 
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