Strange Problem

BarneyBoots

BarneyBoots

BarneyBoots

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Joined
18 Jan 2007
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109
Bought a x-treme gamer sound card earlier today from Overclockers and attempted to fit it into the spare pciex8 slot at the bottom of the motherboard.

For some reason it wont fit,aim I been stupid and assuming that the card is a PCI card will it not fit into a PCIE slot ??

Anyway after realising it would not fit,I tried to boot into windows.The computer will post so that I can get into the BIOS but when it then tries to boot into windows it just remains on a blank screen or starts a restart cycle if that makes sense.

I tried clearing the CMOS but the same thing happens.

Its is a pre built system from overclockers (Ultima Velociraptor).Just cant imagine what the problem could be as I have not changed anything hardware wise and the power was disconnected when I tried to fit the sound card.

Any ideas ?
 
You knocked anything else loose? Messing around in that area I would suspect GFX card is not seated or have knocked the power cable(s) loose?
 
Everything is seated fine.Dont really want to mess around too much incase it makes it worse.What are the chances if I took it up the shop tommorow they would have a look at it for me ?

Just cant grasp how opening the case would case this problem ???
 
You might have a case with an open side panel sensor. If the case thinks that the side panel is off the computer may not boot. Try disabling this option in the BIOS and see if that helps.
 
Case is a antec 1200 tried it with the side panel open and closed.It will post and reach the splash screen but then when it tries to load into windows,the screen remains blank.No idea what could be causing it.Gonna give overclockers technical support a call in the morning and see if they can help.If the motherboard was fried then it would not post,right ??
 
A PCI card WILL NOT work in a PCI-E slot. The two are not compatible. If you look on the card, the gap in the connector is not in the right place to mesh with the gap in the slot on the motherboard.

Not got any spare conventional PCI slots?

Edit: You troubles getting the PC working after inserting the card in the PCI-e slot, was that with the card installed in the x8 slot or have you since removed it?
 
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The only accessable slot is right at the bottom of the board as the crossfired graphics cards take up 2 slots each as they are big cards.I thought that bottom slot was a pci slot and bought a pci soundcard.
Opened the case,realised very quickly I had bought the wrong card and needed a pcie sound card instead.
Closed the case up without the card in as as you stated it wont fit and tried to reboot.Thats where the problem started.
This is what I cant understand,I havent forced the card in as it wont fit by quite a margin.I realised this and was going to exchange it at the Overclockers shop tommorow.If I had forced the card in and broken something then fair enough,but I havent.

Totally stumped.
 
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If you can POST and get into the BIOS ok, my first guess would be a corrupt boot sector. Does windows load at all, at which point does it reset?

Have you got a bootable CD or flash drive to hand? If so, you can see if the machine is still working and establish whether you have a a corrupt boot sector or something similar.

Alternatively you can install windows on another HDD and see if it boots into windows.
 
Gets past the flash screen thats says "gigabyte" etc and the screen goes blank as though it is loading into windows but just stays blank.

Not got another HDD to install windows onto though.
 
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Ah, 16GB usb stick - good.

Basically you want to install an operating system on this. Please let me say, I am no expert in the area of booting from a USB stick - but I would suggest putting linux on it for simplicity. This site looks interesting. It is possible to install windows 7 on a 16GB flash drive, this page looks interesting.

If you can get the OS installed on the stick and it boots properly then you know that your HDD is likely at fault. If thats the case, I would suggest recovering the important data on the HDD (using your USB stick as the boot drive) and then reformatting the HDD and reinstalling windows.

If the USB stick is set up right, but it still doesn't boot then you have a different problem entirely.

Out of interest, how long have you had your PC up and running and have you had any issues with it recently (apart from this)?
 
Had the pc since December,it's a ocuk prebuild.worked like a dream,everything fine until today.
Think I'm gonna give them a ring in the morning and see if they can have a look at it.I don't know enough to be messing around too much with it.Probably only make things worse.In hindsight it's probably a good job I made a backup image yesterday !!!
Really appreciate the help though.
 
He is using this. Though he hasn't mentioned the OS, presumably it's windows 7 64 bit.

To the OP: Aye, giving them a ring is a good idea. Though I would try out the USB OS idea anyway, it shouldn't take too long to setup, only requires you change the boot priority in the BIOS and may quickly diagnose the problem. It certainly shouldn't affect your OCUK warranty, but if you are worried about this you can always confirm it with them when you call them up.
 
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Ex58 -ud5
i7 920
HD5850 (crossfired)
6gb corsair xms3
antec 1200 case

Really great system,can't fault it at all it's worked perfectly.Really cheesed off that something so inconspicuous has potentially screwed it.
 
Should have just posted the link,yes mate it's windows 7 64 bit. Only additional is a side case fan.Like I've said previously I've changed loads of cards in previous computers but this one I never even changed as it would not fit.Can't see it being anything major as I've done nothing to it,that's what confuses me the most.
 
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