Bloodied hands and blown PC

[AndyAldrich]

Something has blown in my PC and I don't know what. Here's the spec:

A64 3200+ Winchester
Gigabyte K8NXP-9
370W Enermax Noisetaker
2 DVD drives
2 10 000 RPM HDDs
1 7 200 RPM HDD
Radeon x700 PCIe

In this state the PC was working no probs. Today I fitted an nVidia 6800 PCIe card. Here's the state of things:

1) Due to stupid screwless PCI slots I had MAJOR trouble cramming the 6800 in. Because the sliding clips don't allow total freedom when sliding in a card the backplate of the 6800 was skewiff. Card fitted in PEG slot ok tho.

2) Powered on PC, it turns off after less than a second.

3) Tried again, PSU came on as did fans powered by fan controller, but no POST.

4) Put back in old Radeon x700, still no POST.

What do you guys think is blown? Any help at all would be appreciated. I think it's probably more expensive than the PSU if the fans are still getting power

 

[angry_ducky]

Probably the PSU. 3 hard drives, 2 DVD drives, and a 6800 on a 370 w PSU is pushing your luck. What's the amps on the PSU's 12V rail?

Also, have you tried resetting the CMOS using the jumper on the motherboard?

Due to stupid screwless PCI slots I had MAJOR trouble cramming the 6800 in.

You tried putting a PCIe video card into a PCI slot?????

 

[13thmonkey]

I agree with Angry Ducky, I was suprised to see a 370 working at all, with that config and under startup when there will be a surge it will probably push it over the edge. I think that 6800's are quite hungry when it came to power. 450 Minimum, maybe higher to be safe and give you headroom for the next set of upgrades.

No comment on the PCI / PCI-E slot confusion, I'm assuming that you don't really mean that you tried to put the 6800 into a PCI slot.

 

[AndyAldrich]

You'd be right , I did NOT push a PCIe graphics card into a PCI slot. What I meant is that my case was made to be almost screwless. Daughterboards slide into the motherboard as per usual but instead of screwing them into the back of the case there are sliding plastic clips. I would post a picture but it'd be pointless. All you need to know is that it's a good idea but it was a hinderance today.

I did a bit of looking about and found that people had been running 7900GT cards on low power PSUs so I figured I might be able to get away with using a 6800, even though it's not such a power-conservative card.

My question is this: If the PSU is still powering certain items (Wireless card's light is still working as are the fans which aren't mobo-powered) is it more likely that I've fried the CPU or damaged some part of the PSU?

 

[13thmonkey]

You'll probably found that a part of rectification circuit has gone, or a smoothing capacitor has blown, but perhaps only on the +12V rail, hence some components might still be prtially powered / working.

As to has it caused any damage...
It depends on what happened when it went, if it caused any kind of arcing in the PSU then it is possible that this would have made it through to the mobo and the more senstive / less isolated componets are toast. If it died a somewhat less eventful death then you might be ok.

It underlines the message that an overrated powersupply is much better, it'll run cooler, quieter and is far less likely to have an issue that could wipe out some of your components.

Probably best to get a new PSU and try it, you'll need one anyway, just be prepared to get a new mobo and chip as well as these are most likely to have suffered.

Hope you manage to get somewhere, have you got a local shop you can get to test the PSU? although you'd probably have to buy one off them and in my experience they'll sell Cr*p.

 

[AndyAldrich]

Thanks for the information guys.

Yes there is a local-ish PC shop but yes, they do sell shockingly shoddy equipment at extortionate prices, and that's if you're lucky

I'm going to buy a 500W PSU and see what happens. As for the PC case...well I'll just have to jam that 6800 in there again and get some more cuts.

 

[clue69less]

It underlines the message that an overrated powersupply is much better, it'll run cooler, quieter and is far less likely to have an issue that could wipe out some of your components.

So many people miss these points. When a PS operates at less than rated load, you get higher efficiency. When a PS operates at lower temps, it delivers higher wattage. It's lose/lose to run a PS up near its limit, even if it doesn't blow and take your other components out.

 

[deweycd]

To me it doesn't sound like a power supply issue because i have somewhat the same setup with only a bit more power and had no issues. I ask if the hd led is on when you turn the system on and does it remain on. I had a problem with my mainboard that when you plug in the mouse or keyboard in the incorrect PS/2 slot, the system sounds like it's powering up properly, lights and all, but never posts until you change it to the proper port and restart

 

[pengwin]

To me it doesn't sound like a power supply issue because i have somewhat the same setup with only a bit more power and had no issues. I ask if the hd led is on when you turn the system on and does it remain on. I had a problem with my mainboard that when you plug in the mouse or keyboard in the incorrect PS/2 slot, the system sounds like it's powering up properly, lights and all, but never posts until you change it to the proper port and restart

same. my Abit AT8 requires a keyboard to be plugged into the PS/2 port

 

[Corasik]

6800's arnt that power hungry.

My P4 3.2@3.5Ghz, combined with 2 SATA hard drives, 1 CD writer, 1 DVD writer, 4x512meg DDR modules, 4 LED case fans, SB Audigy, and a Geforce 6800Ultra!

During boot up the system pulls just 180W off the mains, even if my PSU was 100% efficient (which clearly its not) and if 100% of that power was on the 12v rail (which again, its not), that would still only be a 15amp load on the 12v rail.

Even if I fully load my system, with prime95, and world of warcraft (to keep both virtual CPU's fully loaded on my Hyperthreaded system), and to keep the graphics subsystem busy too, the system still only pulls 250W under full load, and idle sitting in windows, around 130W.

I'm not convinced that its a power supply issue either. Try clearing the motherboard cmos using the cmos clr jumper. Remove the battery while your doing it, its more 'reliable' than just using the cmos clr jumper alone.

Its suppose its possible that the card wasnt fully home, and it shorted out the slot. So there could be permanant damage to the motherboard, or it may have just corrupted the Cmos. Resetting the cmos will help rule out that.

 

[Synergy6]

I agree with Corasik. I run a 6800GT, P4 2.8C, 2 optical drives, 2 hard drives, 3 PCI cards, 2 fans etc off a 250W PSU with no stability issues. I don't know exactly what your problem is, but I don't think it's as simple as not having enough power.
Synergy6