My Friend's Computer Problem

[cragfin]

My friend's computer has stopped working for some reason when he powers it on nothing on the screen will come on, the motherboard seems to come on, the greenlight on it comes on, the fans (CPU Fan/Case Fans) start spinning one of the disk drives will open (which is a sata, the 2 IDEs do not come on), mouse will come on but not keyboard.

Can anyone tell me what is wrong?

He recently added the sata dvd burner & a PCI Sata card (computer is about 2 1/2 yrs old), it also makes an high pitched whirling sound?

 

[robisbell]

will need exact make, model of everything making up the pc.

 

[Chosonman]

Originally posted by: robisbell
will need exact make, model of everything making up the pc.

For what? He probably fried something or at the least he's got a lose wire somewhere.

 

[cragfin]

Originally posted by: Chosonman

Originally posted by: robisbell
will need exact make, model of everything making up the pc.

For what? He probably fried something or at the least he's got a lose wire somewhere.

ASUS P5WD2
P4 3.8 GHz Processor
7800 GTX
1 GB Of RAM
Two 150GB HDs
2 DVD+/-R Burners
1 CD Burner
1 PCI Sata Card
A No Named Cheap power supply that came with the case

Yes I know his hardware is pretty old.

Also because of his house heat & the P4 generating alot of heat he keeps the side case (he has done this for most of his time with the PC) opened.

I also like to note serveral things that I have noticed:

The PC worked for 3 weeks after he had installed the new DVD Burner & PCI Sata Card.

He recently hooked up his Air Conditioner that seems to make the lights in his room flick off for a second everytime it comes on (not sure if this has any bearing on his problem).

 

[Chosonman]

3.8 ghz and cheapo PSU doesn't sound like a good combo. CPU fried?

 

[robisbell]

a AC unit will kill a PC, been many writeups about it over the years. I'd see what parts are salvageable and tell your friend they need to move the AC to another electrical circuit out of the room, and look at getting a new pc.

 

[bruceb]

I agree that the AC unit should be on an outlet
that is not serving the computer. Ideally, it should
be on a totally seperate circuit especially if it pulls
over 10AMPS .. And the computer needs a good
UPS such as from APC which wil smooth out some
or all of the power spikes created when the ac kicks in.

 

[cragfin]

Okay I talked with him & his new build would look like this:

Rosewill RP550-2 550W ATX12V v2.01 Power Supply (also is this power supply good enough for this build).

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache 45 nm LGA 775 Processors

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Motherboards

XFX PVT88PYSF4 GeForece 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP

He is hoping to use his old case & drives if possible.

He only has $600 to spend, he also asked me to asked if it is likely that his current Hard Drives are okay?

Also what type of UPS should he get for this build?

Also if you see anything wrong with the parts he has selected please let me know?

 

[bruceb]

APC makes very good ones and they are very reasonable
in terms of price.

 

[cragfin]

Originally posted by: bruceb
APC makes very good ones and they are very reasonable
in terms of price.

Okay but does he need to get one that has a 550watts rating or can he get one with a lower rating.

Because the only one that newegg has that is close to 550watts in APC brand is a 540watts that cost $139.99 that is without shipping.

 

[bruceb]

Personally I would go with the next size up.
Like this one here:

http://apc.com/resource/includ...5,2&fnl_basket=4605,3c

 

[cragfin]

Talked with him & the combine price with a new computer would be too much, so he has decided to go with no A/C until he can afford a decent UPS (which knowing him will be never, he is like Roman in GTA4).

He never had a problem with the computers power until he plugged in the A/C, 2 days later while watching a show his computer dies suddenly.

Also will that power supply he picked will that be good enough for his new system?

Thank you for your help.

 

[Blunc]

the 550w power supply is borderline okay for the amount of hardware you listed, if he wants to use this computer for more than six months he should consider 600w or better.