OT: computer help

Aug 15, 2007 9 Replies
C

Evening all



I'm having computer problems... I'm trying to fix a PC for a mate. The problem was that it wasn't turning on at all, so I got a new 600w PSU for it (old one was 500w). Hooked it all up this evening and the PC now turns out but doesn't do much except the floppy drive makes a bit of noise every 5 secs or so. If I completely disconnect the floppy I get 8 beeps repeated continously but nothing else. A bit of Googling reveals this is a video card error. So I dug an old Matrox card out from the loft and put that in. Same thing - 8 beeps when the floppy is not connected.



Anyone got any ideas as to what it should be? I notice the new PSU is missing a white wire in the motherboard socket compared to the old one, which is -5v apparently - could that cause problems?



And before anyone asks I've no idea of the spec of the PC - it's got an AMD processor and a red motherboard and 512Mb of DDR RAM.



So any advice would be appreciated as the said mate is the guy I'm buying the T5 off, so it'd be good to keep him sweet ;)



Cheers


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D

This is a car modification group - try posting in the correct group. There are plenty of computer groups.

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E

Who did you f*ck to get made moderator?

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I

Sounds like the PSU blew and took the Mobo with it to me :-( ICBW though...

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D

Fault codes aren't universal unfortunately. Worse still is if it was a PSU problem they can take out any number of random parts, but the lack of a -5v rail is a little odd. Do you have an old PSU you can hook up (300w should be enough with just the matrox installed and the primary HD) if it fires you know the new PSU is to blame if not then the only possible components left are the MB, RAM and CPU.

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C

Unfortunately I chucked most of my old PC stuff away when we moved house to save space. How annoyed am I now!!?

However more Googling reveals that this is a known problem with this mobo (which I've discovered is a PC Chips M848 v2.1). Doesn't seem to be a definate answer, but apparently flashing the BIOS may help. I've managed to get the .ROM file onto a floppy disc I found in the loft (luckily g/f's laptop had a floppy drive hidden away in a box), but unfortunately can't get it onto the broken machine. Apparently you press Ctrl + Home when turning the computer on to force the BIOS to update. Since the only keyboard I now have is wireless that doesn't work because it hasn't turned itself on before the machine starts throwing a spastic. I chucked 2 wired keyboards out when we moved. Rubbish!! So need to grab one from work tomorrow.

As you and Dan say the PSU may have taken out other components, but I'd like to try all avenues before condemning the thing, especally after paying out for a new PSU.

Fecking computers!!

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M

That was my first impression also. Mike.

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A

Have you tried to reset the CMOS using the jumpers on the motherboard? I did a similar repair for my brother after his PSU blew. When I put the new one in nothing happened until I moved the jumpers, then powered up. You'll have to reset the clock in the BIOS and put the jumpers back after the initial power up.

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A

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