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Upgraded PC worked for two days, now has this problem..

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We replaced the motherboard, CPU, hard drive, and video card, upgrading to an asus p5pe-vm mainboard, a 3.2ghz lga775 pentium 4 CPU (800fsb), an xfx 7300gt agp card, and a WD caviar 160gb sata hard disk.

The rest of the parts remained (kingston ram 512mb x 2, case, and power supply (400w).

Despite one XP setup issue which turned out to be a confict between the onboard audio & LAN, it's worked fine for two days. Almost at the end of installing software, it just powered off, and wouldn't turn back on.

Removing the video card and hooking up the onboard allows it to boot for a few seconds, then it powers off at the post screen. With the AGP card in, the fans spin but no video output, no post & no beep.

I'm pretty sure heat isn't the problem, the cpu fan spins up and the (stock intel) heatsink is firmly attached and doesn't get overly warm.

What components would be most likely at fault? I'm kind of hoping if anything has to have failed that it's the power supply, to avoid having to RMA various parts, but I don't know if a failed power supply would exhibit these characteristics.

Thanks very much for any help.

More about : upgraded worked days problem

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If it powers off at the post screen, I suspect you simply don't have enough power. Try booting without the SATA drive and see if it works (or unplug some other bits if your OS is on the SATA drive). When I added a new SATA drive recently, I found my old 400W PSU wasn't enough, so I upgraded to a Hiper Type-R 580W PSU. Highly recommended, although don't both with the modular one if you don't have a window case.

It does power off at almost random times. Sometimes around the POST, and just by unplugging the case fans, optical drives and removing the AGP card we got it to (slowly) make it into windows.

A power issue would make sense, the only thing that throws me is that it worked fine for a couple of days. Is it possible that it just put so much stress on the PSU that it failed?

Also, since removing most of the components, we now have a beep code which consists of 3 short, 3 short, and then one short, but different pitch (sounds like the regular post beep). The 3 short, 3 short could just be due to the case fan not being connected though, I turned up nothing for a 3-3-1 beep code on a quick search.

Thankyou for the reply!
Homebuilt system Expert

If you want to verify your power supply, use this:
Go to:

http://extreme.outervision.com (Power supply calculator)

and add one Hard Disk, one optical drive, video card and CPU, use high end motherboard,
calculate Watts and divide by 12 to get amps. Add 2-4 amps for safety.

Compare to your power supply 12v rails.
Combined should not exceed requirements.

Max power output on 12v rails: look at box, subtract 3.3v + 5v maximum output from total
wattage of PSU and divide by 12 to get maximum amps on 12v rail. Should be higher than
requirements. That's why we add 2-4 amps.

See this PSU 101:
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/PSU-101-ftopict...

Top Tier PSU:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10...

Exhaustive PSU review:
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/xbit-labs-psu-r...
Related ressources
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If PSU isn't the problem, check your motherboard. You said you upgraded processors? That particular processor series is a power-hog. Your voltage regulator could have gone whacky too which would mean a new MB. But to really know, you'd have to switch stuff out. Try a PSU since you'll probably need a good new one anyway for future upgrades.

BTW I have that same Hyper Type-R 580watt PSU =) I like it.

Yeah, definately a nice PSU. I think I may end up getting a very similar system to yours, leo2kp. I'm undecided as to whether DX10 games will make good use of the 4MB cache in the E6600 and greater CPU's, but that's what I'm currently looking at. I also can't find a decent widescreen monitor, so I'll probably get the 19" Viewsonic...

In benchmarks, the 4mb cache wins out vs. the 2mb cache in all areas from anywhere beteween 2% to something like 11%. As far as I'm concerned, I'd go nothing less than the E6600 in a true gaming rig for the bennefits of the 4m cache. Although if you're overclocking, you won't be disappointed with any C2D proc you get :twisted:

Quote:
If you want to verify your power supply, use this:
Go to:

http://extreme.outervision.com (Power supply calculator)

and add one Hard Disk, one optical drive, video card and CPU, use high end motherboard,
calculate Watts and divide by 12 to get amps. Add 2-4 amps for safety.

Compare to your power supply 12v rails.
Combined should not exceed requirements.

Max power output on 12v rails: look at box, subtract 3.3v + 5v maximum output from total
wattage of PSU and divide by 12 to get maximum amps on 12v rail. Should be higher than
requirements. That's why we add 2-4 amps.


Thanks, I've done this, and assuming I was meant to not enter info for fans, PCI cards etc, It does sound like my PSU is underpowered. My required PSU came out to about 190W (mainboard, cpu, 1x optical, 1x sata only), and dividing by 12 and adding 3 for safety that comes out at about 18-19A. My PSU lists the 12v rail as having 15A so sounds underpowered.

Thanks for the help guys :) 

Yeah, I was thinking the 4MB cache should pay off later. I'm not sure about OCing. Doesn't seem to be economically feasible (sure you get more speed out of a cheaper CPU, but that seems to be far outweighed by the more expensive mainboard, RAM + and the need to buy a better cooler).

I need some more help with this please..

New, bigger PSU arrived today, and the system wouldn't post. Fans spun up, but no beep, no video output.

Removed the Video card (7300GT AGP), and tried the onboard video. It booted to windows, and didn't hang or power off.

Tried an old card (TNT2 Ultra) and it also booted into windows ok.

At this point it looks like the video card is defective, but that still makes me wonder why it had the weirdness even running onboard video yesterday.

Right now my plan is to run it with onboard video for a day or so and see how it holds up, if it's stable then I will RMA the video card.

Am I missing anything?

Thanks again

Wonder if that old PSU knocked out the video card.

Run it a while on onboard like you said, then switch back to the AGP and see if she starts up. If not, probably a bad card. Probably not the motherboard since other AGP cards work in it.
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