Meltdown

Ijen

Ijen

Ijen

Associate
Joined
27 Jun 2009
Posts
17
Meltdown - new system for an artist

System spec – built around six years ago. Has served me well... up to last week.

Mobo – MSI 865pe Neo2
CPU – P4 2.8 Ghz
RAM – 2Gb DDR 400
GPU (RIP) – Radeon 9800pro 128Mb
IDE drives – CDRW, DVD ROM // Primary HD (Windows XP), Secondary HD
SATA1 drive (Ubuntu)
PSU – 460w (Can't remember the brand but it's not Generic)

A few days ago, the fan on my Radeon9800pro melted and dropped off. The card carried on working however I noticed the bad smell, turned the computer off and removed it. Then I went out and bought a replacement AGP card.

Originally I couldn't get the new card (a Powercolor Radeon x1650pro) to work at all. Just... nothing. Only the computer fans worked. By changing the power cables around I eventually got the computer booting. I noted that under one power cable configuration I tried, the PSU made a bad smell.

So, having found a power cable configuration that lets the computer load the BIOS, I found it doesn't load all my drives. Most of the time it misses both the CD and DVD drive and the primary IDE drive. It finds the SATA drive every time.

The MBR on the primary IDE drive doesn't respond, even when the drive shows up in the BIOS. The MBR on the SATA drive (Grub, for Ubuntu) responds but throws an error (code 21). I think it's because it's dependent on the primary IDE drive.

Every now and again it finds the CD drive so I run ERD Commander 2005, however I can't do anything useful in there besides look at the secondary IDE drive.

I've tried repeated tests, disconnecting everything except the bare essentials and each drive individually. The results are inconsistent. I haven't managed to get either Windows or Ubuntu to load

Just now, I put my old Radeon9800 back in - it's just missing the fan but the heatsink is there and, when I tried it, the computer started up and proceeded to behave in exactly the same way as the x1650 pro. This leads me to suspect the graphics card isn't the issue here.

As far as I can see, the prime suspects are the motherboard and the PSU. I don't know if they were damaged when the 9800pro overheated or if I damaged either of them in the process of fitting the new card, by using a bad power cable configuration or something. Or something else?

Yes, I know, I should get a whole new system. I'm looking into it but in the meantime I'd also like to fix this one if at all possible. Any advice or suggestions would be very gratefully appreciated.

Cheers,

Ijen
 
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Woo, cheers for the welcomes and speedy replies, Admiral Huddy and Ucof :)

Huddy - just reading through your link now, thanks.

A friend has offered me a 500w PSU so I'll try that next.
 
That's good - let us know how you get on.. :)

If you're into PC building, it's always a good idea to keep some cheap generic spares floating around just for diagnosis. Save so much time.
 
Possibility the psu has gone haywire and sent to much to the old GFX causing it to short and take the power lead with it?

if its smelling to wouldnt that indicate PSU?

Im just learning on stuff like this sorry if my ideas are daft, going to read huddys page tho
 
Cheers, guys. I see why this place has such a good reputation.

I'm waiting for a PSU to arrive, but in the meantime I'm in the market for a new system. I'm not so much of a gamer any more - these days the most intensive things I do are digital painting (at very high resolutions) and 3D modeling. As an artist, my main priorities, besides high performance in those categories, are stability and reliability at a budget.

I've made a new thread about getting a new system - advice would be appreciated


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Huddy - I entered my old system into the PSU calculator and it came out at about 290w, however when I added the aging variable it pushed it right up to the maximum rated watage for my PSU...
 
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