Home PC Freezing/Hanging

[featured_spectre]

Again I can only echo Arthur and macshinobi here. Remove thermal paste. Use arctic silver (personal preference). Also look at non stock fans, after market ones have a tendency to be better than stock as they offer superior cooling and heat dissipation.

[mac_shinobi]

Again I can only echo Arthur and macshinobi here. Remove thermal paste. Use arctic silver (personal preference). Also look at non stock fans, after market ones have a tendency to be better than stock as they offer superior cooling and heat dissipation.

 

Same as @nephilim's graphics card and other equipment that makes use of a thermal paste or pads. They get used a lot and get dried out or don't dissipate the heat as well as when it was new and freshly applied so needs cleaning off and re applying / refreshing from time to time

[hawc]

Looks like the thing is dead. No light, no noise.

[mac_shinobi]

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/19476506/20272481.aspx

 

Ref this quote

 

 

Thank you all -- I just got an XPS 8500 a few days ago, and like everyone else, I had this problem as soon as my computer went to sleep.

 

After realizing the solution involved BIOS [i've never changed any settings in BIOS before], I called Dell for help and the problem was solved in a few minutes.* The solution they gave me appears to be slightly different from the one posted here, but I thought I'd elaborate for anyone else who stumbles across this and doesn't know what they're doing.

 

1. Get into BIOS

 

2. Go to 2nd screen. Change RAID to AHCI [i only had a choice of RAID or AHCI]. Save and restart.

 

3. Computer will attempt to boot, report a problem and try to fix itself.

 

4. When it can't do it automatically, it will ask if you want to troubleshoot or shut down. Choose shut down.

 

5. Get into BIOS again, change AHCI back to RAID. Save and restart.

 

6. Your computer should be fixed.

 

*The tech support person was really nice, and even stayed on the line while I rebooted my computer a couple of times to make sure it was fixed.

 

 

I was thinking along the lines of disconnecting the cmos battery and powering it on, power it off again and disconnect any power sources ie battery and mains for 20 seconds , re connect the cmos battery and power back on again

 

Presume its not powring on after re doing the thermal paste etc. I presume you didn't use too much thermal paste

Edited April 21, 2014 by mac_shinobi

[hawc]

I can not turn the thing on. I did not get around to re applying the thermal paste. I tried the stuff that @mac_shinobi posted and there was no response from the machine. It is weird that the light on the PSU does not shine (this indicating that there is no power), but there is an LED inside the PC that is on. I think I might have to admit defeat here.

[TheSmartstudent]

It is weird that the light on the PSU does not shine (this indicating that there is no power), but there is an LED inside the PC that is on. I think I might have to admit defeat here.

 

Sounds like a dead PSU. Hopefully, if it is, she didn't fry the rest of your box too.

 

Do you have a tester, or a spare you know works?

[mac_shinobi]

I can not turn the thing on. I did not get around to re applying the thermal paste. I tried the stuff that @mac_shinobi posted and there was no response from the machine. It is weird that the light on the PSU does not shine (this indicating that there is no power), but there is an LED inside the PC that is on. I think I might have to admit defeat here.

 

Maybe time to use the parts from this machine and as per your other thread, build a new rig. That way you have a machine that you know will work, 2 it will be faster / better as newer Mobo / RAM , CPU and power supply etc etc

 

If you have a bit of money left over you can continue to try and get this one working

 

If you do get it working great, you can have two machines and at worst if you can't get it working or it continues to have other issues then you have a new machine