Graphics card blew up yesterday

Hmm, after doing a bit of reading it seems I haven't been putting the Arctic Silver on properly. It needs to be applied in a thin, straight line with the processor facing a certain direction, not as a small 'blob' in the centre of the processor. Uh-oh.

Edit: after talking to a few people I've found that doesn't really matter. In fact, you don't even have to use something like Arctic Silver if you don't want to. It shouldn't cause a problem.

Well, the good thing about this is it reinforces my opinion that the processor has failed, not the motherboard.

I finally got hold of my friend Chris's old motherboard and processor yesterday, they're exactly the same as mine.

It's my motherboard that's failed. The first thing I did was put my processor on his motherboard and connected everything up 'roughly' on the desk and it worked. Dammit, I was hoping it was just the processor, that would have been easier to replace. Oh, well, Chris says I can keep his old motherboard and processor as long as I like, he's not using them anymore.

Hopefully, they'll last quite a while so I can get some value out of that $479 graphics card. The entire computer is completely clean and looking like brand new, I also put new Arctic Silver between the processor and heatsink, of course.

Here's a few pictures, I've been using this laptop as my main PC for over a week:



Just about finished installing everything with Chris's motherboard here, my old motherboard is on the right:



Everything is up and running, Windows XP didn't complain about the different motherboard and processor since they're the same as my old ones:



I will upgrade eventually - after I get some use out of this graphics card.

Well, I'm off to Terry's next door to celebrate with a 'few' drinks.

your desk is to clean. You should see MY puter desk. I am now running 2 race leagues, and running the server on another 3. I have "notes" all over the place.

What do you expect from the "fastest growing online racing league in the US??"

Been busy reinstalling XP again. Seems that my old installation of XP Home wasn't completely happy with the new motherboard and processor... was getting a few blue screen errors, the last one was when I tried to run DVD Shrink yesterday.

Might have to do with the fact that my old motherboard was a Gigabyte 8IK1100 Revision 1 and Chris's is a Revision 2. The boards look exactly the same and the BIOS version and chipset drivers, etc, were the same but there must be some subtle differences that upset Windows.

The funny thing is, Ubuntu (on a 2nd hard drive) seems completely happy with the change. Go figure.

Yeah, I know I probably could have done a 'repair install' but I don't trust those to work properly. Oh, well, everything's working 100% now (so far).

Good to hear, Carl A lot of work when parts quit on a PC..
Good job getting it fixed..

Thanks, Sharon.

I also added an extra fan to draw air in at the front of the tower when I was reassembling everything, now I have one bringing air in at the front and one taking air out at the back in addition to the power supply fans.

Everything is running pretty cool so far (assuming these figures are correct, of course). The computer had been running for over an hour when I checked.



Mind you, it was only about 17 Celsius in the room when I took that screenshot (from SIW). I'm sure the readings will be a bit higher when summer arrives.

Well, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one this sort of thing happens to.

http://www.pcqanda.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=2&topic_id=489873

Well, now I'm really annoyed.

The motherboard I got from Chris last year has died in exactly the same way mine did. I had the computer running yesterday, wasn't even doing anything when *click*, it just turned itself off.

When I tried to turn it on again, the green and red lights on the tower stay on continuously (the green is supposed to, the red is the hard drive light). The fans are running but nothing else happens.

I'm getting the impression this is a common fault with certain older Gigabyte motherboards. Looks like it might finally be upgrade time.

Now, I'm confined to my 2 laptops until I can get a new main PC up and running. Thank goodness for laptops.

Boy Carl that's a shame.
Hope you get your new one up soon.

Carl D wrote:Well, now I'm really annoyed.

The motherboard I got from Chris last year has died in exactly the same way mine did. I had the computer running yesterday, wasn't even doing anything when *click*, it just turned itself off.

When I tried to turn it on again, the green and red lights on the tower stay on continuously (the green is supposed to, the red is the hard drive light). The fans are running but nothing else happens.

I'm getting the impression this is a common fault with certain older Gigabyte motherboards. Looks like it might finally be upgrade time.

