# i have the worst luck



## Spook (Jan 21, 2009)

yea its me again guys ok my new psu came in my day was going great today! ok i open the box take out the psu plug in everything just to hear a pop and a sizzle then the burning smell coming from my rear fan so i quickly disconnected the psu from the back. i disconnected the fan which is probably dead.. ok the computer only turns on if i press the switch on the psu on the rear and the mobo is giving off a red light. never posted anything and no beeps no nothing the cpu fan turns on and the other case fan as well so does the psu it just wont frggin post anything!! what am i doing wrong!! the HD 4830 fan WONT turn on though but when i switch it off it twitches. i never connected front panel cables before but i think their "ok". lollerskater has been trying to help me for a while but to no avail. if its a dead mobo or GPU ill try to rma but there has to be a fix for this...seriously.....if you guys need pics check the photobucket of mine.  http://s96.photobucket.com/albums/l173/mike1417/ you'll also find some of my sigs..
 Thanks in advance and sorry for SUCH A LONG POST. any other info ask ill try to provide. ~Spook


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## Duxx (Jan 21, 2009)

The fan that you said that started burning, is it connected onto your mobo, or through a molex from your PSU?  Have you tried using your old PSU again?  Make sure all the connections go to the right areas and you aren't plugging soemthing in wrong, i know it may sound simple, but my friend managed to fail at it once..


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## v12dock (Jan 21, 2009)

I would do a inspection of everything else maybe something was damaged, and try different parts ect try to rule out what may be causing the problem. Also did you reset the cmos


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## Spook (Jan 21, 2009)

yea i have yet to figure out any other reason....man i just want this thing up and running so bad!! btw cmos?? how?


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## v12dock (Jan 21, 2009)

There will be a jumper on your motherboard 

http://www.nordichardware.com/skrivelser_img/432/cmos.jpg

Like seen in that picture look in your manual for the location
99% of my issues are fixed by reseting it


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## Spook (Jan 21, 2009)

alright ill try that when i get back from work. keep going with he suggestions anything that will fix this thing!


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## v12dock (Jan 21, 2009)

Also I was thinking back when I had my Pentium 4 reseating the processor fixed my not posting issues


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## Laurijan (Jan 22, 2009)

You were lucky that you didnt electrify yourself when turning off the PSU


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## Spook (Jan 22, 2009)

Lol thanks the CPU reseting it? meaning take it out and put it back in? ill try that also thanks for your help guys hopefully one of these solutions will ACTUALLY fix this! Evening Bump 
 Ok i reset the CMOS that didnt work....any other ideas??


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## Spook (Jan 24, 2009)

bump! ^,^


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 24, 2009)

@Spook



Duxx said:


> The fan that you said that started burning, is it connected onto your mobo, or through a molex from your PSU?  Have you tried using your old PSU again?  Make sure all the connections go to the right areas and you aren't plugging soemthing in wrong, i know it may sound simple, but my friend managed to fail at it once..



Try out his suggestions first. Sound like you got a dud power supply and may have taken a few components with it. SO try a new COMPLETELY DIFFERENT brand/model power supply.

Heck .. 

Whats your budget and where you located I can give you a couple links


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## Spook (Jan 24, 2009)

yea i dont have another powersupply i ordered this one a couple of days ago. im in NYC  Budget uhm....i've already went over....


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 24, 2009)

Give me full system specs please


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## Spook (Jan 24, 2009)

Ok uhm Biostar TP45HP, 4GB (2x2) A-DATA VITESTA or VIETSA forgot the name..ATI Radeon HD4830, Corsair TX650 Coolermaster 690 mid-tower Case, Intel Core 2 Duo E8400. i think thats about it...oh and my old 320gb HDD Wester Digital.


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 24, 2009)

Interesting.

Also upon looking in the pictures ....

Did you use these ....





... to fasten the motherboard to your case?


