No way...No one's luck is THIS bad... [Archive]

LoneWolf121188

01-14-05, 07:24 PM

So first I kill my generic 478 OEM mobo with a 33MHz FSB OC. Then I somehow killed my new A8N-SLI by connecting the power connecter to the floppy wrong (yes, the floppy killed just the mobo, nothing else). Now my brand new Asus P4GE-MX just died. I was using the PSU from my Aspire X-Navigator case (the one I was using when my A8N-SLI died), and everything was working fine. I was in windows doing some damage assesment from the A8N-SLI crash (I was watching some movies in Windows Media Player to check for courruption) and it just froze. I killed the power, then turned it back on. the fans start spinning but nothing shows up on the screen. The status light on the monitor cycles between orange and green. I turned it off, unplugged, and tried a different PSU. same deal. the monitor thing with the status light is the same thing that happened with my other 2 mobos. I had the temp alarm set to 70C, and I didn't get an alarm (I did once before, so I know it's working). No vocal POST codes, no beeps.

WTF?!?! no one kills 3 mobos in a row, no one. Am I missing something basic about computer building here?

I.M.O.G.

01-14-05, 07:28 PM

Sounds as though the PSU is out to get you... But that would just be my first guess.

Sentential

01-14-05, 07:56 PM

X1ggy

01-14-05, 10:01 PM

You don't wear socks and constantly shuffle your feet on carpet while you're working on your PC, do you?

X1g

LoneWolf121188

01-15-05, 10:01 AM

I do have a static strap, but the aligator connecter thing has a hard time staying on the case...I do have carpet in the area that I'm working in, but I keep myself grounded to the case as much as I can.

What would cause windows (xp, btw) to just freeze up like that? would the PSU really do that? I checked the voltage on the proc during that same session of windows w/ cpu-z and it was hovering just under 1.7, i belive. Could the PSU, which is 500w, 34a @ 12v, just be delivering too much power to the mobo? could something have been messed up in the PSU when the 12v line on the PSU touched the ground pin on the floppy? I used this PSU with my A8N-SLI shortly before I fried it (that still doesn't make sence to me; everything was OK but the mobo), and I ran memtest for 24 hours, over 80 cycles, and everything was working great.

I.M.O.G.

01-15-05, 11:07 AM

Windows will definetly freeze if some hardware isn't getting good power. When you looked at the voltage, it might have been fine, but that could mean that it just wasn't flaking out at that moment.

That said, static damage is just as likely. Especially if its cold (wintery) where you are.

Super Nade

01-15-05, 11:34 AM

Your PSU should be plugged in when you ground yourself.
Don't turn it on though!

How did you determine that the A8N died? And how did you narrow it down to the reverse connection on the FDD? Power pins fit only one way so its a nobrainer. There is no way one could reverse the connections without breaking/bending a few pins.
(I'm gonna test this out on the Pentium Pro 133MHz waiting to be junked at school).

You could post some pics and maybe somebody would find someting else amiss.

Good Luck!

Sir Golitech

01-15-05, 12:30 PM

Power pins fit only one way so its a nobrainer. There is no way one could reverse the connections without breaking/bending a few pins.

Not true, I put my floppy power connector in the wrong way and didn't break/bend any pins. Thank goodness I didn't fry my mobo either.

kayson

01-15-05, 03:03 PM

You can put the power connector in upside down. I just tried it on an old ****ty floppy drive that I trashed.

I.M.O.G.

01-15-05, 03:29 PM

With the full sized four pin molex's its hard or impossible to do it backwards, though I still have seen people say they have done it. The floppy connector and mobo headers are a different story - those can easily be connected backwards, though connecting them the right way is easier and you don't have to force anything. The only time I know of when you have to force something inside a computer, is when you are attaching a heatsink to the socket lugs... Any other time, if you have to force it you are doing something wrong.

subtotal

01-15-05, 06:30 PM

you CAN connect the floppy connector backwards quite easily if you are using an older cable

LoneWolf121188

01-15-05, 06:53 PM

How did you determine that the A8N died? And how did you narrow it down to the reverse connection on the FDD? Power pins fit only one way so its a nobrainer. There is no way one could reverse the connections without breaking/bending a few pins.
(I'm gonna test this out on the Pentium Pro 133MHz waiting to be junked at school).

I tried a bunch of different hardware (including PSUs) that I knew worked, and it would never boot (though I didn't try a CPU, as I dont have a spare 939...I'm just hoping that alright...The board could still be RMAd, so I did, but the CPU couldn't). And its very easy actually on the floppys to mess up the power connector. Its the mini 4 pin connecter that has no outer caseing like the ATX ones do.

Super Nade

01-15-05, 07:15 PM

Doesn't the MoBo have an OVP tailored to protect it from such mishaps?
As MOG said, if you are using excessive force there is something amiss.

Good Luck with your new rig!

Elwood1984

01-15-05, 09:51 PM

#1 Buy a static guard
#2 Buy sledge hammer
#3 Buy new PSU
#4 Beat PSU repeadly and burn the ashes.

Im gonna agree with IMOG, sounds like a PSU issue to me. Either this or static. Or sadly user error :-/

OH MAN THAT IS AWESOME me gets up off the ground...

seriously man, invest in a really good psu, you will never look back... im kinda partial to the enermax noisetakers, but to each his own. unfortunately with psu's you get what you pay for...

LoneWolf121188

01-16-05, 09:01 AM

seriously man, invest in a really good psu, you will never look back... im kinda partial to the enermax noisetakers, but to each his own. unfortunately with psu's you get what you pay for...

Hey, the case was $160, its gotta come with a good PSU for that.

@Super Nade: I wish it did....actually, I'm not sure. Does anyone know the answer to that?

I.M.O.G.

01-17-05, 08:01 AM

Hey, the case was $160, its gotta come with a good PSU for that.

Bad assumption - possible, but there is no guarantee like this. What PSU is this? There should be a sticker with the brand and model number. To me, the PSU looks more glitz than power.

LoneWolf121188

01-17-05, 09:34 AM

I belive its this (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-148-001&depa=0) one here...I sent the case back for RMA, but I think this is the same one.

I.M.O.G.

01-17-05, 10:20 AM

I wonder what was wrong? :rolleyes:

You were powering your PC with something that looks like it belongs in barbies playhouse!

Keiron

01-17-05, 10:27 AM

I had a PSU do that once. Took out some generic Gigabit board, my first NF7, a DVD-ROM, and an 80 GB HD before I realized it wasn't the parts from Newegg that were the problem....
I took a oxygen torch to it.

PSP

01-17-05, 11:33 AM

I don't know how worst your luck is, but this happened to me just in the past week. Lend my car to my girlfriend on Wednesday, and she hit a truck, so my car is gone. Borrow my sister brand new toyota corolla last night, and it slid on ice, so the tires and rims are mess up. And this morning, while walking to work, a large piece of ice came down from a 30 story high building and almost hit my head. Luckily I saw it and dodge, but that ice did some serious damages. Breaking cars windshield and all. Now I don't know how worst thing can get, and my 21st birthday is next week.

Total damage, $8000, and almost my life, in one week.

MRip

01-17-05, 02:27 PM

I'll agree with pretty much everyone else and say get a new PSU.

LoneWolf121188

01-17-05, 09:54 PM

I wonder what was wrong? :rolleyes:

You were powering your PC with something that looks like it belongs in barbies playhouse!

hey now, whats wrong with the acrylic/blue LED setup? it goes very nicely with my case, thank you very much :D (as well it should, as it was stock ;) ).

I RMAd the case (and the PSU with it) and the SLI board (arrived back at ZZF today). Should I really spend some cash on a new PSU or just keep the RMAd one? I'm a little over my $2k budget for my computer already (thats right, SLI for $2k! beat that, alienware!), so I'll only buy a new PSU if I REALLY need too...another PSU that can power an SLI system will be expencive (this one IS 34A @ 12V, after all)...

MRip, very nice sig. "A64". 'nuff said :D

I.M.O.G.

01-18-05, 07:56 AM

But is that PSU really 34A @ 12V? Looking at its innards in the newegg pics, I can't really say this is an educated statement, but the parts inside this PSU do not look to impress me... I have seen PSU's which appear much beefier, while this one looks skimpy to me.

