Motherboard, PS, or GPU failing?

[trogdor796]

My computer has been having major problems lately. One day I took it to a friends house and after hooking it up there, the thing would shut down as soon as I started any 3d application(WoW in this case). Brought it back home and it went away after a day. Now, a month later, the problem is back. I had been playing WoW all day, no problems. Go to play again next morning and bam shuts down within 2 minutes of starting WoW. I have taken the case apart, dusted it out, then I reseated the card. After I did that the computer would power on but get no signal on the monitor. After some research I decided to take out the gpu, sound card, and unplug all the psu cables then re-assemble everything. Well, now that I did that, I press the power button, the light comes on for a sec, goes off, comes back on after 5 seconds and the machine makes a strange sound by the ps, and I shut it down due to no monitor signal. So is there a problem w/ my ps, gpu, motherboard, or multiple problems. Someone pla help me out here. Here are my specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz
4 GB RAM
500GB SATA HDD in RAID 0
ATI 4870 512mb
Antec 500W PS

 

[rodney_ws]

I'd set everything to stock speeds to start off. Taking any OC'n out of the mix. Visually inspect your motherboard... specifically looking at the capacitors. If they're puffed outward or have ruptured... well... you've got a problem. From there, try to borrow a PSU/GPU for testing purposes to help pin point your problem.

 

[trogdor796]

I'd set everything to stock speeds to start off. Taking any OC'n out of the mix. Visually inspect your motherboard... specifically looking at the capacitors. If they're puffed outward or have ruptured... well... you've got a problem. From there, try to borrow a PSU/GPU for testing purposes to help pin point your problem.

I think that everything is stock right now and even if it wasn't how could I change it w/o the pc beeing able to turn on? And what exactly are the capacitors? Sry if it's a noob question but I just got into computer gaming a few months ago.

 

[jsc]

You can clear the CMOS RAM by following the instructions in your motherboard manual. After that, this is our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems

 

[trogdor796]

Best answer selected by trogdor796.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey