Computer Nightmares

[420]

So, Throbble's computer died last weekend. She was starting up Diablo 3 in the morning and the graphics went all crazy and the computer froze up. Looking at back logs of crashes it was a video problem and apparently had a similar crash once before in February.

The computer was a Dell XPS 630i, one of the first (or the first) computers built using an Alienware case. I had upgraded the video card to a EVGA nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ and the sound card to a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme.

First thing I tried was simply replacing the video card. I bought a EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti (2 gig) and stuck it in but the computer wouldn't start up. Just sat there with a black screen and beeped at me when I tried to turn it on. Next, I pulled an old GeForce 8600 from one of my old computers and the computer booted up fine. (It's worth noting that the 8600 video card doesn't require a 6-pin plug directly from the power supply.) The computer functioned like this for a couple days, Diablo 3 was playable but the graphics sucked.

After a couple days the computer stopped working again. Same issue, tried to turn it on and just got beeping. (I tried the new 550 card in my computer and it worked fine, however the 9800 was definitely toast.)

At this point I figured it must be the 750w power supply and I bought a Corsair TX 850, which is what my computer has been running on since it was built. I hooked up the new power supply with the new video card and everything booted up fine... except, the fan on the power supply wasn't spinning. Suddenly all the other fans (case, video card, CPU) kicked into high gear then the computer died. Black screen and beeping.

I took the power supply back and got another one, same make and model, and tried it. Same problem, it started up the computer but the fan on the power supply wouldn't spin.

Now I was thinking it could be a mother board problem since the motherboard controls the power supply and it seemed unlikely that I would get two bad power supplies, brand new, right out of the box. So I built a new computer from scratch (with help from my 25% raise I got this week!).

Unfortunately, the power supply fan still wouldn't spin so I took it back and got an Antec High Current Pro 850w ($40 more than the Corsair) and everything came up fine! As of last night Throbble has a fully functioning computer again!

Throbble's New Computer
Case: Antec One
Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 850w
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5Ghz 8MB Cache
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3
Video Card: EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti 2GB GDDR5
Sound Card (from old computer): Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme
Hard Drive (from old computer): Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB

Lessons Learned
1. Never buy a Dell. They skimp on important parts that compromise other hardware components. (ie I'm pretty sure the dying power supply is what killed the video card.) Also, I had to remove the fucking motherboard to switch out the power supply because they strung the power cables under the motherboard!!! (WTF?!)

2. Corsair TX 850 power supplies are fucked. After doing some research I found that I had the first "version" of the power supply and no one has any problems with those. However, "version 2" is apparently based on some other power supply architecture and has an extra big fan that is notoriously faulty.

3. Don't leave a DVD in your old DVD drive. D'oh!

-420

[Mo]

Wow 3 components all dying around the same time. You ended up getting a new CPU and memory too?

Glad to hear she's back up and running!

[420]

Wow 3 components all dying around the same time. You ended up getting a new CPU and memory too?

Glad to hear she's back up and running!

Yeah, the motherboard was 5 years old (custom Dell) and it was a dual core processor and I didn't even bother to check out out if the RAM was compatible with the new motherboard.

When it comes down to a possible problem with a motherboard, CPU, or RAM I just prefer to replace all three. A lot of the components I bought were on sale too.

Unfortunately, I bent a couple pins on the motherboard that are used to hook up the USB 3.0 ports on the front of the case... so, fuck me, it's not a big deal, I can buy a USB splitter from Radio Shack and plug it into the back USB ports so she can have easy access to plug in headphones, smart phone, Kindle. If I get a sudden attack of OCD I'll go buy another motherboard and throw this one in the trash. (It was around $140 on sale.)

-420

[Soul Sojourner]

Coulda told you not to buy Dell 10 years ago. Actually, I probably have at one point...

Yeah, I'm betting it was the RAM, second guess Mobo.

As for RAM, if there's ever a problem with that just replace it, it's about the easiest part to replace and not too overpriced either. In my experience video cards and RAM problems go hand in hand. I've had at least two PC's now that the video cards suddenly went to shit one day, and upon replacing them there were still problems that weren't fixed until also replacing the RAM. If it's CPU or Mobo, that's when I usually rebuild, unless the rest of the computer is on par with other components at the time of the issue, then I'll go out of my way to replace it specifically.

Tough break with the double PSU's being shit. That's not too common, especially with a fairly reliable brand like Corsair.

As for your DVD, it's no big deal, that's what they make those little pinholes for. Just shove a sewing needle in there and pop that shit out. I had one night I was trying to find a game and I swore up and down that my wife was the last one to use it and looked all over the place for that fucker. She said I was the last one to use it. So finally I grab her desktop PC which she hadn't used in some time and stuck a pin in the DVD drive, sure enough there it was. LOL