great now wife old gateway wont start help

R

RickG

Geek Trainee
Yesterday we were having a tunderstorm and the power went out,now the wifes pc wont start up. When I push the butten the little light comes on and sometimes the fan starts and I can hear the hard disk start but then nothing happens then other times just the little light comes on and also I have to unplug it to get the thing to go back off. As I remember we had this happen before about a year ago and I just restarted it a few times and it started working but not this time, I had replaced the fan in the power supply a week ago wonder if that could have anything to do with it, but it was working fine before the power went out. Thanks for any help Rick
 
Tut, tut, tut, you weren't using a surge protector, were you. If you're very lucky you may find that your PSU has been fried, if not then you may well have a dead motherboard. The simplest way to check is to test all of the components in a computer that you know works and track down the one that is causing trouble. However it is possible, if the thunderstorm was the cause, that more than one part has been nuked. My first suspect would be the PSU, then the motherboard. After that, who knows.
 
Thanks guys I did have it on a surge protector but it was a 5year old one from wal-mart so I dont know if it works or not. Her gateway is about 6 years old with just a cd player and like 15gb harddrive so I wont be paying to fix it. Just a couple of ? 1. Can I take the memory cards out of that old of a pc and put them into my Dell Dimension 8200 her O/S was 98SE mine is XP and if I did think I would see any inprovement hers was two 64mb cards in it mine was 512mb now.
2. How hard is it to build a pc I'v never tried it but I realy would like to try and as cheap as home pc's are could I build her one for around the price of a new one. Mostly what it will be used for is the internet and playing card games but Id like to put a dvd burner in to. Is there some where I can get books on building one.
 
please don't buy books on building computers. They are old, outdated and will not be of much help. Sure you can learn some, but computer stuff has changed tremendously in the past even 6 months.
 
RickG said:
Can I take the memory cards out of that old of a pc and put them into my Dell Dimension 8200
Click to expand...

If you are putting them into a machine that does not have any memory in it then it should be OK, however you may not be able to put the two 64Mb sticks into a computer with a 512Mb stick as you will most likely find that the bigger stick runs at 133MHz or faster while the 64Mb sticks are only 100MHz. And there's probably other compatibility issues as well.

RickG said:
How hard is it to build a pc I'v never tried it but I realy would like to try
Click to expand...

It's really not very difficult at all, however there are a few pre-reqs.

First of all, you know that kids game where you get several different-shaped blocks that need to be put into corresponding holes? If you can do that well then you should be fine. RAM sticks, PCI cards, CPU, etc., all have their particular connectors, you need to be able to mentally match up the pins to the sockets. Sometimes you need to apply a bit of force to get things connected (this is especially true of PCI cards) and you need to be sure that you have the connectors matched up correctly. A suprising large numer of people will quite happily do the computer hardware equivalent of shoving a round peg into a square hole and then complain when their computer doesn't work.

You also need to know at least the basics of electricity and be able to take sensible precautions against damage to the computer by static or mis-wiring. You are dealing with delicate parts that can get easily damaged unless you take those precautions.

You need to be willing and able to read. For a first-timer there can be a lot of new terms to confront. Computer manuals have a reputation for being unreadable but if you are willing to take the time to learn you will soon be able to recognise what you are reading and be able to distinguish the important points from the not-so-important details.

Other than that the only other pre-req I can think of is the ability to think logically. If you can visualise what exactly happens, for example, at a hardware level when you press a key on the keyboard and that keypress changes the screen output then you should be fine, but again, a lot of people can't.

I would agree with ninja on the books to a degree. They can give you a decent introduction to the basics but if you are looking at getting an up-to-date system then they'll be out-dated by the time they are printed. Your best bet is websites or forums. PC Mechanic is a good place to start and I'm willing to bet that many of the regulars on this forum would be able to take a computer from spare parts to a high-spec gaming monster in a few hours and still have time left to test it out.

I highly recommend giving it a go, good luck!
 