Now, I'm confined to my 2 laptops until I can get a new main PC up and running. Thank goodness for laptops.

Now you really have an excuse to upgrade!

Trying to decide whether to just get a new motherboard, processor, RAM and graphics card (I can't use that expensive AGP card in any new motherboards, they're all PCI Express) or get a complete new tower with it.

Decisions, decisions...

Carl D wrote:
I'm getting the impression this is a common fault with certain older Gigabyte motherboards. Looks like it might finally be upgrade time.

I must be psychic.

http://www.pcqanda.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=2&topic_id=502454



I'm off to the computer shop today.

Playtime!



The black case on the left is the new one. The one behind it is the old one. I have to take the power supply, hard drives and DVD drive out later.

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L Motherboard (with solid capacitors made in Japan) $199.
Kingston Hyper X 800Mhz 4GB RAM. $69.
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8Ghz Processor. $184.
ASUS 9600GT PCIe 512MB Graphics Card. $168.
Antec Three Hundred Gaming Case. $119.

Grand total of $739. Including $67.18 GST (Goods & Sales Tax)

Its only a modest system, I'm not into gaming or anything really intensive. Might have to put Vista on since I have 4GB of RAM, I'm going to have to reinstall Windows anyway.


I now have a rather expensive Nvidia AGP graphics card, two 2.8Ghz P4 Socket 478 processors, 2 x 1GB and 2 x 512MB sticks of DDR-400 RAM that I can't use anymore. Sheesh, with all the other computer parts I have lying around here all I need is another motherboard and I can make up a second PC.

waiting to hear if it is up and running yet.

Looks like it will be a busy day for you today.

Nope. just doing a bit at a time. Spent most of the morning taking things out of the old tower. I'm not throwing anything out except maybe the 2 stuffed motherboards, I'm keeping the processors, RAM, etc.

I need an extra fan for the new tower to put in the front so it keeps the hard drives really cool.

Finished! Well, sort of. I still have to put the digital TV tuner card back in later.

Easier to get to those pain in the butt motherboard connectors for the front buttons and LED's with it out just in case I haven't got them right.







There's 2 fans in the front, one at the back and one on the top. That's in addition to the CPU and power supply fans of course. I like the idea of having the power supply at the bottom of the case. First one I've seen one with that. Makes it much easier to get to things on the motherboard.

Now, I just need to get the courage up to connect it and turn it on.

All working now.



Had a weird problem where it shut down and restarted a few seconds after I pressed the power button every second or third time. After it was up and running in Windows, it could go for hours without a problem.

I noticed the processor fan wouldn't turn until a few seconds after I pressed the power button. It would 'twitch' slightly, then wait a couple of seconds before spinning. The protection circuit must have been activating to protect the processor from possible overheating.

It would also do it sometimes when I was restarting Windows, it would 'click' completely off and start up again instead of the 'soft' start it was supposed to normally do.

I did a search online and this appears to be a common problem with these Gigabyte motherboards. There was a BIOS update that I've installed which seems to have solved the problem.

Awesome Job there .. I would'nt know where to start .. wtg

Carl, I'm impressed. I really like those fans. I'm into lots of fans too, I don't have the front ones, good idea.

NOW in my house those fans move things and I have to dust it out more often, but in your house it doesn't look like it might be able to find a dust bunny to suck in.

awesome job.

Thanks, Marti and Doreen.

I was going to put Vista Home Premium on there but I've settled for XP Home for the time being. The digital TV tuner card doesn't work with Vista and I don't feel like paying another $200 or so for a new one at the moment.

It was just a matter of installing Windows XP with my programs back onto the 'C' partition (after downloading the latest drivers for my video card, etc.) All my data (movies, pictures, music, documents, etc.) were still on the other partitions. I wouldn't have lost them anyway - I have them duplicated on my 2 laptops as well as on a couple of external hard drives plus they're also on CD's and DVD's.

Hey, Shawna. Remember these?



Those USB 'half a golf ball' extensions. I don't need to use them anymore since the new tower has 2 USB ports on the front. You'll have to change my title at FFA to something else now. I'm not 'Shiny Balls' anymore.