Asus eee problem - diagnosis assistance plse

[JimK]

Asus eee 904ha running 'legacy' windas XP.

Been working OK for years.

Very recently after booting into windas after a couple of minutes normal use, the screen goes bananas,scrolling, breaking up etc, nothing appears to respond except the off button.

Switch off switch on and similar but happens sooner, repeat power cycle few times in vain until nothing appears on screen :*( I also noticed HDD led doesn't behave as usual (it would be busy loading windas if just the screen was off for e.g.)

Any pointers please?

Jim K

[Adrian]

Sounds like a hardware fault, heat-related.

I take it there's no optical drive? Will it boot off a USB key? If so, try a "live USB" version of Ubuntu or Mint or one of the other Linux installs. If it's an OS issue, then it'll stay running. If it's a hardware issue, then it'll die again.

[Jethro_uk]

Check memory modules are seated properly - ideally remove and refit if you can. (This solves 80% of random BSODs).

Burn a recovery CD/DVD (Trinity Rescue Kit is a good one) and run Memtest for as long as you can.

I used to have a Linux utility for stress testing a machine (you could probably run it from a LiveCD). When you racked it up to max, the CPU damn near glowed. Can't recall the exact name right now, but giyf.

[Dave Liquorice]

Heat? Full of fluff keeping it nice and warm? Failed fan?

[Brian Gaff]

Sounds like something is overheating, maybe the graphics hardware? Brian

[JimK]

Thanks to all responders.

To confirm no optical drive in Bios is an option to boot from "Rem Src"??

memory SODIMM has been out and reseated

fan is audible but not much waft coming out the vents

judicious blowing through the air vents kept it up & alive, so I suspect a fluffed/bunged up fan/airways to clean out!

Thanks to all :>))

Jim K

[<address_is]

Can you connect an external screen, to prove if the fault is in / before the GPU, or in the TFT screen driver circuit?