- Jun 12, 2013
- 15
- 0
- 10,510
Acer Aspire 64bit AMD 4100 CPU
Hello,
My system is an Aspire with an AMD 4100 processor. 4250 Integrated graphics. 6GB memory
I do photo editing so I decided to beef the machine up a bit. I added 8GB.
Knowing I'd be installing a graphics card I upgraded the power supply to 430W. That was fine.
About a week later I purchased a GeForce GT 630 and installed it.
For about a week the system worked fine with the GeForce, and the 14GB of memory.
Then it began crashing and rebooting. At first it was occasionally, once or twice during the course of a heavy use day. Then more frequently till it happened within minutes. The error log showed references to unreachable memory which can be caused by anything but I decided to pull the memory I added. I ran a memory test on the memory I left in the machine and it passed.
Sometimes during the reboots chkdsk ran and reported errors, some of which were fixed. I had lost some data.
The crashes continued but at this point the errors were problems with Windows system files. I wanted to avoid reinstalling Windows so I tried fixing the errors and had some success. I got everything working except TCPIP. The crashing stopped. At this point I was running on the integrated video and the original memory only. I could connect to my networked PC but couldn't get out to the internet. I was able to remote into it and get online that way. Eventually I decided to surrender and reinstall Windows.
After reinstalling it, leaving the extra memory out and using the new graphics card, it looked like I was okay. But within a day or two the machine began crashing again. After one particular crash the monitor didn't show it coming back up. There was nothing...not even POST. I tried rebooting several times with different cables and a monitor just to rule them out. The machine was running but there was nothing displayed on the monitor.
Since the newest component was the graphics card, I shut down the machine, swapped in an older but functional card hoping to at least get a POST screen. Nothing.
I removed that card, connected the video cable to the integrated port and powered it back up. Again nothing. I shut it back down, removed the CMOS battery to reset the BIOS to factory defaults, since I had disabled Integrated graphics when I installed the card. Nothing. In fact the monitor reported it wasn't getting a signal.
Was it a bad PCI-E slot or a bad card? The best I can hope for is an RMA from PNY for the card but if the motherboard was bad to start with or was damaged as a result of a faulty card I'm going to be out the cost of a new motherboard.
Is there anything else I can try first? I am out of ideas.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Randy
Hello,
My system is an Aspire with an AMD 4100 processor. 4250 Integrated graphics. 6GB memory
I do photo editing so I decided to beef the machine up a bit. I added 8GB.
Knowing I'd be installing a graphics card I upgraded the power supply to 430W. That was fine.
About a week later I purchased a GeForce GT 630 and installed it.
For about a week the system worked fine with the GeForce, and the 14GB of memory.
Then it began crashing and rebooting. At first it was occasionally, once or twice during the course of a heavy use day. Then more frequently till it happened within minutes. The error log showed references to unreachable memory which can be caused by anything but I decided to pull the memory I added. I ran a memory test on the memory I left in the machine and it passed.
Sometimes during the reboots chkdsk ran and reported errors, some of which were fixed. I had lost some data.
The crashes continued but at this point the errors were problems with Windows system files. I wanted to avoid reinstalling Windows so I tried fixing the errors and had some success. I got everything working except TCPIP. The crashing stopped. At this point I was running on the integrated video and the original memory only. I could connect to my networked PC but couldn't get out to the internet. I was able to remote into it and get online that way. Eventually I decided to surrender and reinstall Windows.
After reinstalling it, leaving the extra memory out and using the new graphics card, it looked like I was okay. But within a day or two the machine began crashing again. After one particular crash the monitor didn't show it coming back up. There was nothing...not even POST. I tried rebooting several times with different cables and a monitor just to rule them out. The machine was running but there was nothing displayed on the monitor.
Since the newest component was the graphics card, I shut down the machine, swapped in an older but functional card hoping to at least get a POST screen. Nothing.
I removed that card, connected the video cable to the integrated port and powered it back up. Again nothing. I shut it back down, removed the CMOS battery to reset the BIOS to factory defaults, since I had disabled Integrated graphics when I installed the card. Nothing. In fact the monitor reported it wasn't getting a signal.
Was it a bad PCI-E slot or a bad card? The best I can hope for is an RMA from PNY for the card but if the motherboard was bad to start with or was damaged as a result of a faulty card I'm going to be out the cost of a new motherboard.
Is there anything else I can try first? I am out of ideas.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Randy
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram