Computer Problems, need help.

[Atimm693 10+ year member]

Since I had an oldish, (from 05) desktop, I would convert it to an HTPC. It ran great and had just been reformatted. So, I bought a 20.00 ATI Radeon 7500 GPU, brand new. Installed that, disabled onboard video, and it ran great. However the computer sat mostly because my TV broke so I couldn't use it much. It still worked great, but a couple weeks ago I watched a movie (streamed from netflix) and it worked great with no issues. The next morning I went to turn it on and the power light blinks and it will not boot up. After some fooling I got the light to stay steady, and I think it booted up, but I got no signal. Everything on it is stock except I upgraded the RAM (went from 256 to 512, used cheapo ram, it supports up to 2gb) and the video card.

What do you guys think went wrong with it? I'm not a noob to computers, I did build the one I'm posting on BTW. How would I go about fixing this? Hardware or Software?

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[zack39648 10+ year member]

i would say hardware .. possibly hardware drivers . are corrupt or not there....

 

[Atimm693 10+ year member]

Like I said the card worked great for a couple months, but all it did was sit until the movie night.

 

[06goat 10+ year member]

Hardware.

Take the Main Components out, and set them on cardboard. It is possible the mobo is getting shorted out. happened to me a couple times.

Also, when did you put the new ram in? Sometimes it takes a little bit for the mobo to recognize the unrecognized ram if that makes sense.

 

[Atimm693 10+ year member]

The RAM has been in for about a year now.

What exactly do you mean take all the components out? To test or junk the mobo?

 

[06goat 10+ year member]

Ok well its not the ram.

You know the little gold stand off that the motherboard gets screwed too on the case? If you put one in where there wasnt a hole it could be getting shorted.

If you dont want to doall that than id try this site first. One of the other forums i lurk around on lol.

http://www.firingsquad.com

Just say peatree sent you

 

[Atimm693 10+ year member]

Ok well its not the ram.
You know the little gold stand off that the motherboard gets screwed too on the case? If you put one in where there wasnt a hole it could be getting shorted.

If you dont want to doall that than id try this site first. One of the other forums i lurk around on lol.

http://www.firingsquad.com

Just say peatree sent you

This was a pre-built computer, I haven't fooled with the Mobo at all, the only thing i have done is the GPU, Ram, and a new CPU heatsink and fan a while back.

It's a Compaq SR1111NX.

 

[crunktimes.com 5,000+ posts]

Take out the video card and turn your on-board video back on and see if it works.

 

[Yeah Toast 10+ year member]

I would try to get a test power supply. I've seen and herd a few go bad and do some funny stuff. But before that unplug every thing and plug it back in. Could be just a loose connection.

 

[Atimm693 10+ year member]

Take out the video card and turn your on-board video back on and see if it works.

I can't turn the onboard video back on without getting into the task manager, at least as far as I know.

I would try to get a test power supply. I've seen and herd a few go bad and do some funny stuff. But before that unplug every thing and plug it back in. Could be just a loose connection.

This is what I was thinking as well, mabye the stocker can't supply enough current for everything and crapped out. I tested it with my DMM and got the following:

12v Rail:

11.56 on startup

Jumps down to 5.xx and shuts down

5v Rail:

5.xx startup then dipped to like 1.5 after 1 second

 

[Atimm693 10+ year member]

Must've just been a loose connection or something, because I unhooked the PSU for testing and plugged it all back in and it booted up and ran fine.

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

Take out the video card and turn your on-board video back on and see if it works.

x2

go into the bios and turn it back on