When your Pc goes wrong and you have lost all hope the general final stage is to reformat your computer and start afresh. This will most likely rule any software issues, remove viruses or any other nasties and give you a clean start. But what happens if you have already reformatted and the problem still exists?
This means, most likely, you have a hardware fault. This is where problems can start.
Monitor Tft
Diagnosing a computer hardware fault can be a right pain as any of the computer components could the cause. Unless you are intending to replace the entire engine you need to thought about diagnose with what components the fault lies with.
I would recommend you look at the computer into these main areas to analyse.
Memory / Ram
Power Supply
Hard Disk
Motherboard
This isn't a perfect definitive list, obviously depending on your issue ie if your issue is that you don't get sound then it could be a sound card issue, similarly if you don't get a display then graphics could be the culprit. If it is a random fault then whether of the above could be the cause.
Memory - this is fortunately quite easy to diagnose. Hunt the Internet for a memory tester. Ordinarily these can be put onto a Cd (or Floppy if you are stuck in the past!!), boot up from the Cd which then enters the memory test. This will constantly cycle through, testing the memory for errors. It is wise to leave this on for several hours or even better over night. It will recommend you if the memory fails.
Power furnish - this can be a strange one. Citizen Ordinarily assume that if the power furnish does fail then you would get no life from you computer at all. This sometimes is not true. I have had computers that turn off at random times, computers that have the power light on, but do not start up etc and it has turned out to be the furnish - I would recommend this should be one of the first things to test as can be a problematic area. Testing it can be difficult without the right equipment. unmistakably the only way is to get a volt tester and check the voltage and current coming out.
Hard Disk - this can be one of the worst problems to have as if your hard disk does fail, unless you have been sensible and done quarterly backups of your most critical data, you stand to lose it all. Hard disks can go at any time and commonly you will hear a harsh sounding clicking noise that is coming from your computer. If this is the case you need to probably replace the hard disk. Get person who then knows what they are doing here to try and recover your old data for you.
If none of the above solves your problem then you could possibly be seeing at the fault being with the motherboard or any other plug in cards or devices you have. remove all to leave only the very basics. Take out all sound cards etc and any other Pci devices that are not essential. If you have more than one stick of ram then leave in only one and see if the problem resolves.
Really, solving hardware issues comes down to a case of trial and error here so take the time to test all out. Bear in mind that even if your keyboard or mouse is faulty, very strange things can happen to a computer, so if you can, try to remove and test every single item.
Diagnosing Computer Hardware Faults