Problems with new Motherboard/PSU/Graphics card?

Magus44

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Aug 17, 2010
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18,510
Heres my situation.
Had an Athlon 2400, Nvidia GTS250, M2N-MX-SE motherboard, 2g DDR2,
It foze up about a week ago, the HDD light would be lit whenever i tried to power up, but would not boot.
I did some testing, removing all the parts, and it was the same always, even with just the PSU, mobo and CPU, so I figured it was the Mobo, needed an upgrade anyway, so I bought a P5G41C-M LX and a celeron E3300.
When I popped everything back into the mobo and started her up to reinstall Windows XP, It was normal, until a couple of minutes into the install process it shut down. The graphics card was boiling. which was strange because It has run fine before in the old motherboard. My PSU is a generic 480w, which has worked fine for the past... 4 or so years. Whenever i turn it on now, the CPU fan spins for a second, before stopping.
Another thing is that when I took out the 250GTS and put in an old Nvidia 7900 card, it works fine. (Okay while I was typing this, It shut down and started spinning wildly) I took it out, and the thing boots up fine. I'm even typing on it ATM.
Could it be the PSU not powering it, with the new processor now. Or the Graphics card fried? Also Would I have to do something with the BIOS? (I think this motherboard has onboard graphics)
I dont mind replacing it, just frustrating not knowing.
Thanks a heap advance.
Happy to post specific steps but its late and I've spent the entire day trying to figure this out.
 

Magus44

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Aug 17, 2010
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18,510
Thanks for the replies.
I thought it would have been something like that.
Only thing is i just tried it with a Corsair 450w supply that i got from a friend, and it did the same thing.
Any ideas?
 
Were you using the onboard graphics with the Corsair?

Try unmounting the motherboard. Place it next to the case on a piece of cardboard. Connect the CPU/HSF, PSU, 1 RAM chip, power switch, and use the onboard video. Try booting with just those components. Do you get any beep code?
 

Magus44

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Aug 17, 2010
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Yeah I was, works fine. Even installed firefox etc. I'm actually typing on it ATM.
I just did what you told me and it boots and gets to a black screen saying reboot and select proper boot device.
No beeps or anything.
EDIT: Wait that was both RAM sticks. With one it wont boot. The CPU fan spun for a second. Now it wont spin and wont respond to power ups in this state.
Tell us anything?
EDIT 2: I just tried the 7900, which I know was working in my old PC, it recognizes it, tries to start up get to the splash, i hit DEL to enter BIOS setup to see if i can change it from onboard graphics, and it shuts down, with the Graphics card fan spinning wildly, non stop.
Dont know if this will help but I figure I'd let you know.
 


If you went from this ^^



to this ^^ just by removing one of the RAM chips, the one still plugged in is likely bad. Remove that RAM chip, and insert the one that you disconnected, and try to boot.




This is what you want to see, because the hard drive is disconnected. The PC is successfully POSTing, and looking for a boot device. At that point, you'll want to connect the hard drive, and it should boot into windows.
 

Magus44

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Aug 17, 2010
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A-Ok. Sorry was away for a few days. (Didnt have to worry bout this which was great!)
Turns out I may have stuffed up the RAM thing, coz now it seems both are working perfectly. I tried each separately and they both get to the select boot media screen, no beeps or anything. Dont know what happened there.
It runs fine now with the 7900GS, But same problem with the GTS250 (CPU fan spins for a second, wont start up)
What can I do now?