My PC won't restart

Hello,

I'm writing to see if you can help me as I am very stressed out. My PC doesn't restart. Every time I press the restart button it will do its normal rebooting thing but then it will freeze as it starts up again. An interesting thing to note as that when it freezes the red light on my mouse will also go off. That's when I know the computer has officially frozen and yet I can still hear the fans going and everything. I have to manually turn off the PC by holding the power button for 3 secs and then press it again to turn the computer on again.

This happened 2 days ago after I installed optional updates for my computer. One of the updates was an update to my video card and ever since then the scaling has been off. I can fix it but when I want to save the changes I have to restart and that's where the problem occurs. Another update was to my microsoft optical mouse. I have windows 7 premium.

I reinstalled my OS but it still doesn't restart as it keeps freezing.

Any ideas to fix this problem?

Thank you.

Hi,
Please turn off your computer and open it.
Touch some metal thing to get static electricity off from your hands!

Before all! If you never open your computer and don't know how to remove or change components do not follow these steps! Call somebody how know what to do.

Note : Please unplug Power Supply before procedure.

1. Remove next components from motherboard - RAM, Graphic Card and unplug hard disc.
2. Use your hands and skill to get Processor fan and Processor itself out from motherboard.
3. Use any dry cleaning tool to clean dust and other things out from motherboard.
4. Put processor back and plug-in all other components (RAM, hard etc..)
5. Start your computer.
6. Go to BIOS screen by pressing DEL on your keyboard.
7. Go to Load Optimized Defaults on main screen of BIOS and press F10 to save.
8. Your computer should restart now and work property.

Let me know if you still have problem.

Thanks for responding. So it's basically a dust issue? Can't I just open up my PC and dust it out without removing everything? I know how to remove everything except the processor.

Also when I reinstalled windows does that mean my computer has a clean sweep?

Hi,
Yes, i think you just have dust problem. Sorry, but you have to remove them because your connectors on the motherboard are made of copper and they are covered with dust. Dust does not allow them to conduct electricity, use dry cloth to clean copper connectors on your RAM, Graphic Card and any other card's you have in your slots. You can use the regular eraser for paper to clean copper connectors. You have to remove processor too, because dust is everywhere, but if your not sure how, don't do it. Just ignore that step and try to clean other components.

When you reinstall your Windows, part of computer which include Software are clean, but Hardware is something different, you can't remove dust with reinstalling Windows

I see. OK, I don't mind taking out the easy to remove parts but I would definitely be nervous about the processor. My friend built this computer for me and even he had trouble installing it so there's no way I could remove it and install it.

I will do all the steps you mentioned above except the processor and I should be OK?

And about the reinstalling windows part -- I know that haha. I just meant that my computer now acts as if it's completely brand new software-wise right? There's nothing from before re-installation possibly messing up my restart.

Okay, just ignore processor OK. But, when you plug all cards and we start your computer, you could get same problem again, it could be processor. So, let's ignore it for not, let's see what happen.

Ok.

Sorry, i didn't understand you, English is not my main language. Yes, you'r right. You don't have software problem, don't worry

Hello,

My PC restarts again! It really wasn't even that dusty and I took nothing out. I honestly think it was the BIOS (Load Optimal Defaults) thing that did the trick.

But I have one more issue left. It's with my resolution. I have the latest driver for my GPU but every time I restart my computer the screen won't load up fully to the ends of my monitor panel It looks like a black border around the display. I have to manually change the resolution to full screen every time to get the maximum resolution. I think it's a scaling issue? It just won't save after reboot. I've never had this issue before.

Thoughts?

Hi, as i told you, it's Hardware problem. You should took out all cards and clean them. I can't help you if you won't listen me.

BIOS is OK. Default mean standard settings for your computer, and it's not harmful for now.

Clean your Graphic Card, also, check if your computer overheating. If it does, than we have bad hardware problem.

I did dust it out. I opened up my PC and cleaned it out with a duster can and paper towel. But there really wasn't that much dust from what I could see. Just some dust on the edges of the fans. My computer is about 4 months old. Everything inside still looks new.

I guess I could try to clean out the graphics card by taking it out. But my card is so big and a pain to remove/install. Maybe I will just to see if that solves the problem. Also, I don't think it's an overheating issue. My computer runs very smoothly and never shuts off randomly or anything. When I put my hand over the fans it feels very cool, not hot.

Hi, you didn't mention before that you have new computer. Okay.

Do you have integrated GPU maybe, on you motherboard ? I know you have Graphic card but if we took it out, can you ran your computer with integrated ?

Check if you have it, you'll see one more connector for monitor back side of computer.

I just want to check if you have graphic card problem. Because you already told you have problems with resolution. It could be graphic card.

Here's my build:

CASE ANTEC|NINE HUNDRED BK RT
HDMI A/V CABLE| HDMI-HDMI-2
MB ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR III FORMULA
VGA SAPPHIRE|100297L HD5830 RT
PSU CORSAIR|CMPSU-650HX 650W RT
CPU AMD|PH II X6 1090T 3.2 G AM3 RT
MEM 2Gx2|GSKILL F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM
HD 640G|WD WD6401AALS
KB LITE-ON|SLIM STANDARD SK-1788/BS
MOUSE MICROSOFT | D66-00066S
DVD BRN ASUS | DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS
ST2210 21.5-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor with AX510PA Flat Panel Stereo SoundBar

I don't believe I have an integrated GPU. Can you tell by my motherboard?

I think it's just a driver issue. My resolution is fine when I manually change it, but it doesn't save after reboot. So every time I restart, my computer starts up again with a slightly lower resolution. So what I do is go to Catalyst Control Center and press detect and then it rescales my desktop to the full resolution and everything is normal as usual. It just doesn't save that detection (scale). I've pressed apply many times.

I want to call ATI for help but they close before I get home from work.

Okay, lets try with this. Go to Add or Remove and remove ATI Catalyst. Tell me what happen now.

If you have Windows 7, you don't have to install drivers.

OK, so I spoke to ATI and they said it was my driver. They said I shouldn't update drivers that windows detects because it will mess up your computer. I reinstalled my original drivers and the scaling is all back to normal. But now I'm having those restart issues again...it seems to work and not work whenever it wants.

When I was on the phone with ATI we rebooted twice and everything was working great. Now I tried rebooting several hours later and once again the reboot freezes...this is so frustrating. My computer was amazing until I downloaded that wrong driver.

Any ideas now that we know this is correlated with my graphics card? It should be working fine as all the settings are back to the way they were pre-problems (at least I think they are).