General Computer Question: Way OTFollow

Thought I would post this here too. I'm a complete idiot when it comes to computers (I play on PS2) but I was impressed enough with screenshots of others playing FFXI on PC to upgrade what I have. Bought a new case, mobo, processor, and RAM and then stole the FX card, HDD's, and CD Drives from my current pc.

All was well until I decided to "fix" it. See below:



Edit: I run Windows XP.

Edited, Mon Feb 7 10:29:52 2005 by Wintaru

Agree with above suggestion...

most places can get it back to you in a few days...maybe even same day if you plead enough and offer incentive (just remember, dollars, not gil).


*backflips*

Thanks for the suggestions ^^

I thought about moving all of the shared components back to the old PC and that way I could test to see if the fx card was still working.

I think I'll just bring it in >.< $50 just to take a look at the damn thing argh.

When you say it starts, do you see it boot up initially? Do you see it check the drives on the screen or can you just hear it? Getting any warning beeps?

If you're not getting anything on the screen, try reseating the Video card, memory and processor.

If it does come up, go back into the bios and load the optimum defaults and see if that helps.

If still not booting up fully into windows, try Safe Mode. As the computer is coming up, tap the F8 key and you'll get a boot menu. See if you can boot into safe mode. If you can, try doing a system restore. (Start> All Program> Accessories> System Tools> System restore)

These are just general troubleshooting steps. It's hard to diagnose/troubleshoot through a message board. Also, the floppy drives tend to give out pretty easily.

If you have any questions, let me know. I cringe whenever anyone brings their computer to the shop. They charge an arm and a leg.

Edited, Mon Feb 7 11:34:57 2005 by Kakashisan

I would at the very least reseat the processor, video card and memory again. Also remove the bios battery and unplug the power supply from the motherboard for a few minutes. Hope this helps.

I'll try pulling the whole thing apart and putting it back together again and see what happens. My other option is to put the HDD's and CD drives and vid card back into the old PC and verify that everything is still working.

That would narrow it down to either the mobo or RAM.

When I cleared the CMOS, I moved the jumper to the proper position for 15 seconds (with the PC off and unplugged) and then moved it back. Before doing that, I was still getting display but an error was preventing the PC from posting (post = display that shows the Bios and drive checks etc correct?)

Thanks for the tips all. Tried everything suggested with no luck. Guess I'll be taking it in >.<

Hiya,

I got a poke by a friend about this, so I thought I'd pop out of retirement for a second to offer help to the mighty Wintaru. ^^ It should pay you back a wee bit for babysitting my naked elvaan *** in Xarcabard.

Coupla questions.

1) Who made your RAM? What's its speed?

2) I'm a little confused on this: You say that "it changed the voltage on my RAM to 133 MHz and it had been at 200 MHz so I changed it back to 200." MHz != Voltage. Nata = Confused. ;-) FSB speed?

Coupla thoughts.

1) The K7N2's a good board all around, but I honestly wouldn't recommend it for it's overclocking potential. On the hardware side of things, your ATX and P4 power connectors are located right next to the processor socket, which can interfere both with the airflow over the processor and its heatsink. Additionally, the socket isn't set up to support some of the larger, more potent heatsinks you would eventually want for a serious overclock attempt. The FSB and the northbridge have nice passive heatsinks, but it really doesn't compensate for the cooling issues surrounding the socket placement and configuration. On the BIOS side of things, AMD chips are pretty power hungry when overclocked, and the BIOS just doesn't carry the range of voltage settings you would need to push it up a few notches. Additionally, I have heard reports of the multiplier settings not actually working (!) which just increases the heat issue.

2) I don't like your BIOS, but that's a personal complaint. Phoenix - Award BIOS's and I just don't get along. (Imagine how much fun I have with a good chunk of all PCs in existance... )

As for the issue at hand however, it sounds as though you blew some physical component or another. Any BIOS setting conflicts should have been resolved when you pulled the battery. It could be the RAM, the processor, the northbridge chip, or the vid. card. However I'm really leaning toward the video card, for these reasons:

1) If you slagged your RAM you normally should get all SORTS of frantic beeping.

2) Your IDE devices get signals to power up, which makes a cooked northbridge unlikely.

3) The fact that it starts up at all bodes well for your CPU, though occassionally you can have issues there that still allow it to boot up, and not much else.

My only concern is that I've never heard of Video Cards giving up the ghost due to the types of BIOS settings you were fooling with. It sounds like you were playing with CPU and RAM voltages, memory timings, etc. I don't see any good reason why you would be having trouble on the fx card front.

