Dead Men Walking

dMw Chit Chat => The Beer Bar => Technology Section => Topic started by: Blunt on November 06, 2009, 10:41:46 AM

Title: Bang!
Post by: Blunt on November 06, 2009, 10:41:46 AM
Last night my PC went bang, gave a puff of smoke and died:crying:
I'm hoping it is just the PSU but won't know until I start messing with it later.
I'm talking myself into splashing out on a new rig, but I've got lots of rÃ,£a$on$ why I shouldn't:sideways:

For your info, it is completely dead, no lights, beebs or noises.
Title: Bang!
Post by: DuVeL on November 06, 2009, 10:48:40 AM
:sad: :crying: May it rest in pieces (but hopefully some parts can be revived).
Title: Bang!
Post by: Sn00ks on November 06, 2009, 10:53:17 AM
Fingers crossed it is only the PSU, unless you want an excuse to get a new rig in which case fingers crossed it is the CPU, MoBo, GFX card and RAM.
 
I've had a couple of CPUs go and one instance was a nice simple diagnosis and the other was a bit wierd in that bits still kept working and it wasn't until I replaced it that it all came back to life.
Title: Bang!
Post by: b00n on November 06, 2009, 11:01:49 AM
A long time ago a mate's PSU popped and took most of the other components with it... but that was a long time ago. :flirty:
Title: Bang!
Post by: Zootoxin on November 06, 2009, 11:25:42 AM
Quote from: Blunt;295486Last night my PC went bang, gave a puff of smoke and died:crying:
I'm hoping it is just the PSU but won't know until I start messing with it later.
I'm talking myself into splashing out on a new rig, but I've got lots of rÃ,£a$on$ why I shouldn't:sideways:

For your info, it is completely dead, no lights, beebs or noises.

OMG BLUNT!!

You've only got about 9 hours until we need your smooth tones on the meathook.

Get yerself down to...............?

Where in the world?

PC World.

Good luck with getting back up and running old buddy

:)
Title: Bang!
Post by: BrotherTobious on November 06, 2009, 11:59:11 AM
Quote from: Zootoxin;295492OMG BLUNT!!

You've only got about 9 hours until we need your smooth tones on the meathook.

Get yerself down to...............?

Where in the world?

PC World.

Good luck with getting back up and running old buddy

:)

Dont do it they are axis of evil I tell you :)
Title: Bang!
Post by: TeaLeaf on November 06, 2009, 12:08:38 PM
Quote from: BrotherTobious;295499Dont do it they are axis of evil I tell you :)
He speak the truth unless you want a brand new Pentium II 256MB RAM PC at a discount price with free Norton Anti-virus.  Honest. :norty:
Title: Bang!
Post by: Tutonic on November 06, 2009, 12:41:30 PM
Ouch.

This actually happened to me the night before a LAN! Turned out to be a blown motherboard and it took the soundcard down with it :(

I ended up borrowing a PC from OldBloke, and stuffing a graphics card and my hard drive into it :rolleyes:
Title: Bang!
Post by: lionheart on November 06, 2009, 05:58:18 PM
PC + Bang + Smoke = Bad.
Title: Bang!
Post by: delankster on November 06, 2009, 06:11:32 PM
bad luck m8 :sad:

:D   on the bright side thou, the hole in my back might have time to heal from all your knifing :flirty:
Title: Bang!
Post by: Snokio on November 06, 2009, 07:02:49 PM
Sorry to hear that mate, hope it is just the PSU
Title: Bang!
Post by: Toxteth on November 06, 2009, 07:10:15 PM
Such a shame. (thinks of what he can steal form the rig if Blunt gets a new one...)

Try and test you gfx car out in mothers PC, you could get on CS tonight!
Title: Bang!
Post by: Blunt on November 07, 2009, 11:18:05 PM
Update:
I've had a look inside and can't see any obvious problems. I've taken the cover off the PSU and found a 250v 10A fuse that looks like it has blown.

my plan is to try a working psu to see if I can get it going again, that should be Wednesday if all goes to plan.

meanwhile, can any of you recommend a combo to get me going again, should plan A fail?

