Hi there!
I'm currently working on an OAP neighbour's PC. It is a DELL Dimension 5150 running XP Home on 512mb RAM and I'm having some problems with it, to say the least.

The main issue he rang me about is that once it gets to the loading screen where the bar is scrolling across it just restarts the computer.
"Strange" I said. "I'll have a look" I said.
So, as he had explained, it comes up with the 'windows did not shut down PROPERLY etc' and which ever option you select it get as far as the loading bar and just restarts.

Here is a video of the problem:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sceb9a5956a6r4p/PVR9NSxJsm

The thing that apparently caused the issue is that he had moved the base unit from the top of his desk to under it. Once it was there this problem manifested. So I checked all the basic stuff like connections, RAM etc and it was all secure with fans running as they should.
As you can see from the video, there are no POST beeps or any sign of error codes.
I tried to boot the Windows XP disk to try and run CHKDSK but as it was booting the disk up it restarted again.

So I ran my copy of the Utimate Boot CD (UBCD) and tried to run memtest from that and again it restarted. I was able to run checks on the HDD and they all came back just fine with no errors.

At this point poor George was getting tired so I said I would bring it home to have a better look at it. I tried to replace the PSU, but it refused to boot at all. I assume this is down to it being a 3rd party PSU, which DELL don't like. I tried swapping the RAM around to make SURE one of the sticks weren't defective. No avail. I replaced the RAM completely with some I had lying around and it just started beeping at me. I didn't take note of the POST code pattern, but when I put the old RAM back in and went to the bios the error log STATED 'memory sizes different' even though there was only one stick in 

I think that about concludes my venture so far. Pretty annoying really. I don't want to palm George off to high street repair shops as they are bound to take his eyes out.

Any help would be appreciated. ThanksThe 5150 does not use a Dell proprietary power supply, you can use most standard generic ATX power supplies with either a 24-pin or 20+4-pin main motherboard power connector. It sounds like the RAM might be faulty, or some other kind of hardware problem. Has it been bashed or dropped? (Often people say it hasn't when it has, so I don't know if asking will do any good) but the fact that the problem started after the base unit was relocated is not a coincidence, I'm sure.

Non-British members may need to have it explained that an "OAP" is an "Old Age Pensioner" - someone past retirement age (65 for men) who is dependent on the State Old Age Pension (which is not very much).
Thanks for the quick response. I've managed to steal some RAM from my DIY Arcade machine and the problem is exactly the same. So that's the RAM ruled out, I guess. So what does that leave?
If you say 3rd party PSUs are acceptable, then the PSU that I swapped in COULD very well be faulty, so I'm not ruling that out. I can assume that he possibly shorted it out when plugging in the power?
I did a sweep on the mother board and can't see any physical damage ie blown capacitors. Apparently it was lightly used, but he is a heavy smoker and the inside is a bit dirty and is currently stinking out my computer room.  I don't know what you mean when you ask if you can assume "he possibly shorted it out when he was plugging in the power". You can't "short out" an appliance or device just by plugging it in. As for motherboard damage, I didn't mean blown capacitors. These usually develop over time. I am talking about things caused by rough handling - knocks and jolts or being dropped - such as cracked motherboard, loosened RAM modules or CPU or display card, etc. When people move computers around they don't always do it very gently, especially if they are not very computer savvy, or he might have kicked it while it was under his desk. I tried looking at the video you linked to, but it just kept buffering and pausing, but I did see you had the base unit on its side. Is there a reason for not standing it up like it was designed to be? If the motherboard is cracked that is likely to be terminal but you could try looking at everything - the cpu, the RAM, any cards, and maybe this time take a note of any beep sequences?
Sorry. I tend to use the wrong words when explaining things. I understand what I mean, but I don't tend to TALK to other people about these kind of things so it doesn't tend to matter :/
Right, what I meant by 'shorting it out' is that I when the kettle lead is already powered and you plug it into the PSU and it makes that awful sparking noise where it's arcing, I assume that's not very healthy and could cause issues?
And as for the blown capacitors I've had a GPU before where the caps. were bust and I replaced them and it lived on for a few more years. Since then I've kept my eyes out for such problems.

I've had a good look on the motherboard and can't see anything visually, but that is obviously the least of my worries.

As for the computer being on it's side, it was just because I'd just shut the case and started it up like that. It has always been used upright and it had previously been tested upright, but I was just looking at the guts, fault-finding so it was still on it's side.

Just looked at that .mov and it is 72mb for the 35 seconds. Nice compression, iPhone  I assume your internet isn't that fast? Probably explains the buffering. I guess.

The beep sequence was only when I put in some other RAM that was, I assume, incompatible. I'll swap it back out to double check...... OK. I've posted an audio file of the beeps to the same link. What a horrible noise... But like I said, that's with alternative RAM in.

Thanks again Quote from: mylogon on November 26, 2013, 02:41:03 PM

I assume your internet isn't that fast? Probably explains the buffering. I guess.