hardware troubleshooting

[{EB}NuTSymPToM{EB}]

ok so heres my problem. i built a computer for my brother to take to school. the specs mirror those of the pc in my signature except he has 1gb of ram and the 256mb flavor of the radeon 9800

his computer has been locking up and a few obvious hits point at his videocard. i opened up his case to do a routine scorch check and found that the hot line (red wire) had some discoloration on the white plastic in the socket.

the generic power supply was still being used, so i immediately went out and upgraded him to an antec 550 watt psu. however after installing that i still was unable to do a fresh format without the system locking up at about 50% of the ntfs format (not quick option)

the motherboard doesnt have onboard video, so i cant test the system without a card and i havent had time to dig up my spare geforce 3 and try it out

i dont have much experience with videocard troubleshooting, but i removed the card immediately after one of the aforementioned lockups and it was burning hot and had to be set down asap

im curious what you all think is the issue, powersupply has been ruled out
1. videocard is torched
2. motherboard is messed up and not routing power correctly

im leaning towards #1 myself, but im seeking the input of all you genius' out there

note: besides the power-lead, there were no visible burns on the card itself that i could see anyway

 

[{EB}NuTSymPToM{EB}]

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