Bang for Buck is the rule
I'll need:
Mobo
CPU + cooling
GPU
PSU

hopefully my dvd drive and other stuff hasn't fried:blink:
Title: Bang!
Post by: T-Bag on November 07, 2009, 11:53:34 PM
Modern PSUs try not to take other stuff with them. I've had one go and take nothing with it.
Previously I've had one take out Mobo, CPU and Ram but nothing else. Not had anything more spectacular.
Title: Bang!
Post by: Luminance on November 08, 2009, 07:34:58 PM
May it rust in pieces :(
Title: Bang!
Post by: Zootoxin on November 08, 2009, 09:01:38 PM
Quote from: T-Bag;295659Modern PSUs try not to take other stuff with them. I've had one go and take nothing with it.
Previously I've had one take out Mobo, CPU and Ram but nothing else. Not had anything more spectacular.

Is it possible to get an external PSU like you used to get in the old days? surely that would benefit coolers and of course weight lol.
Title: Bang!
Post by: Blunt on November 08, 2009, 11:52:16 PM
Quote from: Blunt;295653Update:
I've had a look inside and can't see any obvious problems. I've taken the cover off the PSU and found a 250v 10A fuse that looks like it has blown.

my plan is to try a working psu to see if I can get it going again, that should be Wednesday if all goes to plan.

meanwhile, can any of you recommend a combo to get me going again, should plan A fail?

Bang for Buck is the rule
I'll need:
Mobo
CPU + cooling
GPU
PSU


hopefully my dvd drive and other stuff hasn't fried:blink:
bumpage
Title: Bang!
Post by: kregoron on November 09, 2009, 01:27:43 AM
Quote from: Blunt;295723bumpage
prefered shop and preferences regarding brands, and budget
Title: Bang!
Post by: b00n on November 09, 2009, 03:21:02 PM
Bang for buck combos you say? I built my 'bang for buck' PC back in March so the 'sweet spot' may have moved on slightly since then, but I'll give a run down of my choices and how they panned out:

CPU: E8400 Core 2 Duo - this was a toss up with a slightly lower clocked quad core, personally I think that today's games still benefit more from higher clock speeds than more cores, YMMV and price points may have changed since then.  I run it with a modest overclock on the stock cooler, no issues. Core 2 Duos are now extremely cheap and extremely overclockable.

GFX: ASUS ATI 4850 - in hindsight I'd go with an nvidia card now as these particular ATI cards are pretty power hungry and not very tolerant of power fluctuations (more on that below).  Also, avoid ASUS like the plague, their support is non-existant.

Mobo: ASUS P5Q SE - decent spec mobo for the price but a bit flaky and, as stated previously, ASUS support is appalling.  I would definitely rethink this choice.

PSU: Winpower 750W - ok so here is really where 'bang for buck' doesn't pay off. This seemingly highly rated PSU started flaking after a few months and the combination of this and a very demanding GFX card meant the GFX card would regularly power down in protest while gaming. A tough problem to diagnose (and here is where I discovered that ASUS support are of no help to anybody), fortunately I tried a shiny new Corsair PSU before replacing anything else - problem solved.  You want a PSU with a nice beefy amp rating on the 12V rail - SINGLE 12V rail, avoid PSUs with multiple 12V rails as they typically don't provide enough juice on either rail.  I can recommend Corsair for this.
Title: Bang!
Post by: Gone_Away on November 09, 2009, 11:52:15 PM
boon.. why would you recommend ASUS when their support is so shite? Don't you like blunt?
Title: Bang!
Post by: Blunt on November 10, 2009, 12:23:12 AM
Quote from: Ninja_Freak;295834boon.. why would you recommend ASUS when their support is so shite? Don't you like blunt?

Quote from: b00n;295780GFX: ASUS ATI 4850 - in hindsight I'd go with an nvidia card now as these particular ATI cards are pretty power hungry and not very tolerant of power fluctuations (more on that below).  Also, avoid ASUS like the plague, their support is non-existant.

Mobo: ASUS P5Q SE - decent spec mobo for the price but a bit flaky and, as stated previously, ASUS support is appalling.  I would definitely rethink this choice.


He likes me:D
Title: Bang!
Post by: Tutonic on November 10, 2009, 08:12:08 AM
Downloading anything from the Asus website is a really miserable experience.

A shame really, considering the high quality of their motherboards.