Member Panel

pc shut down today with blue screen warning. system shut down to protect xp from damage. rebooted and sent error report to microsoft. return message said hardware failure with four possible options. CPU RAM MOTHERBOARD OF POWER SUPPLY.
Can I make any checks while system is still working to define the problem or is it a pc shop repair task.

Trouble is that if you have a problem with any of those core hardware components and you continue to run the PC then you could run the risk of further damage to currently un-affected components. Do you have a friend that knows their way around PCs and can get their hands on, say a new power supply for now? At least that way you can test something before you incur any costs.

Yes good advice, isnt the power supply oneof the more reliable of the four though. could it be an overheating problem with the cpu. I did add a further 512mb of ram, around 12mnths ago although this has never caused a problem. I am going to run thie system now for a few hours and then close down and reboot and enter the bios settings to try and check the running temp of the cpu. I recently had to reinstall xp because of system crash and when in the bios noticed that the temp was around the 70c mark I think.
Soecs for system.
compaq presario 2600. Asus AN7nx -na mother board 1.9ghz clock speed.
1X 256MB RAM 1X 512MB RAM on board graphis using 64mb of onboard ram.
200GB maxtor hard drive running mains xp system 80GB containing all data ect photos, music, and all the important stuff. MCaffee firewall and antivirus.
spybot search and destroy AOL 9 Service pack 2

Just an update, entered bios and the cpu temp is 66 tp 68c is this about normal. have heard that AMD cpus run a bit hotter than others.