lexcruiser
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2005
- Messages
- 97
For background, check this first:
Clicky
Since that thread, I've gotten a new motherboard, set everything up and still got the same result; 3 or 4 beeps on startup, no post, no display. Also, it started doing different sequences of beeps and also powered off on its own.
today, I took it to a shop where we switched out the vid card, RAM chips, PSU and even the CPU... STILL the same, no display no bootup.
So basically, we tried all new components on a brand new mobo and STILL no dice.
THEN we tried another mobo from the shop (and Intel board, mine's an ASUS), with all different combinations of components from the shop and my own (vid card, cpu etc etc) and amazingly, STILL nothing! Even w/ completely different equipment.
We were all completely and utterly stumped. This included 3 techs and myself (been building and doing technical for close to 10 yrs) so with our combined experience, we couldn't come up w/ a rhyme or reason to this problem.
I thought I was gonna be stuck in the house a55ed out w/ no computer to play HL2 on thru this huge blizzard we're having. =P
So just for the heck of it, we decided to connect an older PCI vid card (I have an x800 xt PCI-E card) into one of the slots and booted up.
And guess what.
It booted up.....
SO THEN, we put my PCI-E x800 back into the machine, et voila, machine was alive again. Swapped all my components back on and everything was working. So after going thru all new RAM chips, CPU, mobo and PSU, the culprit was ... ???
I still have no idea what caused it and why it started working again after booting up w/ just the PCI (NOT PCI-E) vid card...
So the question is..... WHY?? Why did my machine die and then work again after plugging in the PCI card?
The machine had originally died after running 3DMark05 and Memtest86.. Did that somehow affect the PCI-E slot on my mobo? But I even switched mobo's... did it affect my vid card somehow? Then did that status transfer to the INTEL mobo from the shop??? If this all sounds insanely confusing, .. you're right. It is.
Can anyone see any sort of logic behind this?
I also now have an extra Asus P5AD2 Deluxe mobo (if anyone's interested) thats in perfect working order. Maybe I'll build another system. =P
********************** UPDATE!********************************
Got a hold of a PCI-E x300 vid card today. System booted up fine w/ no problems. Altho the CPU temps were higher than normal (Im guessing due to removin/re-installing heatsink so many times), system booted w/ no problems and no error beeps or msgs.
Swapped the x800 back into the system again, no boot, same problems.
So OK. Pretty much isolated it to a vid card issue w/ my x800 right?
Well, we then tried to change PSU's. Mine's rated @ 460w. We put in a 500w PSU. Then guess what, machine booted up w./ the x800 w/ no problems. Was in windows for about 10 mins (w/ higher than normal CPU temps) then system shut down on its own. Tried powering back up again, no dice, machine shut down on its own. Possible overheat?
Reseated HSF and put back old PSU(460w) along w/ the x800 card to try and see if it'd work this time. No luck, machine wasn't shutting down, but it was back to original problem, no post, no display. Put the x300 back in, voila, machine booted back up again.
THEN, to see if it was a voltage w/ the card issue, put the x800 card back in but this time, didn't plug in the power supply for the vid card (x300 does not need extra power), just plugged into PCI-E slot w/ no power. Again, machine does not boot up.
THEN, put the 500watt PSU back on along w/ the x800 card again and voila, boots up. Tried to start up Far Cry to see how it'd handle some 'stress' and the machine shuts down.
So thats where I'm at now.
Does it sound like a PSU issue? A vid card issue? Or both? Is my machine shutting down due to overheating (a completely un-related issue?).. Should I need more than 500watts of power for what I'm running? I have 2 CDroms, 2 IDE HDD's, a floppy, the vid card, and 4 dimms..... My machine was running fine for 3 months w/ the 460w PSU... did it go bad? Its made by 'sun cheer.'
Or is my vid card somehow F'ed up and requesting too much power? Will it short my mobo if I give it more juice (like a 600w PSU)??
Sorry this was so long. I just wanted to present the issue as clear as possible.
Please help.....
=T
*********************Update!!! (hopefully final! 3/22/05)***********************
Hey, who all remembers this crazy thread and the problems I was having with my possessed PC?
Anyway, just thought I'd give a final update for everyone who was following this thread from ways back. I had originally thought the problem was fixed w/ a new PSU but alas, a week later, same problems came back as before. Finally narrowed the problem down to the vid card being bad (a powercolor x800 xt) and sent it in for an RMA. In the meantime, I used an x700 and machine worked like a champ for 1.5 months straight. Just couldn't play any graphic intensive games (ie. HL2, Doom3, Far Cry...) Now finally, after over 2 months, Powercolor sent me a replacement card. And since they didn't have any x800xt's in stock, they decided to finally send me an x850 xt.
So yea, I'm a happy camper now and everything seems to be working fine (its been over a week w/ the x850). Hopefully my posting this doesn't jinx it!!!!
Thanks again to everyone who helped me with this. I hope we all learned something in the process..... and that is TO JUST BUY A DELLLLL!!!!!!!!
jus kidding.
