Did my pc just die?

[halfmileharry]

Turned on the PC this morning and got a dreaded blue screen saying my bios aren't supporting acpi?
Repairable, reloadable, or just replace?
Almost 5 years old.

 

[TangoFoxtrot]

Turned on the PC this morning and got a dreaded blue screen saying my bios aren't supporting acpi?
Repairable, reloadable, or just replace?
Almost 5 years old.

Probably fixable. Could be virus.. if you making in to the windows blue screen of death then its likely a corrupted file or virus.. try powering off , then back on , keep tapping F8 key and choose "last known good configuration " if that does not work, repeat and choose "safe mode" and see if it comes up

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[maxwelhse]

Did it make it into Windows at all or do you get that message within about 10 seconds of power up?

 

[halfmileharry]

Message came up immediately.
Doesn't go to windows.
I'm getting no function from keyboard

 

[halfmileharry]

Goes directly to Windows repair screen

 

[TangoFoxtrot]

Message came up immediately.
Doesn't go to windows.
I'm getting no function from keyboard

If it comes up immediately, its likely best replace, may just be a dead cmos battery,.i reckom if you change it. Your self its worth trying

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[halfmileharry]

Showing"contact system vendor for updated bios

 

[halfmileharry]

If it comes up immediately, its likely best replace, may just be a dead cmos battery,.i reckom if you change it. Your self its worth trying

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I'll pull the battery and head to Batteries Plus.
It's worth a try

 

[TangoFoxtrot]

I'll pull the battery and head to Batteries Plus.
It's worth a try

You can get almost any cmos battery at.your local drugstore

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[halfmileharry]

2032 which I have a dozen or so for a chicom red dot.
Put a battery in and now its checking system for problems.
Progress

 

[TangoFoxtrot]

2032 which I have a dozen or so for a chicom red dot.
Put a battery in and now its checking system for problems.
Progress

Heck yeah, it will probably finish that scan and be gtg hopefully

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[halfmileharry]

Heck yeah, it will probably finish that scan and be gtg hopefully

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I'm on the PC now. I've lost a couple of Icons on the task bar but it seems good to go.

 

[halfmileharry]

THANK YOU for the battery suggestion. I haven't had to work on a PC in over a decade.
My last one got hit by lightening so no repair or trouble shooting. I lost my microwave and a couple of stereo pieces. Lightening blew a 24" hole in my porch when it hit. I was sitting on the couch about 4' from the strike. Had to throw them pants out.

 

[maxwelhse]

I wouldn't trust that to be a lasting repair. The only reason a CMOS battery would take out the system settings, on most PCs, is if the battery died and the power was disconnected from the wall at the same time. Most modern stuff still supplies voltage to the board even when it's "off". It's also weird for one to die so young, IMO. The last one I had to replace was 15 years old.

There are weird outliers in every situation so anything is possible, but my suggestion would be to do a full backup of the system as soon as possible. If you have happen to already have a Seagate branded USB hard drive, their Discwizard tool does a nice job of making a full backup that is mountable on other machines as well (so if your PC dies you can plug your drive into another computer and have a full backup of it). Other drive manufacturers also have their own software, so if you already own something you can Google to see if it has a backup utility.

What your BIOS/Windows was basically trying to tell you is that it couldn't find a path from the BIOS to a boot drive, and that's not awesome news.

 

[halfmileharry]

I wouldn't trust that to be a lasting repair. The only reason a CMOS battery would take out the system settings, on most PCs, is if the battery died and the power was disconnected from the wall at the same time. Most modern stuff still supplies voltage to the board even when it's "off". It's also weird for one to die so young, IMO. The last one I had to replace was 15 years old.

There are weird outliers in every situation so anything is possible, but my suggestion would be to do a full backup of the system as soon as possible. If you have happen to already have a Seagate branded USB hard drive, their Discwizard tool does a nice job of making a full backup that is mountable on other machines as well (so if your PC dies you can plug your drive into another computer and have a full backup of it). Other drive manufacturers also have their own software, so if you already own something you can Google to see if it has a backup utility.

What your BIOS/Windows was basically trying to tell you is that it couldn't find a path from the BIOS to a boot drive, and that's not awesome news.

Your input has given me the final reason to buy a new PC. I've had batteries go bad before and the PC would come up but never went to the blue screen before. I put the VOM to the battery I pulled out and got no reading at all from it.

 

[maxwelhse]

Your input has given me the final reason to buy a new PC. I've had batteries go bad before and the PC would come up but never went to the blue screen before. I put the VOM to the battery I pulled out and got no reading at all from it.

Hummm... I'd expect at least "something" from the VOM. That's odd for sure.

FWIW, last Christmas my Mom bought my Dad the cheapest new Dell (under $400) desktop for Christmas, I put about $100 of upgrade parts in it, and the thing is actually quite snappy now.

Looks like they've discontinued that exact model, but the replacement is the same price (plus 10% off this weekend on sale):

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/des...desktop/spd/inspiron-3880-desktop/nd3880eejis

I wouldn't buy more than the bottom end unless you think you really need it. They're super easy to work on and upgrade yourself for way less money than Dell will sell you the upgrades.

 

[halfmileharry]

I've built numerous computers over the years.
Last I built was an Athlon 900.
It's been a while.

 

[maxwelhse]

I've built numerous computers over the years.
Last I built was an Athlon 900.
It's been a while.

I quit building them when off-the-shelf stuff became so cheap and respectively decent. I can't touch the price of a new cheap Dell when it comes to just regular everyday computing, they hold up reasonably well, and are reasonably well built.

The last one I built from scratch is an Athlon 64 that I can't remember the clock speed of... then I promptly never loaded a 64-bit OS on it to take advantage of it anyhow.

 

[drillsgt]

Your input has given me the final reason to buy a new PC. I've had batteries go bad before and the PC would come up but never went to the blue screen before. I put the VOM to the battery I pulled out and got no reading at all from it.

Sounds like you got lucky for a minute I would at least back up everything right away if you don't already.

 

[halfmileharry]

Sounds like you got lucky for a minute I would at least back up everything right away if you don't already.

I backed up everything about a week ago. Usually the first of the month schedule.
PC fired right up this morning without a glitch. Everything is back to where it was. IF It dies it dies. I've got my money's worth out of it
At this point I'm guessing the battery just flat out died. I've done electronics repairs for decades and know my way around this stuff. Anything can quit any moment.