Computer Help

[Saza]

Alright, so I recently installed some new RAM and a Radeon 9200SE into a friends computer, and it worked fine for a day. But then, low and behold in the true "insert a new component" style, it fucked up the next day.

The Problem
Whenever my mate turns his computer on, it either takes him to the Black screen before Windows loads telling him there is a problem with his hardware, and he should start Windows in safe mode, or as soon as Windows had loaded and he expects to see the Logon screen the monitor switches onto power saving mode and the computer shuts down.

Starting in safe mode produces an error message, telling him that his Sapphire Radeon 9200SE is not working correctly. Alright, so I reinstall the drivers. Nadda.

I've wormed my way around the BIOS, trying to find something that might point in the right direction, but to no avail. Currently I'm looking at a new power supply, as I reckon that it might be too low. But that's a long shot and I'm fast running out of ideas. Hell, I even did a system restore and it produced nothing except a waste of time.

So any of you have any ideas what might sort it out? I'd really appreciate any help.

Thanks in advance.

Teh Saza.

[THE_TICK!!!!]

start it with video card taken out..im betting you have onboard video ?

[Saza]

The computer I placed the card in is a HP Pavilion a609.uk, with onboard Intel Extreme Graphics.

[Spermy]

I'm gonna go on a hunch and say power supply... But whatever you do, DON'T QUOTE ME ON THAT!

[mishkin]

If it worked for a day, then I'd say do a total reformat... might have some fucked up system-files / drivers (and tbh, the system restore does fuck all since it only backups certain files, and not the whole system...)

Try with the graphics card out, using onboard graphics first though, saves you the hassle of a reinstall :)

[Bugs Gunny]

In the bios disable the onboard videocard, after you downloaded and installed the latest drivers for you new card.

[[TgR]KILLER]

what watts does the current PSU gives then ?

and leaving the comp totaly off the power might help for a bit just unplug it from the wall.. my mate had the same when he brought his comp to *cough*leach*cough* doom 3 off my comp. and we wanted to play a bit of doom 3 together but his comp couldn't take it and totaly hang. had a radeon 9600 or so in it. anyway it kept rebooting to.. just unplugging it from the wall and leave it for a second fixed it.

[Saza]

230W is the current PSU, but after checking out HP's site I reckon I may have to unplug a jumper in order to get it to work. The BIOS settings only gives me one video option, and that is to switch between PCI and AGP/Onboard. I've set it to both, and get the same result.

[mishkin]

230W is the current PSU, but after checking out HP's site I reckon I may have to unplug a jumper in order to get it to work. The BIOS settings only gives me one video option, and that is to switch between PCI and AGP/Onboard. I've set it to both, and get the same result.

Hmm, ya, that psu isn't really oversized, but neither is the 9200... As always, brand computers are a bitch to upgrade o_O

[___T-X____]

If it worked for a day, then I'd say do a total reformat...

Aye do a reinstall cos your graffics card aint working...dont listen to the fucking n00bs on this forum Saza, go to a techy forum.

My advice is to take your graffics card around to his house and try it in his machine see if that works, and take his to yours to see if it works on your machine.

If it doesnt, try his original card, unless he was just using onboard.

If its still not working, reset Bios to orignial settings, then try the above again.

Still not working, find which motherboard it is and do a manual reset on the board by using the jumper settings.

Still not working, come back to discuss. However if its been working for a day theres nothing wrong with the PSU, however your graffics card may not work for testing purposes if its much higher spec.

If youve got the computer open on the floor move the Ram to a different slot incase its become lose and you havent noticed - make sure you earth yourself before everytime you go to touch any hardware m8. If its POSTing then I doubt its this but moving RAM around has fixed more of my problems than anything else.

Lesson #1 - never under any circumstances touch a mates computer its more hastle than its worth.

Its all bullshit troubleshooting to identify the problem, as soon as you do one thing different you repeat everything over again. If you try to rush diagnosing the problem by changing 4 bios settings etc, youll more than likely miss the problem and get more frustrated with it.


Edit :/ My money is on the RAM being uncompatible, take a stick of yours round if the pc can use it.

[Bugs Gunny]

Yeah that never touch a mate's computer is good advice.

I stoppped helping out people, as it was taking up a lot of my free time.
Besides, if you install a whole computer for an average user he'll come back in a month or so with a computer full of viruses, spyware etc... because he somehow turned off the shit etc.....

[___T-X____]

Yeah that never touch a mate's computer is good advice.

I stoppped helping out people, as it was taking up a lot of my free time.
Besides, if you install a whole computer for an average user he'll come back in a month or so with a computer full of viruses, spyware etc... because he somehow turned off the shit etc.....

Thats the lesson I learnt, and the one youre learning Saza

[___T-X____]

If it worked for a day, then I'd say do a total reformat...

Everytime I read that I laugh

[mishkin]

Everytime I read that I laugh

I bet you have a very simple kind of humor, yeah... should've bothered to at least take a glimpse at the rest of the post, but I guess you have some sort of seeing-disorder that makes you only see separate lines...

[Spermy]

Yes - mr TX - and yours is pretty laughable too.

Pulled straight from a textbook :lol:

I'm still gunning for PSU - I did this to my comp once - PSU worked under too much strain for two days after my new card and then went mental.

[___T-X____]

Pulled straight from a textbook :lol:



Thanks for the compliment :D