Cheers!
Clicky
Since that thread, I've gotten a new motherboard, set everything up and still got the same result; 3 or 4 beeps on startup, no post, no display. Also, it started doing different sequences of beeps and also powered off on its own.
today, I took it to a shop where we switched out the vid card, RAM chips, PSU and even the CPU... STILL the same, no display no bootup.
So basically, we tried all new components on a brand new mobo and STILL no dice.
THEN we tried another mobo from the shop (and Intel board, mine's an ASUS), with all different combinations of components from the shop and my own (vid card, cpu etc etc) and amazingly, STILL nothing! Even w/ completely different equipment.
We were all completely and utterly stumped. This included 3 techs and myself (been building and doing technical for close to 10 yrs) so with our combined experience, we couldn't come up w/ a rhyme or reason to this problem.
I thought I was gonna be stuck in the house a55ed out w/ no computer to play HL2 on thru this huge blizzard we're having. =P
So just for the heck of it, we decided to connect an older PCI vid card (I have an x800 xt PCI-E card) into one of the slots and booted up.
And guess what.
It booted up.....
SO THEN, we put my PCI-E x800 back into the machine, et voila, machine was alive again. Swapped all my components back on and everything was working. So after going thru all new RAM chips, CPU, mobo and PSU, the culprit was ... ???
I still have no idea what caused it and why it started working again after booting up w/ just the PCI (NOT PCI-E) vid card...
So the question is..... WHY?? Why did my machine die and then work again after plugging in the PCI card?
The machine had originally died after running 3DMark05 and Memtest86.. Did that somehow affect the PCI-E slot on my mobo? But I even switched mobo's... did it affect my vid card somehow? Then did that status transfer to the INTEL mobo from the shop??? If this all sounds insanely confusing, .. you're right. It is.
Can anyone see any sort of logic behind this?
I also now have an extra Asus P5AD2 Deluxe mobo (if anyone's interested) thats in perfect working order. Maybe I'll build another system. =P
********************** UPDATE!********************************
Got a hold of a PCI-E x300 vid card today. System booted up fine w/ no problems. Altho the CPU temps were higher than normal (Im guessing due to removin/re-installing heatsink so many times), system booted w/ no problems and no error beeps or msgs.
Swapped the x800 back into the system again, no boot, same problems.
So OK. Pretty much isolated it to a vid card issue w/ my x800 right?
Well, we then tried to change PSU's. Mine's rated @ 460w. We put in a 500w PSU. Then guess what, machine booted up w./ the x800 w/ no problems. Was in windows for about 10 mins (w/ higher than normal CPU temps) then system shut down on its own. Tried powering back up again, no dice, machine shut down on its own. Possible overheat?
Reseated HSF and put back old PSU(460w) along w/ the x800 card to try and see if it'd work this time. No luck, machine wasn't shutting down, but it was back to original problem, no post, no display. Put the x300 back in, voila, machine booted back up again.
THEN, to see if it was a voltage w/ the card issue, put the x800 card back in but this time, didn't plug in the power supply for the vid card (x300 does not need extra power), just plugged into PCI-E slot w/ no power. Again, machine does not boot up.
THEN, put the 500watt PSU back on along w/ the x800 card again and voila, boots up. Tried to start up Far Cry to see how it'd handle some 'stress' and the machine shuts down.
So thats where I'm at now.
Does it sound like a PSU issue? A vid card issue? Or both? Is my machine shutting down due to overheating (a completely un-related issue?).. Should I need more than 500watts of power for what I'm running? I have 2 CDroms, 2 IDE HDD's, a floppy, the vid card, and 4 dimms..... My machine was running fine for 3 months w/ the 460w PSU... did it go bad? Its made by 'sun cheer.'
Or is my vid card somehow F'ed up and requesting too much power? Will it short my mobo if I give it more juice (like a 600w PSU)??
Sorry this was so long. I just wanted to present the issue as clear as possible.
Please help.....
=T
*********************Update!!! (hopefully final! 3/22/05)***********************
Hey, who all remembers this crazy thread and the problems I was having with my possessed PC?
Anyway, just thought I'd give a final update for everyone who was following this thread from ways back. I had originally thought the problem was fixed w/ a new PSU but alas, a week later, same problems came back as before. Finally narrowed the problem down to the vid card being bad (a powercolor x800 xt) and sent it in for an RMA. In the meantime, I used an x700 and machine worked like a champ for 1.5 months straight. Just couldn't play any graphic intensive games (ie. HL2, Doom3, Far Cry...) Now finally, after over 2 months, Powercolor sent me a replacement card. And since they didn't have any x800xt's in stock, they decided to finally send me an x850 xt.
So yea, I'm a happy camper now and everything seems to be working fine (its been over a week w/ the x850). Hopefully my posting this doesn't jinx it!!!!
Thanks again to everyone who helped me with this. I hope we all learned something in the process..... and that is TO JUST BUY A DELLLLL!!!!!!!!
jus kidding.
Cheers!