Thanks guys first off about putting the old mem.cards in my pc ,cant because mine only has 2 slots and they are both full. And as for building a computer as far as installing the components that won't be any problem I'm a HVAC Tech so I understand about round pegs in square holes. What I think I may have problems with is picking the right parts so that I don't wind up with a cpu thats goes like 90 and a hard drive that starts cutting out at 55. Hope you all understand what I mean I'd like it pick components that work well together and after I would get every thing installed getting it all set up in the BIOS sounds like it may be tricky. So I guess the first step should be picking the cpu right? Any suggestions? Here is what I'd like 1. Fast as possible, a good gamming rig, dvd burner+ dvd player, maybe about a 80G hard drive, I'd like to get the whole thing done with around a thousand dollars in it including a 17" monitor. Also would like to be able to overclock it later on. So I guess that would mean starting with an AMD cpu? I read some where that Intels were locked right? I hope you all dont get tired of me asking dumb questions (newbe here) but I seriously think I'm going to try building one and I would appreciate any suggestions. Thank Rick
 
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $142
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail $153.99
CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail $115
MSI NX6600GT-TD128E Geforce 6600GT 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail $178
LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 4X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner - OEM $51.99
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $57
Antec Performance Plus PLUSVIEW1000AMG Metallic Gray 1.0mm SECC Server Computer Case - Retail $80
NEC Display Solutions FE770-BK Black 17" CRT Monitor 0.21-0.25mm horizontal Dot Pitch Captive 15-pin mini D-SUB connector - Retail $139.99
-OR-
NEC Display Solutions FE992-BK Black 19" CRT Monitor 0.25mm Dot Pitch D-Sub - Retail $219

Total: $996.98 w/ 19''
$917.97 w/ 17''

*All parts are from newegg. Prices are subject to change without notice. Prices do not include taxes, shipping and insurance.

To overclock, this system will need a third-party cooler as well as case fans.
 
Thanks Harrack52 thats was alot of help I went to newegg and made me up a wish list. Here is what I came up with do you all think this rig would be fast and does it look like ever thing would work together.
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $142.00
Model #: K8N NEO4 Platinum




ASPIRE X-Navigator ATXA9NW-BK/450 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply - Retail $96.00
Model #: ATXA9NW-BK/450



SONY Black IDE DVD Burner Model DW-D26A BLK - OEM $52.99
Model #: DW-D26A BLK



SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s - OEM $22.99
Model #: DDU1615/B2s



ASPIRE CF4SL-UBL-LED 80mm Blue LED Light Fan - Retail $6.00 X4 = $24.00
Model #: CF4SL-UBL-LED


TR2TT TR2 M1 80mm Ball Multi-Color LED Light Cooling Fan - Retail $11.99
Model #: TR2 M1



Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B300R0 300GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - OEM $166.00
Model #: 6B300R0



OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model OCZ4001024ELDCPER2-K - Retail
Model #: OCZ4001024ELDCPER2-K $181.99
$15.00 Mail-in Rebate



AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail
Model #: ADA3700BNBOX $338.00




ABIT RX700PRO-256PCIE Radeon X700PRO 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail $154.50
Model #: RX700PRO-256PCIE


Also do all the cables come with these or is that some thing I'll have to find later? Thanks again RickG
 
The only thing I really don't like in your list is the Maxtor hard drive. And I would also get the 6600GT.
Also, you should try and find out what psu (brand) comes with the case.
 
Exactly. The PSU is rather critical, but a lot of people don't know this. The PSU guide.
The thing is, many PSU's that come in cases are not really units that you want to have powering Athlon 64 or the newer Pentiums. We're simply in a time where buying a cheap PSU doesn't cut it.

Off-hand, I do remember Newegg having a 250GB SATA hard drive for $124+shipping. I personally don't have issues with Maxtor, but I know they've had some trouble in the past. Another alternative brand is Seagate.
 
