First I would like to say Hello everyone, This forum is amazing and has a vast wealth of knowledge. So basically I'm at my point of where my tech skills are just not enough to figure out whats wrong. I am a complete "Noobie" to Hardware diagnostics and it seems like short of having an Identical PC to swap parts your almost screwed heh.
I apologize if I don't follow the proper posting format, I found a guide while at work to follow but can't seem to find it now,(maybe its just me or maybe its hard might want to put that as sticky #1).
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Ok all of my PC specs should be in my Sig. Unfortunatly I am unable to provide benchmarks, screenshots or, the BIOS settings b/c I am no longer able to get to the BIOS screen.
Before the system completely crashed, I had set the Ram to 2.1v (instead of the default 1.8v) and I bumped up a few others from other posts I've red on this site. The mode was set to STANDARD (instead of TURBO) and the timings at 5-5-5-15.
(How it started)
(Ok so AMAZING friend decided to give me this PC b/c it was causing him "problems" He had to replace 2 HD's and CD/DVD drive. But I currently have a P4 OCed oldie but goodie that can't run games anymore. So this was like a godsend. Well I threw in another 250 SATA drive and installed Windows 64bit and just when I started playing games thats when $h!t hit the fan. Started gettings all kinds of BSOD's and my gut sank and just KNEW it had to be hardware. I assumed the HD so tried to do CHKDSK's and they failed to finish 90% of the time, so I decided to test the ram (since the BSOD's had alot of PAGE_FAULTS and IRQL errors) and when I took out all but 1 stick in slot 1 the PC failed to BOOT : YAY ERROR FOUND -> WRONG! : so ran Memtest86+ it worked fine PER SINGLE ram stick in slot #1 NO ERRORS and like 6-12 passes, EVEN on the supposable "bad stick" so I put all 8GBs all 4 slots back in and ran Memtest86+ on the whole thing and Randomly it would show errors. WTF???? So I decided to do some research on Memtest and found that this could be caused b/c I was using an older version of Memtest or b/c of Voltage errors, So Then I was like OK its the PSU or Voltage, so I came to these forums and tried to fix up my BIOS voltage. And a few boots later BAM NO MORE BOOTING AND NO POST nothing but black screen and reboot cycle so I went searching for a System Speaker)
The Problem: The system no longer gets to POST, just Black Screen and Reboot cycle. (Fortunatly I found a spare System Speaker) and the system with ONLY PSU+CPU+MOBO makes continuous long beeps (manual says gfx card failure WTF???) ok So I put 1 Ram Stick in slot #1 (or any other) now it does the same thing except it has continuous SHORT beeps. Manual says "Power Failure" ???? what does this mean? Failed PSU? Failed Mobo? Under voltage?? (is it always this Vague?)
I have tried to Reset the CMOS, I've tried to short the Jumpers and Remove the battery even tried to short the Battery like the Manual said.
All of the Fans and spin up and LEDS etc etc, but all I get is continuous beeps and reboots. One thing thats strange to me is it seems the CPU takes a few seconds to spin up its fan, is that normal?
So basically my next step is to either take it to a repair shop or to start buying Replacement parts (and RMA the failed stuff). But this is tough for me b/c of budget reasons.
Please help! Being completely new to Hardware problems sucks, and I don't have spare parts to swap out to test =(. What should I do?
Also what should the minimum PSU be for this type of rig? How do you calculate minimum PSU needed?
What are the symptoms of a bad PSU, CPU, and Mobo? I see this as my oppertunity to learn more about Hardware and maybe even OCing. The most I've done before is just up CPU/Ram timings.
THANK YOU!!!
I apologize if I don't follow the proper posting format, I found a guide while at work to follow but can't seem to find it now,(maybe its just me or maybe its hard might want to put that as sticky #1).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok all of my PC specs should be in my Sig. Unfortunatly I am unable to provide benchmarks, screenshots or, the BIOS settings b/c I am no longer able to get to the BIOS screen.
Before the system completely crashed, I had set the Ram to 2.1v (instead of the default 1.8v) and I bumped up a few others from other posts I've red on this site. The mode was set to STANDARD (instead of TURBO) and the timings at 5-5-5-15.
(How it started)
(Ok so AMAZING friend decided to give me this PC b/c it was causing him "problems" He had to replace 2 HD's and CD/DVD drive. But I currently have a P4 OCed oldie but goodie that can't run games anymore. So this was like a godsend. Well I threw in another 250 SATA drive and installed Windows 64bit and just when I started playing games thats when $h!t hit the fan. Started gettings all kinds of BSOD's and my gut sank and just KNEW it had to be hardware. I assumed the HD so tried to do CHKDSK's and they failed to finish 90% of the time, so I decided to test the ram (since the BSOD's had alot of PAGE_FAULTS and IRQL errors) and when I took out all but 1 stick in slot 1 the PC failed to BOOT : YAY ERROR FOUND -> WRONG! : so ran Memtest86+ it worked fine PER SINGLE ram stick in slot #1 NO ERRORS and like 6-12 passes, EVEN on the supposable "bad stick" so I put all 8GBs all 4 slots back in and ran Memtest86+ on the whole thing and Randomly it would show errors. WTF???? So I decided to do some research on Memtest and found that this could be caused b/c I was using an older version of Memtest or b/c of Voltage errors, So Then I was like OK its the PSU or Voltage, so I came to these forums and tried to fix up my BIOS voltage. And a few boots later BAM NO MORE BOOTING AND NO POST nothing but black screen and reboot cycle so I went searching for a System Speaker)
The Problem: The system no longer gets to POST, just Black Screen and Reboot cycle. (Fortunatly I found a spare System Speaker) and the system with ONLY PSU+CPU+MOBO makes continuous long beeps (manual says gfx card failure WTF???) ok So I put 1 Ram Stick in slot #1 (or any other) now it does the same thing except it has continuous SHORT beeps. Manual says "Power Failure" ???? what does this mean? Failed PSU? Failed Mobo? Under voltage?? (is it always this Vague?)
I have tried to Reset the CMOS, I've tried to short the Jumpers and Remove the battery even tried to short the Battery like the Manual said.
All of the Fans and spin up and LEDS etc etc, but all I get is continuous beeps and reboots. One thing thats strange to me is it seems the CPU takes a few seconds to spin up its fan, is that normal?
So basically my next step is to either take it to a repair shop or to start buying Replacement parts (and RMA the failed stuff). But this is tough for me b/c of budget reasons.
Please help! Being completely new to Hardware problems sucks, and I don't have spare parts to swap out to test =(. What should I do?
Also what should the minimum PSU be for this type of rig? How do you calculate minimum PSU needed?
What are the symptoms of a bad PSU, CPU, and Mobo? I see this as my oppertunity to learn more about Hardware and maybe even OCing. The most I've done before is just up CPU/Ram timings.
THANK YOU!!!
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