So which bit do you think I've fried?

frugglewump

Installing a new graphics card I didn't see the small print that said minimum 400W PSU. Probably because it was in tiny white writing on the box rather than in the manual. Anyway it didn't boot. Replaced old gfx card & it still doesn't boot.

The LED on the motherboard (Epox 8rda+) says C1 which means it's not detecting the memory. The fans all start up & the temperature monitor on the front of the case so ths PSU is still working.

My bet is I've fried the motherboard - it was having problems detecting memory for booting beforehand, but i didn't look at replacing as I had already ordered a RAM upgrade from 512M to 2G. (This DDR upgrade worked fine).

Of course the other option is the memory (since that's the error) or I suppose the CPU. It's been 4 years since I built this system & it's never gone wrong - i'm so out of practice.

I can get an identical replacement motherboard from ebay for about £15 including delivery. The switch from AGP to PCI-express & the changes to CPUs since I built it in 2002, mean upgrading would basically be a complete system rebuild which I want to hold off for another 2 years.

kevinwj

You may have just confused the BIOS.

Try a 'hard reset'

Unplug the mains cable from the back.
Remove the BIOS battery.
Reposition the JBAT jumper,

Go and have a coffee

After about 10 minutes, or longer if you can, Come back and reverse the above actions.

This will reset everything to the factory defaults.

You've nothing to lose by trying this.;)

.

toonfan

kevinwj has given top advice. Only thing to add might be, and forgive me if teaching granma to suck eggs but beep testcan be useful diagnostic tool

PierceUK

i found that after i "messed" up my pc tinkering inside that leaving the power cable in and holding the off button for 30 seconds reset something(dont ask me what i remebered it from when i had to call Medion many moons ago)

but PC booted fine after.

frugglewump

kevinwj wrote:

This will reset everything to the factory defaults.

You've nothing to lose by trying this.;)

You star :T :beer:

Now I just have to get a 400W PSU & try to work out what the original fault was all about. See post below if you're still feeling helpful.

frugglewump

toonfan wrote:

kevinwj has given top advice. Only thing to add might be, and forgive me if teaching granma to suck eggs but beep testcan be useful diagnostic tool

I have to admit the beeps confused me - before I did any upgrade / repairs I was getting a two-tone continuous beep on boot up, which is usually CPU overheating, but the temp reading on the front of the case had only reached 27C from the normal start of around 18-21C. Also I could see all the fans (8 including cpu fan) going - heatsink is the zalman flower. I do like the thermaltake xaser III case - I set the alarm to go off when the cpu reaches 75C and that was quiet. The pc always worked on the next reboot - this was going on for a week as i waited for parts to arrive.

I thought it was the DDR because of the point it reached in boot-up, but cleaning & reseating + replacing the ram didn't solve the problem. This makes me think it may be a capacitor problem on the motherboard - which would be typical for an Epox board.

flang

When you mean the pc wont boot doe you get any display on the screen whatso ever?
If you dont I would say its the CPU

GreenNotM

frugglewump wrote:

You star :T :beer:

Now I just have to get a 400W PSU & try to work out what the original fault was all about. See post below if you're still feeling helpful.

With a power connetor for the graphics card (PCI-E) ! http://www.scan.co.uk/products/productinfo.asp?WebProductID=527032

bingo_bango

I got a 450W X-Power PSU (with PCI_E connector for GFX card and SATA connector) from Maplins for £24.99. More than adequate. On offer down from £40, but the offer ends 29/01/07.

X POWER 450w PSU

kevinwj

frugglewump wrote:

I have to admit the beeps confused me - before I did any upgrade / repairs I was getting a two-tone continuous beep on boot up, which is usually CPU overheating, but the temp reading on the front of the case had only reached 27C from the normal start of around 18-21C.

Do you have anything like MSI motherboard monitor installed?
Or is there a monitor in the BIOS?

It could be that its telling you that the CPU is under heated rather than over heated.

Error code C1 can be a memory issue but it can also be caused by a leaky capacitor on the mobo.

Look for bulging or worse brown stains on top of the capacitors.

.

frugglewump

It was the motherboard (as suspected). New one off ebay for £15 incl postage & all is fine - I've even got the new gfx card working.
Looking at it out of the case - all but one of the capacitors was bulging & the one between cpu socket & agp slot was leaking.

Thanks for all the help. Just hope this Epox board lasts 2 years until DFD & can afford a rebuild.