strange crashes->burnt pins->HDD failure?

[CrimsonKnight]

My computer started to crash whenever I started a game, so I thought the video card (or PSU) was at fault. Upon inspection, the external power connector (floppy style) to my 9800 Pro was clearly burnt on one of the four pins (the red wire, which is +V i think). So I switched around some power connections in my case and connected a previously unused power connector to the video card and everything seemed to work fine..until yesterday. I started to get the same crashes again. When I opened my case the new connector now has an ever so slight hue of brown where the red wire connects to the pin (nothing like the other connector, which was almost black). So i started to mess with the video card, reseated it, made sure nothing on the PCB was burnt, etc. but everytime i tried to run a game, same thing, crash. Now it gets bad...apparently my system drive (80GB WD) didn't like one of these crashes and now I get an "invalid system disk" error on boot, and half the time it doesn't even recognize the drive on POST. I tried to load the WD tools CD, but it hangs after loading the IDE drivers for some reason. I will try to get the floppy version of the Western Digital tools, but none of the FOUR laptops in my house have a floppy drive....any thoughts?

UPDATE: pic of burnt pin: HERE

 

[AdamSnow]

Replace that power supply.

Have there been any surges or anything lately? That would cause the power supply to do things like that...

- If you can not get the CD version of the tools to work, you could always go and buy a USB Floppy Drive and use that... then you will always have one if you need one in the future...

 

[natto fire]

I'm going to say power supply as well. I had a True 330 that had a similar problem with the hard drive. The voltages were within spec, but it was having trouble delivering current. That sounds like the problem you are having. One way to check this is to reduce your current draw to critical components only (boot HD, reduce your OC or underclock CPU, unplug fans, etc) and see if you still have the same problem. If you have an inductive ammeter, that is a good wasy to check too. You can probably find a data sheet on how much current that 9800 is supposed to draw from the connector.

Good luck.

 

[CrimsonKnight]

before my hdd crash, I did disconnect everything except the boot drive, ram, cpu, hsf, vid card, and I still had the same crash. I'm going to try to repair the OS installation and let you know how it goes.

Maybe i'll pick up this PC P&C Turbo Cool 510 SLI

I've been looking to upgrade to PCI-E, i'm thinking that PSU would be suitable for at least a few years

 

[Jeff7]

Interesting, I bought a 9800 Pro once, in late 2004 actually, and it arrived with a burnt pin. Pic.

Interestingly enough, it still works just fine.

 

[CrimsonKnight]

my 9800 pro has a floppy style connection..not the molex type...

here's a picture of the burnt pin..sorry for the blur..my cameras not good at close ups but you can see its bad

burnt pin

 

[CrimsonKnight]

ok installed XP pro on a different drive (i want to try and get my data back) and booted fine, when trying to install my nforce drivers, i get a crash and auto restart again, now it's not just when games load, so i'm buying the PC P&C PSU i mentioned in an earlier post, i'll make another update when it comes in

 

[bluestrobe]

The burnt pin isn't anything other than lack of physical contact between the two mating parts (i.e. male and female pin). I would check the plugs on both mating parts and see if the female plug is too spread out to give <50% contact and make sure the male plug isn't smashed down where it would be the same way. The item that this was hooked to might have been damaged by the voltage variance that the arcing could have caused. This isn't a power supply issue though.

edit: A short in the part or the wire would have made a noticable change in the wiring like it had melted a bit. It would have been obvious with the amount of char that the plug has.

 

[CrispyFried]

i agree with bluestrobe, with only one overheated pin its usually a bad connection, heat from the resistance of the connection causes the burning. try what bluestrobe said and try cleaning any crud from the pin/socket.

 

[CrimsonKnight]

yeah i've narrowed down the problem to a loose connection on the video card power connector, if i jiggle it ever so slightly while the computer is running (NOT recommended), I can hear all the fans skip a beat and i get a BSOD. So, idk whether the pin has a loose connection to the vid card PC Board or what, because the connection between the plug and connector is not loose....idk

 

[CrispyFried]

the plug on the vid card it loose? how do the solder pads look? if youre handy with a soldering iron you might try resoldering the plug.

I assume its out of warrenty?

 

[CrimsonKnight]

the solder joints look fine...but that doesn't really mean they can't be loose. But for the plug to have a burn mark where it is, it would seem that the loose connection is within the plug itself. If the solder were loose it would appear burnt at that juncture instead, correct? But since this happened with TWO different power connectors, I don't know how it could be loose inside the plug, unless the pin on the video card has some non conductive residue on it...maybe i'll clean the pin and see how that goes.