As an aside, it could actually be your FX card or your actual AGP slot that's been deep-sixed.

Nevertheless, system hangs are a real common side-effect of FX card issues, from my own experience. (/poke my computer with annoyance)

I'd recommend swapping your fx card out for another one compatible with your mobo and seeing if that fixes it. If not, you should try your current card in another computer to see if the slot's the problem.

Next I'd recommend checking out your memory. Pull the DDR and jack it into another system, see if it boots. If it does, I'd recommend giving it a thorough diagnostic run on your current system when you're done, just to make sure nothing went bad on it. http://www.memtest86.com is the memory diagnostic program I'd recommend, though it's somewhat complicated. (I believe the mighty Wintaru to be up to the task. ^^)

If all systems are still go, then I'd recommend shelling out the money to get it looked over by the pros. Some pros. Any pros. Preferrably some pros who will charge you less than $80/day. Shop around. ^^

And in closing, you should appreciate THESE words now.

"I'm sorry, I can't let you do that Dave."

Good luck. Poke me if you want some help, I'll try to remember to peek in this thread a bit. ^^

Even money it's the video card or AGP port.

[Edit: BLAH!! Spelling, grammar, and completely unintelligible sentances, oh my!]

P.S. I actually generally recommend against flashing your BIOS when your system is hanging during boot-up. You run a slightly higher risk of the flash getting botched, in my experience. I'd recommend rolling your BIOS back. Check your mobo's manual to see if such a thing is possible with yours (I honestly don't know). You might have to play the "let's tug unlabeled jumpers out and hope we remember where they go" game. At the least this will prevent you from being in a situation where your original problem is fixed, but you don't know it because a half-insane BIOS is engaged in strange and protracted arcane rituals of its own devising. >.<

[Edit: Um... added the postscript... >.> it was one of my original thoughts when I read the OP, so of course I completely forgot about it by the time I got to the point I should have mentioned it... >.<]

[Edit... edit... edit... BAH! **Yay for neurosis, cha cha cha, yay for neurosis, cha cha cha!**

... don't mind me, it's been a long and tiring day. I hate hospitals. >.<]

Edited, Mon Feb 7 23:21:39 2005 by nataraja

Wow, Nata came out of retirement to help lil ole me? ^^

I put the vid card back into my old PC and it works, so I can rule that out.

I took it in to our comp fix-it shop last night, you say to shop around but let me tell you, this is the ONLY shop in town (rather small town) and I don't feel like driving 50 miles to the next city that would have a shop that might or might not do it for cheaper haha:)

I figure I'm out $50 for them to tell me what's wrong, and depending on what it'll cost to fix I may just get a new one of whatever broke. If it's the mobo I'll get a new one:) Same with processor.

BTW the RAM is Kensington.

PS: I'll get you for your anti PC comments in my time of need Solrain :) J/k, honestly, I don't have a preference either way, I just couldn't afford a new pc so I bought enough parts to do a serious upgrade while still using a lot of the parts from my old pc. Do macs run FFXI? I didn't think so but I guess I'm not sure.

Edit: Ya I'm very careful to ground myself before touching anything in there. :(

Edited, Tue Feb 8 08:54:34 2005 by Wintaru

Update:

Fried Mobo.

It seems when I changed the performance settings a voltage was changed and fried it. Odd since all the params were within what the BIOS considered to be "Safe".

So I'm out $50 for the diagnostic. Bought a new mobo for $100 and installed, everything is working swimmingly.

Yes, the ram is Kingston, I get those mixed up all the time >.< He said the reason it was loading windows slowly is because the RAM Frequency wasn't set correctly and he showed me how to change it. Runs wonderfully now :)

Anyone know of some good freeware to monitor the processor? I want to keep an eye on everything to make sure it's not running too hot etc.

Ah but this was already an upgrade haha:)

This was affordable to me (before the fried mobo >.<) and a huge inprovement in what I had before:)

Most of the techie sites that I read always gripe about the "Turbo" and "High Performance" modes that motherboards come with. I personally don't use them at all, I just overclock the hell out of my system without even touching that feature. My Athlon XP 2100+ ran for 2 straight years @ 2400MHz @1.675V and still ticking.. although it's sitting in a corner now that I bought an A64 3500+.

By the way, if you're still using the sempron CPU that you mentioned, you won't have to worry about the CPU heating up very much unless you installed the heatsink incorrectly. Those processors run cooler than most others.