Bottom line is, when you are using SLI, you don't want a shoddy PSU in the mix... I would definetly invest in something else, unless I could find a respectable review on that bling... er, PSU.

deathman20

01-18-05, 11:46 AM

Get a new PSU, just like everyone else said. Your hopfully in luck that it didn't fry the graphics cards yet, that would truly suck if those went.

Bad PSU = Either no preformance, or dead components, or even fires

Stoanhart

01-18-05, 06:33 PM

Does anyone here really have trouble with static? I build all my PC's and other people's PC's in my room, which is carpet floor. I wear socks. Before I do anything, I though the screw by a light switch and that's that. If the PSU is plugged in, I touch the case once, but I never get a spark. I'm in my computer(s) on a daily basis, and I've never had a problem with static. Ever!

deathman20

01-19-05, 07:52 AM

I've never had static issues before either. Then again I don't handle anything coming straight from outside to the first thing I touch when I get in the door. If statics an issue, get a humidifier.

LoneWolf121188

01-19-05, 08:58 AM

review here (http://www.atruereview.com/aspirepsu/index.php)

I did a quick google on the model number, the reviews all basically said good but not the best.

I.M.O.G.

01-19-05, 09:13 AM

That system does not have the demands your system would though, and you would likely see much greater fluctuation.

LoneWolf121188

01-19-05, 10:59 PM

True enough...I'll run it when the case and mobo get back with the stock PSU and maybe buy a new one down the road...I have a multimeter so I'll do some of my own testing. It might be interesting to see the benchmarks of my system running the stock PSU vs a new one.

I'm not planning to do much SERIOUS OCing, but OCing is definetly on the list, so...

svnrd

01-20-05, 12:47 AM

i run the 520W version of that psu. it's ok. my cpu is power hungry so it's not as stable as it could be. every now and then when i boot up, it'll freeze in the middle of the boot or my keyboard and mouse won't work. to make a long story short, your psu is not going to be able to power your 3500+ and the rest of your componets well. get something better.

I.M.O.G.

01-20-05, 07:48 AM

Taking a multimeter to it is a good idea, it'll let you know whats really going on.

BC|Wulf

01-20-05, 11:07 AM

Be careful with static. Even though it is rare with all the grounding they require in houses, it can be a electronics killer. And you can still kill things with static even though you do not get a spark. Trust me I have killed at least 2 final projects in college from static that I never knew I had. If you want to help eleminate static as a potential killer, get a humidifier for your computer area. I have a whole house humidifier hooked to my furnace and a small one sitting in my "computer room."

In all honesty you may not even need to touch something for it to die by static. if it is dry enough I might kill itself....I could be wrong on this point though!

Back to topic....buy a decent PSU. The inside of that one looks like my crappy 200W one I have sitting on a shelf somewhere.

Sneaky

01-20-05, 11:24 AM

Stoanhart

01-20-05, 02:52 PM

if it is dry enough I might kill itself

Component suicide! :p

I don't think that can happen, static can't really build up, it just exits through the PSU. Maybe if it's unplugged, but still doubt it.

LoneWolf121188

01-20-05, 10:02 PM

if you're gonna go off and get a new PSU anytime soon, get the PC Power & Cooling 510 SLI PSU - the PC P&C rails will NOT fluctuate - they have a tolerance of +/- 1% of voltages

and it already has dual 6 pins on the lines for the cards so you're not sucking power from the other molexes

PC P&C is reguarded as one of the best in the industry - and the SLI is about $240 retail - may be expensive, but it'll last FOREVER - its a TANK

you know, I belive in the whole "you get what you pay for - usually" philosophy, but $240 is a little much when I just dropped my whole $2k budget on a new comp, even for another component that has "SLI" in its name :D ...really, other than stability, whats so much better with that one than the one I have. dedicated gfx cables are nice, but not neccisary...its got 10 more watts, but the 12v rails on that one and mine are both 34A, which is more important than an extra 10 watts. Correct me if I'm wrong, but stability isn't that much of an issue unless you're seriously OCing, which I don't plan to do much of (just a little push here and there, nothing crazy).

Oh, and whats with humidity? More humidity means more H20 in the air, and H20 is BAD for electronics, right? shouldnt that mean that 90% humidity air conducts electricity better than 0% humidity air?

I live in Colorado, BTW, and its cold and DRY here, but we do have a humidifier, though its upstairs. Like I said, I have a static strap and use it as much as I can.