Upgrade question

[SoapSurgeon]

** Sorry for such a long post but i would greatly appreciate any help **

Hi,

I recently advised my brother in upgrading his PC but I haven't really been keeping up to date with the latest technology!

Anyway his computer doesnt work . It worked ok to start with but then a month or 2 down the line he started seeing black horizontal lines accross his screen. These lines got so bad that you couldnt see anything and eventually the computer restarted. I thought it could be graphics drivers but he now gets weird symbols in bios.

I told him it was probably a broken graphics card and he should send it back but he didnt wanna wait around so he just bought another one, plugged it in and now this one wont even boot up, just a black screen (no beeps).

Im now thinking it is a motherboard problem but dont want him to get a new mobo incase it isnt so i had a few questions.

1. If a mobo says its dual channel ram does that mean it HAS to be dual channel? cos he has 2 random sticks of ram that arent the same clock speed and probably really old like pc2700.

2. Its the first time ive used pci-e, is there something i should know that could be causing the problem?

Cheers,

Matt

edit: his mobo is an Abit KN8 Ultra SKT939 and he has tried the following graphics cards:

PowerColor X800GT 256mb GDDR3 256bit PCI-E (worked but strange lines/symbols)
Connect 3D Radeon X700 256MB GDDR VGA DVI-I TV-Out PCI-E (didnt work at all )

 

[Jake]

Re-sit the CPU. Try running one memory stick at a time, see if it gives the same error, and if possible, try the memory in a different machine. Sounds like either the memory or motherboard is on its way out.

 

[SoapSurgeon]

Hi thanks for the reply. Im fairly sure Ive tried the memory in different slots etc but it cant hurt to try again. I definately havent touched the cpu so will give that a try.

Any more suggestions?