OK guys I have been been doing some reading on the net and I think this build wont be as hard as i first thought. Been back to newegg again and up graded a little, the thousand dollor limit kind of went out the window, think I'm closer to $1700 but I want this thing to rock. I have read alot of reviews on Maxtor hard drives and think I'll stay with it,hope I wont be sorry. I do have another question on the O/S , think XP pro would be better, more stable than XP home and also I see they have came out with a 64bit edition for the Athlon64 processors does anyone have it running now , would there be an advantage to install it on this rig? Any way heres what I've come up with from new egg please let me know what you think of it. It will have about 10 fans running in it hope I'll be able to hear above the noise with that many fans going do you think the 420w power supply will be large enough for it. Thanks Big B your psu guide was very help full :good: Wonder if newegg has freeshipping on large orders I hope so. Told the wife what I thought this would cost and she not to happy but its for her ;) ;) so she sould'nt get to up set. Thanks again Rick

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail $372.00
Model #: ADA3800BPBOX
Item #: N82E16819103531
GIGABYTE G-Power GH-PDU21-SC 80mm 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail $39.99
Model #: GH-PDU21-SC

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $142.00
Model #: K8N NEO4 Platinum
Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail $82.00X2=$164.00 for a total of 2 GBs
Model #: KVR400X64C3AK2/1G
Item #: N82E16820141423
MSI NX6600GT-TD128E Geforce 6600GT 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail
Model #: NX6600GT-TD128E $178.00
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B300R0 300GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - OEM $166.00
Model #: 6B300R0

THERMALTAKE Xaser III V1420D Blue Chassis:1.0mm SECC Japan Steel, Front Panel:All Aluminum Super Tower Computer Case with THERMALTAKE 420W Power Supply - Retail $150.00
Model #: Xaser III V1420D
Thermaltake A2212 2-Tone 103 Normal Keys 47 Function Keys PS/2 Wireless Ergonomics XaserIII RF wireless Office Keyboard & Mouse Mouse Included - Retail$59.99
Model #: A2212

Polyview V17D 2-Tone 17" 10ms LCD Monitor 400 cd/m2 450:1 Built in Speakers 0.264mm Pixel Pitch - Retail $202.99
Model #: V17D

YOMMO DHT630 135 Watts RMS 5.1 Speaker - Retail $51.99
Model #: DHT630



SONY Black IDE DVD Burner Model DW-D26A BLK - OEM $52.99
Model #: DW-D26A BLK



SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s - OEM $22.99
Model #: DDU1615/B2s
 
That PSU has about 18A on the 12V rail, which isn't horrible, but just something that you might want to keep an eye on. If you're leaving stuff at stock speeds, then it should be alright. I personally would look at something with a little more amperage on the 12V rail, but I don't think it'd hurt to try the one in the case.
 
Another thing I've noticed there is that you shouldn't need a dvd ROM drive and a dvd burner, your burner should play dvds anyway. Making no need for you ROM drive :)
 
:confused: Ok now I'm confused went to newegg again and from what I see about the highest amp out put I can find is 12v@18amp. Now I did find some with the duel rails but they were 12v@18amp too. Also whats the deff. between ATX and ATX12V. I thought all of the mb were 12v. Any way I found this one think it would be better?
ENERMAX Whisper II EG565P-VE FMA2.0 ATX12V 535W Power Supply 90V~135V or 90V~265V UL, cUL, TUV, CB - Retail
Model #: EG565P-VE FMA2.0 Output is +3.3V@32A, +5V@32A, +12V1@18A, +12V2@18A, [email protected], [email protected]
now it says for AXT12V will it work with my mb its an ATX?
As for the extra dvd drive I want to be able to copy movies directly from one drive to the other. Or listen to a cd while I'm burning a dvd. Also do you all think a floppy drive is of any use? I cant remember the last time I used one but all the pc Co. always stick one in. They are very cheap but I would rather not have to use one because of more wires to hide and it just takes up room but if you think I may need one let me know. Thanks again guys, sorry about being such a newbe just want to try to get every right befor I order it. RickG
 
That Enermax will be perfect.

Since that system will be used for gaming, I suggest you get a CRT monitor instead, like the NEC I mentioned in a previous post.
 
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