Dead computer

gavinpoo

gavinpoo

gavinpoo

Associate
Joined
25 Sep 2003
Posts
433
Location
Derbyshire
My computer has been flawless for the last year or so but the last couple of days I've been having some problems. The display has been becoming corrupted and after a short while it would freeze or turn itself off. I tried turning it back on and the fans would spin up briefly then stop again and the power light would flash slowly. The only way to attempt a restart then would be to disconnect from the mains for a while.

Having a Zalman heatpipe thingy on the 9800 Pro I thought it was possible it could've come loose and with the recent weather was causing it to overheat. So, I borrowed a friends video card and tried it out earlier tonight and it started up initially but after a few minutes it froze, however there was no corruption, and when I try to turn it on now it does exactly the same as with the original card.

I managed to run memtest earlier and it returned no errors. Also, the CPU temperature is fine at about 40 degrees.

So, does anyone have any ideas what could be the problem and how to test other possibilities? The full spec is:

MSI Neo2 Platinum
Athlon64 3500+
1GB PC3200 Corsair (can't remember exactly which)
74GB Raptor
250GB Samsung
350W Q-Technology PSU
 
It isn't a Q-TEC. :p When I bought it (a couple of years ago) I read up and it seemed to get good reviews. Made especially sure that it wasn't the same thing as a Q-TEC after reading numerous horror stories on here.

Anyway, I took the old PSU out and the bit that connects to the board had 3 blackened pins so I've ordered a 430W Seasonic just to be on the safe side.

I managed to get a screen grab. Never knew dodgy power supplies could do this...

http://www.gavinpoo.f2s.com/BROKEN.JPG
 
It certainly wasn't cheap when I bought it, think it was about £80, although that was a fair while ago. Didn't have any problems with corruption when I used my mates graphics card, the system just locked up. Put his card back in his PC and used it for a few hours that night and had absolutely no issues, so apparently no damage to his card. Unfortunately couldn't try my card in his PC as it's a Shuttle and there was no way it would fit in with the Zalman heatpipe on it.

Will just have to be patient till the new PSU makes its way here so I can reassess the damage!
 
ajm said:
It did wreck the card even after changing the psu it was the same.
Click to expand...

That's not what I wanted to hear. Would be a great excuse for an upgrade if I didn't have car insurance due this month :(

Thinking back, I remember having this corruption with the card just after I first fitted the Zalman. I took it all off, cleaned it up and fitted it again and everything has been fine till now, just put it down to some rogue Arctic Silver. I can't remember if that caused it to shut down before POST or only when Windows was booting/running.

Don't know much about the thermal properties of the Silver stuff. Does it turn more liquid when heated and therefore is it possible it could've run from between the radiators and dripped on the card?

Just clutching at straws now...
 
Used as little as possible on the Zalman and was extremely careful when fitting it (the second time).

Haven't tried drivers as it's failing to even reach POST on occasion. Press the power button, the fans spin for about a second then everything stops and the power light flashes.

Should get the new PSU tomorrow. I'll try drivers and reseating the heatsink if I'm still having trouble. If that all fails then it's credit card out time. :(
 
Installed the new PSU today and left my PC on while I went to work tonight and everything seems fine now. I'm still considering changing graphics and motherboard but will wait a couple of months before taking the plunge.

Thanks everyone for your help!
 
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