So here is my problem. My computer is crap! It's a Gateway GT5058. I didn't know it at the time when I bought it that it had a BTX motherboard. I figured that out a week ago when I bought a Nvidia 8800 graphics card that wouldn't fit onto the motherboard despite having the necessary PCI-Express slot. It's a 2 slot graphics card and it was banging up against the heatsink on the cpu, powercord to the mobo, and the connection on the back where you plug in the mouse. I was pretty confused about that until I did a little research and found out that you had to flip the graphics cards upside down to put them in a BTX case and my case/mobo didn't account for 2slot graphics cards. Anyway, I wound up getting a single slot graphics card the GeForce 8400 GS and that worked fine.
The actual problem with my motherboard started a couple months ago. One day I went to restart my computer and the bloody thing won't turn on. All the powercords and wires to the mobo are connected just fine, but the pc wouldn't even get to the bios screen on the monitor. More out of frustration then anything I kept power cycling the computer. I've always found the saying "stupid is attempting the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result" pretty amusing. But in this case the saying turned out to be wrong. After I power cycled it a dozen or so times the computer actually fires up. Once it gets running, everything works fine. So I figure "hell, I just won't turn my computer off anymore!".
But like all half-assed plans that just doesn't work. Every now and then there is a power outage or some program needs the computer to reboot for the changes to take effect. But the old "keep pushing the button till it works plan" continues to be effective. Until this week that is. The last thing I was doing on my pc was trying to play EQ2. But I got an error with the graphics card and it kept dropping the program after the launch screen. So I figured the first step would be to make sure my graphics card driver was up todate. So after installing the new driver of course the effects won't take place until I reboot the pc. So after power cycling the computer like 500 times (not much of an exaggeration sadly...) I've come to the conclusion that just won't work. I've checked the connections numerous times.
I would probably just replace the motherboard... if it was that simple! I can't find a BTX motherboard anywhere for sale, much less one that supports an AMD Athlon 64 x2 processor 3800+. So now I'm desperate. I need my gaming fix. I figure if I can just get to the bios screen I'll be set. So I'm wondering if there is any way to "hotwire" the mobo to bypass whatever power system is failing? I don't really care if I break a broken mobo so if anyone has any ideas I'd be willing to experiment. Or alternatively, if anyone has a less stupid idea I'd be willing to entertain that notion too =p Thanks for any help offered.
Here's a link to my computer if that helps: [http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2205 246&Sku=G153-GT5058&SRCCODE=NEXTAG&CMP=EMC-NEXTAG] Gateway GT5058
The actual problem with my motherboard started a couple months ago. One day I went to restart my computer and the bloody thing won't turn on. All the powercords and wires to the mobo are connected just fine, but the pc wouldn't even get to the bios screen on the monitor. More out of frustration then anything I kept power cycling the computer. I've always found the saying "stupid is attempting the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result" pretty amusing. But in this case the saying turned out to be wrong. After I power cycled it a dozen or so times the computer actually fires up. Once it gets running, everything works fine. So I figure "hell, I just won't turn my computer off anymore!".
But like all half-assed plans that just doesn't work. Every now and then there is a power outage or some program needs the computer to reboot for the changes to take effect. But the old "keep pushing the button till it works plan" continues to be effective. Until this week that is. The last thing I was doing on my pc was trying to play EQ2. But I got an error with the graphics card and it kept dropping the program after the launch screen. So I figured the first step would be to make sure my graphics card driver was up todate. So after installing the new driver of course the effects won't take place until I reboot the pc. So after power cycling the computer like 500 times (not much of an exaggeration sadly...) I've come to the conclusion that just won't work. I've checked the connections numerous times.
I would probably just replace the motherboard... if it was that simple! I can't find a BTX motherboard anywhere for sale, much less one that supports an AMD Athlon 64 x2 processor 3800+. So now I'm desperate. I need my gaming fix. I figure if I can just get to the bios screen I'll be set. So I'm wondering if there is any way to "hotwire" the mobo to bypass whatever power system is failing? I don't really care if I break a broken mobo so if anyone has any ideas I'd be willing to experiment. Or alternatively, if anyone has a less stupid idea I'd be willing to entertain that notion too =p Thanks for any help offered.
Here's a link to my computer if that helps: [http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2205 246&Sku=G153-GT5058&SRCCODE=NEXTAG&CMP=EMC-NEXTAG] Gateway GT5058