crash...crash and burn...

[Pique]

I was playin some natural selection when all of a sudden my entire computer freezes. I had to force it to turn off (hold in the power button) because nothing else worked. I came back later tonight and tried to turn it on. It beeped a couple times and there was no signal going to the monitor. The computer stayed on tho, but i dont know if it was saying boot failure as there was no signal.

Im guessing its either a hard drive crash or the power supply just crapped out.

Any other ideas?

[CowEater]

I was playin some natural selection when all of a sudden my entire computer freezes. I had to force it to turn off (hold in the power button) because nothing else worked. I came back later tonight and tried to turn it on. It beeped a couple times and there was no signal going to the monitor. The computer stayed on tho, but i dont know if it was saying boot failure as there was no signal.

Im guessing its either a hard drive crash or the power supply just crapped out.

Any other ideas?

probably the HD

[8-up]

What BIOS does your motherboard have?

What did the beeps sound like?
How many beeps were there?
Which beeps were long and which beeps were short?

If you can give that info, then we can narrow the problem down.

[Pique]

I turned it on to figure that stuff out 8 and it worked.

Time to start backing up

[GRITS]

so it got hot maybe?

[8-up]

so it got hot maybe?

Yeah, maybe...
Open that box up and take a look at the power supply, Pique.
If there is a ton of dust on the power supply fan, you'll keep overheating.
Clean it off.

[Miagi]

My favorite type of beep is "IIIIIIIIIIIII. can't. see." One long, then two short beeps. When the video card isn't working or seated correctly.

Overheating power supply, the computer would have just shut off?


Overheating video card, the screen would just stay frozen I'd imagine.

[8-up]

One long, then two short beeps. When the video card isn't working or seated correctly.

That depends on the BIOS.

Most likely it's a hot video card.
Stick about 6 (plus or minus 5) more fans in there pointed at the card.

[Squish]

usually you won't get a beep from a psu issue, the comp will almost always just crobar.

[Pique]

Well the inevitable happened again but this time no beeps. Just a lock up while i was at work. I came home and cooled it off with a fan (it is HOT here tho, and the computer room is a good 5 degrees hotter than the rest of the house). Computer turns on fine and it sounds like it boots up, however there is no signal to the monitor again. I looked at the video card and the fan is not spinning. Now im not sure if it always spun, or was temperature controlled, but im think the video card is fried. Any other ideas?

And on that note, im a little behind the times on good gaming cards.

My Desktop specs are: 2.6ghz P4, 256 MB RAM, 500Mhz FSB, and a now dead GF4ti4200. What shall i replace this graveyarded GF4 with? I plan on upgrading my ram to 1GB too.

Preciate any help.

[Power and Glory]

How much are you looking to spend?

[Pique]

I just bought this for 170$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814102067

Now im lookin for more ram. I know i asked this before, but how do you tell how many pins you have for memory? My manual doesn't say anything about the specific memory, and i cant turn on my comp...would it be on the memory itself?

[Power and Glory]

Thats a PCI Express card. You had a old GF4 so you would only have a AGP slot at most. So I would cancel that order.

[Pique]

Good call on that one. I didn't cancel it in time but you were right.

So for 200$. Whats a good video card?

[Power and Glory]

This one seems to be the best AGP card from the reviews. As a matter of fact this might be the last AGP card they are making as they slowly phase AGP out. Only negatives seem to be that you need a decent PSU 400 watts or better.

It is also 9.5 inches long which seems to be standard for new cards in the past couple years. So make sure you have room to fit it in.




http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814102071

[Pique]

I just picked that up plus a 450 watt PSU.

And for school i just picked this up:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16834220163

Plus an extra gig of RAM

[8-up]

I just picked that up plus a 450 watt PSU.

And for school i just picked this up:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16834220163

Plus an extra gig of RAM

oO....Make sure you've got at least 18 amps on that 12 volt rail. You may have some severe stability issues with that video card if you don't. Wattage is good, but if you don't have enough amperage going out to your stuff, the high wattage is pointless.

[Squish]

Good call switching from nVIDIA to ATI, most times theres an issue that i've seen with a video card, it's usually an overheated nvidia, they just run too hot.

[Pique]

I just picked that up plus a 450 watt PSU.

And for school i just picked this up:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16834220163

Plus an extra gig of RAM

oO....Make sure you've got at least 18 amps on that 12 volt rail. You may have some severe stability issues with that video card if you don't. Wattage is good, but if you don't have enough amperage going out to your stuff, the high wattage is pointless.

I got 20 Amps on the +12 volt and .8 Amps on the -12 volt. Anyone know about PSUs that can explain the difference between the two rails? *cough* EIGHT *cough*

[Power and Glory]

Good call switching from nVIDIA to ATI, most times theres an issue that i've seen with a video card, it's usually an overheated nvidia, they just run too hot.

I've seen it said the other way too especially with the new ATI cards. Basically I don't read into any of that stuff cause there are too many fanboys on either side. Both companies have had their good cards and bad cards over the years.

[Pique]

Yea so i got the PSU and card in all fine. Turn on the comp and i got a signal! But then what popped on the screen really pissed me off... "DISK BOOT FAILURE"


I shoulda just scrapped the damn thing