Graphics card caused PC to blow up!

Flora_Poste

Hi all, I'm looking for some help and advice with the following.....

My son saved up for ages last year and bought himself a gaming PC, Processor-AMD FX BULLDOZER 4.1GHz.
Graphics card-AMD radeon 6670
8Gb of ram

Hes had it for three months and its been fine. With his Christmas money he bought a new graphics card (asus nvidia gtx 660 ti) which was installed and worked fine for a day or so but then it went BANG.
Local PC repair man said it was the PSU that had gone.

PC shop have been really helpfull and tried the graphics card with a 750 watt psu but it still blows, without warning during the game.

So we don't know what to do next. The PC won't work and I suspect we have invalidated the warranty by installing a new graphics card, and the graphics card may or may not be faulty and its no use anyway without the PC. And poor son is very fed up!!
(All bought from Amazon if that's relevant)

What do suggest?

Johnmcl7

Who was the PC bought from and were any warranty seals broken to fit the card? Where did you buy the graphics card from?

John

Mrs_Grey

It says all bought from Amazon.

Flora_Poste

Thanks John,

Yes both bought from Amazon but on two different accounts, one went through mine and the other through my husbands.

No warranty seals were broken but another metal slot had to be opened to get the graphics card to fit. We've also had the power pack replaced to see of that was the fault.

rmg1

From memory (which is admittedly getting a bit dodgy thee days), I vaguely remember some sort of ruling saying that installing things like new graphics cards did not invalidate warranties as computers were designed to be modular (i.e. they were expected to be upgraded at some point).
If the PC shop tried the graphics card with a 750W PSU and it still blew the PSU, I'd assume the graphics card was faulty and contact Amazon for repair/replacement of the relevant parts and see what they say.

Johnmcl7

Is the PC an OEM one (Dell, HP etc.) or a custom one some seller has put together?

John

Flora_Poste

It's a OCHW Home, Office, Gaming computer custom build currently on Amazon for £404.95. Sorry cant post the link.

Lifeforms

http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCHW-COMPUTER-Multimedia-BULLDOZER-Operating/dp/B007SNNLQC ?
If its done it to another psu then I'd say the card is faulty.
Look to return the card as faulty, and ask for the psu to be replaced.
Having removed the card, have you replaced the psu with a working model to make sure his computer is working correctly minus the card?

The link says it comes with a graphics card, does he still have the old one to put back in? Is he totally sure the new card is compatible with the motherboard?

Mankysteve

It'll be the cheap power that original came with the PC wasn't up to the job, is not enough wattage. Should have checked when installing. Possible would count against you, if you didn't check.

jaydeeuk1

Mankysteve wrote: »

It'll be the cheap power that original came with the PC wasn't up to the job, is not enough wattage. Should have checked when installing. Possible would count against you, if you didn't check.

Tough one... Could be the old PSU that has damaged motherboard, could be faulty GPU. One way to check as suggested put old card back in and run a stress test, if it still blowing then its the motherboard, possibly a ram stick which is extremely sensitive that has blown (run a memtest)... Nowt wrong with cheapie PSUs as long as they're not being stressed, next time budget £50 or so for a decent PSU.

Lifeforms

Flora_Poste wrote: »

Local PC repair man said it was the PSU that had gone.

PC shop have been really helpfull and tried the graphics card with a 750 watt psu but it still blows, without warning during the game

Did they try the card in their machine, or your sons (with a new psu?)