Need help from a good hardware Techie..Are you?

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by narwal, Oct 26, 2009.

  1. narwal

    narwal Member

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    hi guys
    i have a asus p5vdc motherboard with VIA chipset
    3.0 Ghz Pentium 4 Processor
    1 GB DDR2 RAM
    512 MB Nvidia Geforce2 AGP Graphics Card
    Creative Sound Blaster 5.1 sound Card
    500 GB Seagate SATA Drive
    DVD 16X R/w

    The problem i have been facing for a long long time has been that during Booting, the PC starts showing blank(Black) screen...this happens when XP logo comes and u are about to get the blue screen where u put in login id and password

    this started to happen when i started using programmes which use good amount of memory like AutoGK ripping, or CRYSIS game..
    it hangs and when i restart , i cannot get to the blue screen

    so i have stopped using memory intensive software...
    now a different problem has arisen

    as soon as i turn my PC on, the first screen of BIOS comes, and it gets stuck at this place
    doesn't move a inch forward

    pressing 'delete', F1 or anything else doesn't help
    i tried removing graphics card, change CPU fan, removed sound card, unplug-plugged all cables again, removed and again put the 2 RAM sticks..

    nothing helped..

    so i finally removed SATA cables... i was able to get into BIOS
    then i tried using IDE hard disk...
    BIOS detects IDE Hard Disk and DVD rom, once in every 3-4 tries...

    now somehow i have managed to install XP in IDE
    but i tried using SATA again.. and it still gets stuck at BIOS page
    I have lot of data saved on SATA drive

    now ...does anyone know, how can i get out of this problem..(don't say funny things like throw MB, kick processor etc..:-( ]

    this motherboard BTW earlier used to give problem too...as soon as u switch on,,CPU fan starts running and stops within 5 seconds..
    i tried putting foam in between the MB and Cabinet.. it has stopped the occurrence of this problem to 90% times..
     
  2. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    I'm not really sure what to make of your hardware specs, as there is no such thing as a 512MB Geforce 2, and the Geforce 2 wouldn't even install Crysis, let alone run it.
    This sounds like a faulty component, but it's not easy to tell what. it could be a faulty graphics card, motherboard, RAM or power supply. I would try changing the RAM first as it's the easiest to test.
     
  3. miketrev

    miketrev Regular member

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    Could also be faulty onboard harddrive controller (think its on the south bridge) May be worth your whilst getting a PCI SATA/IDE card.

    With those specs, would highly doubt crysis would run in a playable way. I had probs with a Geforce 6800 and a AMD x2!

    Would recommend a new PC :D
     
  4. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    get rid of the foam as not supposed to be there between motherboard & backplane. try clearing the cmos to see what happens which i don't think it will work. are the ide drives jumpered same or different as sounds like possible conflict? sata controller might be going bye bye as had similar issue with a customer's till i replaced sata hd with ide hd.
     
  5. narwal

    narwal Member

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    i dont exactly remember the model of graphics(will see when i go to home)...probably 7300gt, AGP, 256 mb and probably overclocked to 512
    but leaving that as it is

    the condition now is this.. the IDE has also started giving problems... the OS doesnt move from windows XP screen to login/pswrd screen..
    it hangs at the small duration of transition , when the screen is blank..and the screen remains blank (black) forever
    i was checking hardware monitor..and the 3.3V was running at 2.866 something... is this also an issue...(whilst all other voltage like core etc were perfect)

    so at this moment i am stuck with nothing but a faulty PC.. just want to make it sure that nothin can be done???
    the only hitch i am having disposing it off is..the graphics card i had bought is still completely new and i wont get any new MB which has AGP slot..
    can anyone suggest any idea on how to make board work...
     
  6. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Then a faulty power supply is definitely part of the problem, have it replaced, preferably not with a cheap tacky unit either, cheap PSUs can cause severe problems.
     
  7. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    how do you overclock a 256meg agp to 512meg agp?
     
  8. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Haha, I hadn't spotted that.
     
  9. scum101

    scum101 Guest

    p5vdc boards..notorious for bad caps, especially the one by the agp slot .. hows your soldering?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 29, 2009
  10. narwal

    narwal Member

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  11. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    narwal, that still doesn't explain how to go from 256 meg of ram to 512 meg of ram.
     
  12. narwal

    narwal Member

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    brother , i aint that good a techie.. so have asked a question

    a techie who sold me card ..said that G.Card all coming now (at that time) are 256.. what companies do ...is they overclock it and sell it by saying that it is 512 MB..in fact it is still 256 MB

    so i took it as it is..

    clear me on this.. now on i will quote whatever u will tell me

    anyways .thanks a lot.. i m planning to try other PSU this sturday.. if it doesn't work then new PC is coming (wow)..
    this is config....

    tell me if its ok?
    processor - i5-750 2.66 GHz
    p55 chipset
    4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz RAM
    1 GB Nvidia Geforce GT220
    500 GB SATA

    thnks again
     
  13. andmill11

    andmill11 Regular member

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    It is impossible to um.. overclock to add more RAM?

    That's like saying you downloaded more RAM. It's not possible.
     
  14. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Narwal: Then whoever you spoke to is an idiot. Put simply, overclocking increases the MHZ of something (clock speed). This effectively decides how fast it works.
    The MB on a graphics card is the memory, i.e. how much it can do at once. Unless you run out of graphics memory, having more doesn't make any difference to performance.
    You can overclock mhz as that is simply like turning the speed up, but you can't 'overclock' memory, as that's a bit like trying to overclock a 32" TV into a 50" TV - it's something that physically isn't there.
    Graphicsc cards that come with say, 512MB or 1GB of RAM, have exactly that, 512MB or 1GB. That's not an overclock, it's just how much memory they have.

    For the record, the i5 750 is a good CPU, but the GT220 is one of the worst graphics cards ever made, it can't play any games because it's just too slow.
     
  15. narwal

    narwal Member

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    thanks a lot brother..
    now i got it...

    so if gt220 isnt good.. then which graphics card should i buy...
    (assuming p55 express chip set with i5 750 .=2.66 Ghz processor is good)
    just one thing .. it shouldn't be way too costly..

     
  16. narwal

    narwal Member

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    and ya .. my requirement is that graphics card shd be below 150$ (below 100$ is more better ) and should be compatible with my board
    till now i was planning to buy it from Dell..
    now i rethinking to assemble it

    it would be great help if you tell me the configuration like which motherboard i should buy for p55 chipset
    so u guys pls tell me apart from p55 chipset and core i5 750
    what all things i shd buy to make a good PC...
     
  17. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    For $150 you can grab an HD5770, which is maybe 10x as powerful as the GT220.
     

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