Long story short, my (over 3 year old, home built) PC is dead.
It was a P4 2.8Ghz, with a gig of ram, quite speedy in its day.
Now it turns on, the fans all spin (on the graphics card, motherboard and processor) but there are no beeps, and nothing on screen and I think something or other is dead. Trouble is, without spending a bundle I can't find out whether its the ram (unlikely as it doesnt work with either of the 512Mb sticks that I have), the processor (could be but how would I know without buying another one) or the motherboard (if so then thats annoying to replace anyway).
So any idea what is broken?
Then, if its dead, dead, dead as a bucket of dead frogs, then I'm looking for a (cheap) replacement that is going to give me at least as much power, but ideally on a budget of no more than £250.
Is that possible, I'm so far out of the loop on new processors these days its not even funny. I'm hoping I can just get a motherboard and processor bundle, something that can reuse my AGP graphics cars, and my DDR ram (assuming at least one of those is working) although PCIe and DDR2 both look nice, but they involve buying even more new stuff.
So anyone know of anything good, that will at least match the performance of my old machine but not require me to get a second job in Tescos?
Cheers.
PS I have a case, two sticks of perhaps working DDR ram, one possibly working AGP graphics card, a hard disk, DVD+RW, monitors, keyboard and mouse, so I would quite like to reuse most of those, which will hopefully keep the price down.
come on grim... or salty.
sorry mate, i'm off the pace w.r.t. the PC world -- other than that, at any given price point, AMD usually beats Intel
I used to be a right little computer geek, as regards building PCs and checking out the latest hardware, but since I bought my last PC three years ago I've completely lost touch. All these Durons and Optrons and Dual Cores and things. :(
Posted by
Grim..., around 5th August 2006:
Sounds like the power supply is unhappy.
Have you got another one you can test it with?
Posted by
Grim..., around 5th August 2006:
As for processors, £100 for
this little baby is a bargain. You'll need a new motherboard to go with it, though.
The PC should boot to POST before having a pop about the RAM. I'd be inclined to say processor but as you've pointed out there's not an easy way to test it without another machine. You could take it to a comp shop. Just don't do a Glitter. PC World are shit.
Power supply is new within the last six months so I'm loathed to believe it's that.
actually emma's pc has a power supply i could harness. I guess thats worth a try before I open my wallet. Cheers.
Posted by
Grim..., around 5th August 2006:
The PC should boot to POST before having a pop about the RAM.
Faulty RAM can stall a PC before POST - does the motherboard have any LED readouts to say where it is stopping (if it starts atall)?
Some have letters and numbers on - RAM is 'F1' if I remember right.
NO, but there is a ram light. sometimes this is solid, other times it is flashing. which makes me think its the ram but then i have two sticks and it does the same for both. so do you think two ram sticks died at the same time or is it more likely to be the motherboard which is mental?
i could buy a cheap ram stick on ebay and see if it works. but will be annoying if its not the ram.
I think my plan of action will be:
1. try emma's power supply
2. buy a cheapo ram stick for testing purposes
3. if its not them then see if i can get a cheapo processor on ebay
4. if not then go for something along the lines of the CPU Grim... posted.
Posted by
Grim..., around 5th August 2006:
Red's RAM is not compatible?
If it is, try your RAM in her PC, in case your MB has decided to cook RAM chips.
or pull both chips and reboot -- if everything else ok, should (assuming decent BIOS) get a valid reboot and an error message saying something along the lines of no memory found.
Posted by
Gobbo, around 5th August 2006:
I agree that it's strange that you don't even see anything on the screen, you should at least be able to get to BIOS. Still, my Dad's PC was having trouble a while ago, booting up but not getting as far as Windows. We replaced the hard drive and it was fine. If you take the hard drive out and tilt it gently, can you here anything rattle? Because if thats the case', then you may just need a new hard drive.
there's a thought. super-hot weather, ageing pc: hard-drive stiction.
thing to try:
• get any normal screwdriver
• open pc case
• grasp pointy end of screwdriver
• briskly tap top of hard drive with handle of screwdriver
usually sorts it out
Off topic but the "briskly tap top of harddrive with screwdriver" comment made me think about the time I put a screwdriver through a 3D graphics card at work and could only notice that yellow had gone missing, nothing else.
If I unplug the hard disk surely I should get something on screen before it even looks for the HD?
Same goes for the RAM?
I've tried in all these various configs from bare minimum upwards in different combos but to no avail. will try the power supply tonight. Ram isn't compatable cos Red's PC is DDR2.
and yours can only run Dance Dance Revolution 1. i feel your pain.
(related-ish: 3D package getting rant reviews: mudbox:
www.mudbox3d.com/guiPreview...)
Posted by
Emma, around 5th August 2006:
It's a lot like ZBrush and seriously awesome. Have been wanting to play with this for a while.
Posted by
Emma, around 5th August 2006:
oops this isn't emma
I've got a stick of brand new 256MB DDR 266mhz you can test with if you like.
Posted by
Emma, around August 2006:
damn i just bought a 128Mb stick on ebay for a fiver to try it.
hasn't arrived yet
Posted by
Emma, around 12th August 2006:
haha
Posted by
Emma, around 21st August 2006:
I don't buy sticks of ram so that wasn't me
Posted by
Emma, around 22nd August 2006:
Yes son?