computer build help

[Build it Myself]

right, so anyway, my parents have a crap old p4 3.0ghz and a mobo so old it only runs like ddr 5400 (or the ram in that range), so i was putting in my extra 2180 duo and a g31t-m mobo i picked up cheap just to improve their computer. nothing fancy here, 1gig ram, a gforce 7200gs, just basic stuff. Anyway, i put it all in turn the computer on and it goes through the initial bios but when it gets to the windows screen (right after bios when it has the bar on the bottom showing it loading) the screen would be really really dim and i'd get a blue screen for less than a second and then it'd loop back to bios and start over again.

anyway, I tried taking out the gpu thinking maybe it had too much load for the little 350 antec psu they have (it's got to be at least 5 years old btw) and still no dice, same thing happened, bios, windows loading, bsod, then back again. Now I had thought perhaps I had a wire crossed somewhere, but I couldn't see anything abnormal and the bios load was fine, then I heard a pop, and the PSU blew smoke out the fan...now nothing obviously.

Is it just the PSU being old and underpowered or do I have a different problem here (like a short to ground or something of that nature) Obviously I need a new PSU now but I don't want to go blowing out the replacement over something stupid either. The other computer I was building beside it came out 100% so it's not a static thing or a short like that or i'd be noticable on the other computer IMHO.

Any help is appreciated, and thanks guys.

John

 

[robisbell]

umm, that's not a old system, it's still capable of playing C&C3 and probably MOH: Airborne and other recent games. sounds like you did not do any research before putting parts in and probably damaged the motherboard and new parts. good job just assuming a system is crap and putting stuff in it without researching now they've porbably lost all their data, and their computer, good job kid.

 

[Build it Myself]

I'm sorry but what makes you think I fried or lost any of their data? the pop was from the PSU, I have build 3 computers before doing these two side to side, the one came out fine as expected replacing the cpu ram and cpufan and this one as described had a pop from the psu and smoked a second before I killed the power. Why would you say I didn't research the parts? Nothing was uncompatible...new 2180, new g31t-m mobo, old psu, new 667 ram, new cpu fan, new case fan, so the only two things left are the HD which is fine and the PSU which is a 5 yr. old antec. So what did I do that isn't up to your standards? I asked for help robisbell, I've spoken with you before about stuff like this and I'm no noobie kid that doesn't know what he's doing, i'm not as experienced as you and some others but i'm not an idiot.

Oh, and if you want to know, the reason I'm "assuming this system is crap" is because they told me it ran like crap and wanted to upgrade. The jerk that build this for them has been trying to push a $2000 computer on them ever since they mentioned it wasn't running right, and they didn't want to spend that.

Could anyone else come back with some informative responses that might better aid me in pinpointing my mistake so I DON'T DO IT AGAIN and perhaps I can learn what might have happened.

Thanks,

John

 

[Old Hippie]

We'll probably never know for sure, but my vote's with it's just an old PS, probably heat stressed on the inside and it just didn't take well to moving around.

I've never had one of those Antec units, but some seem to have had a run with bad caps.

Hopefully it didn't take anything else with it.

Good Luck!

 

[AsusGuy]

Well if you buy a new PSU try bench testing it before putting the parts back into a case. This way you will know nothing is shorting out. Hopefully the old PSU didn't damage the motherboard when it failed.

 

[Build it Myself]

Originally posted by: AsusGuy
Well if you buy a new PSU try bench testing it before putting the parts back into a case. This way you will know nothing is shorting out. Hopefully the old PSU didn't damage the motherboard when it failed.

could you reiterate on what you mean about bench testing? I know of the johnny guru way to test if a psu is good or not, but I don't think that's what you're referring to. You mean testing the parts one by one? I guess i'm just not getting you here, if you could explain i'd appreciate it, i'll be ordering a new psu soonish, i have another desktop set up for them in the meantime.

Thanks,

John

 

[Build it Myself]

The HD is fine, I just swapped it into another tower for now so they could use it. I didn't know losing a psu could do something like that.

I'm curious, why did the screen when it went to the microsoft logo screen (black w/loading bar on bottom) why did the text get really dim before going blue screen? it reset to fast for me to see what the bsod said so i'm just curious if anyone knows why that would happen...is the psu trying to power up the HD to load the os, and it was just too much load? That's all I can figure out but i'd rather have someone more knowlegeable give an opinion.

thanks,

John

 

[Old Hippie]

Dying PSs can cause all kinda weird things to happen.

In other words, I have no frigging idea! :laugh:

 

[KGB]

Originally posted by: Build it Myself
The HD is fine, I just swapped it into another tower for now so they could use it. I didn't know losing a psu could do something like that.

I'm curious, why did the screen when it went to the microsoft logo screen (black w/loading bar on bottom) why did the text get really dim before going blue screen? it reset to fast for me to see what the bsod said so i'm just curious if anyone knows why that would happen...is the psu trying to power up the HD to load the os, and it was just too much load? That's all I can figure out but i'd rather have someone more knowlegeable give an opinion.

thanks,

John

Is this with a clean install of Windows or are you trying to boot into the install from the P4?

 

[Build it Myself]

Originally posted by: KGBMAN

Originally posted by: Build it Myself
The HD is fine, I just swapped it into another tower for now so they could use it. I didn't know losing a psu could do something like that.

I'm curious, why did the screen when it went to the microsoft logo screen (black w/loading bar on bottom) why did the text get really dim before going blue screen? it reset to fast for me to see what the bsod said so i'm just curious if anyone knows why that would happen...is the psu trying to power up the HD to load the os, and it was just too much load? That's all I can figure out but i'd rather have someone more knowlegeable give an opinion.

thanks,

John

Is this with a clean install of Windows or are you trying to boot into the install from the P4?

same as the p4, just swapped the chip and mobo, didn't try and reinstall windows...I didn't think that would even have been a factor...

 

[Lemodular]

you can't use the same drive to boot to a new and different hardware setup. Part of what gets loaded durring bootup is the chipset drivers, video and other onboard devices. It is possible that the wrong driver(s) were being loaded and the conflict caused the BSOD and reboot. Sometimes not seating/connecting the parts and cables may cause improper reboot or BSOD. Either that or a bad PSU.

BTW, that old P4 3.0 still kicks ass in my system.

 

[Paladin3]

Can I have the old P4 3.0? It would be an upgrade from my P4 2.66.

Seriously, though, that's not a very slow system unless you game. You could probably have backed up your parents data, done a clean install of Windows and sped up their system enough to keep them plenty happy for many moons. I assume they just browse the web, email, view pictures and play the occasional game of online checkers like my parents do. They probably need to know how to keep their system clean more than they need a new system.

I've found that when my friends complain to me about a slow Windows system, it's almost always OS/software/bloat/virus/malware related unless the hardware is very, very old.

Anyway, HERE is an article on how to test a power supply. Hope it helps!