Really weird PC Problem?

ElectroBlaster · 10 Dec 2008 at 17:18

I have a problem that is really strange! Firstly I turned on one of my computers and im greeted with "Beep beep beep beep". I know this to be a video problem and then I get this screen appear saying the power to the card hasnt been connected and a whiffy smell starts hanging about (no i didnt poo myself lol) its that smell of burning electronics. I then whipped the side panel off and had a good nose around, nothing there to indicate burnt bits???

I then wiggle all the power leads, make sure the card power is connected properly and power up again, this time it works! BUT if I reboot or turn the pc off and back on it does it again? could it possibly be a psu or the video card is just going bad? Im still hunting for another card atm to confirm its the radeon at fault.

The specs are:

radeon 9800pro all in wonder
msi neo platinum
p4 2.6ghz
4 hard drives
soundcard etc
x-power 450watt (i think?)

The Halk · 10 Dec 2008 at 17:31

Could be a capacitor has gone bad.

Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague to help you see what you're looking for.

Sadly though many of your capacitors will be inside the PSU and not visible, or behind the GFX card cooler.

There's other places that hardware could fail, but many component failures do not result in system death.

Also I'd get hold of Speedfan or your motherboard manufacturers own monitoring utility and have a look to make sure your voltages aren't significantly out.

ElectroBlaster · 10 Dec 2008 at 18:59

Im leaning towards a duff psu because it has smelt a bit dodgy in the past and I couldnt suss out where the smell was coming from. I might even pull it out and whip the lid off, it also has an 120mm fan so you can see inside fairly well. Im still looking for another video card ive stashed away, if the problem is still hanging about after all that then the board must be at fault, im hoping its ok!

ElectroBlaster · 10 Dec 2008 at 22:07

Ok I did a bit more prodding and poking. Im getting some really strange things happening like hard drives clicking, the bios reporting memory timings being too tight and having the pc booting into windows xp and then all of a sudden the beebs start, the screen goes black and the message about the video card power lead not being plugged in. Also pci cards acting like they have just been installed and looking for drivers.

Things dont look good and I dont need all this hassle right now.