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## Aevum (Jan 24, 2009)

JrRacinFan said:


> Interesting.
> 
> Also upon looking in the pictures ....
> 
> ...




that reminds me of a great story, 
we were building a system, me and my friend, and we removed a old motherboard from a Lian Li V2000 case, and put in a new Asrock Sata2 Socket 939 mobo, the thing dosnt post, the board just frizzles to its death, we just stare at it, we take the board to the store, have it replaced, we take a new board home, same result, we change the board again, the guys at the shop looking at us funny, we take it home, we do a cardboard box build (build basic system on the motherboard´s box) and it posts nicly, we put it in to the case, frizzle....

we said "F this" and we took the whole machine to the store, they said 1 week all smiling, 
1 week later : we call them, they basicly sound like that computer is the worst curse every layed upon them and ask for more time, 
2 weeks after that : they hand him back the computer and basicly tell us to never come back....

we check the box, it was a separator screw, like one in the picture, that didnt have a corresponding hole on the motherboard and was touching a voltage regulator,
so every time you powered up the computer, fizz....


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## Spook (Jan 25, 2009)

Holy crap lol!! yea i used most of those screws except for the gold ones. you think that's the porblem?


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## Conflict0s (Jan 25, 2009)

O dear, erm i would advice using the gold ones, But if you havent then i would say it is ok aslong as you have spacing between your Motherboard and your case, Other wise your case turns into a massive wire that connects every little solder joint together lol, Not good.


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## mikek75 (Jan 25, 2009)

Conflict0s said:


> O dear, erm i would advice using the gold ones, But if you havent then i would say it is ok aslong as you have spacing between your Motherboard and your case, Other wise your case turns into a massive wire that connects every little solder joint together lol, Not good.



Come on now, don't confuse the man....If you haven't used the brass standoffs then that is the problem, full stop. (Hows he going to have spacing between the mobo and case without using standoffs/spacers??)


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## ChiSox (Jan 25, 2009)

Yeah gotta use standoffs or you are doomed, also only use identical screws cause they all conduct differently. Does your mobo have on board video?? If it does I would connect only the cpu, ram, psu, monitor and keyboard. Then boot and see if you can get in the bios. Then add disk drive repeat boot. Then Hard Drive repeat boot etc. until you have all you hardware installed. Good way to identify issues immediately.


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## Conflict0s (Jan 25, 2009)

mikek75 said:


> Come on now, don't confuse the man....If you haven't used the brass standoffs then that is the problem, full stop. (Hows he going to have spacing between the mobo and case without using standoffs/spacers??)



Playdo ?


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## Spook (Jan 25, 2009)

ok ill unmount EVERYTHING (pain in the butt) and mount everything one at a time wait...no i dont think i can because my motherboard doesnt have on-board gpu...thanks for the advice guys lol playdo xD


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## Aevum (Jan 25, 2009)

what you can do is box mount it, take the motherboard box, take out the sponge and the antistatic envalope the motherboard came  in, put the sponge, envalope and then the motherboard on it, very important becuase the sponge bit isnt anti static, its just there as a shock absorbant, 

mount basic motherboard, cpu, HSF, video card and memory on it, with psu ofcource, 
if it posts, add fans, then hard drives, and other devices and cards,
 if it all works fine on the cardboard, means you should rechcek the case, see that theres no loose wires, pertruding bits, all raiser screws have corresponding holes on the motherboard, 

btw, most mid and high end motherboards today bring a on and reset botton on the motherboard itself, atleast my MSI does, but in case it dosnt, you can turn it on and off by shorting the 2 pins where the case power switch connects,


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## Spook (Jan 25, 2009)

great just frggin great right now i just unmounted everything and remounted and guess what my Corsair 650TX wont turn on!!! it unplugged whatever it was plugged in (i.e 24pin connector ,pcie molex etc.) and then plugged into a wall mount... nothing tried another nothing OMG WHAT THE *blank* man im tired of my luck going like this................im not a genuis but the psu mighty be dead right? .................. -.-"

if the psu isnt dead (90% sure it is) ill try box mounting this thing.. or ill just take a hammer and make quick use of everything...


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## ChiSox (Jan 25, 2009)

Man thats a case of bad luck.....sux. 

Try plugging in the power cord before plugging into the wall then plug the cord into the psu with the circuit closed (do this from now on also) 

closed-->  O/-  <--open

Then flip it to open and try to boot

When unplugging always close the circuit wait like 10-15 seconds and then unplug it drains most of the power from the board so you dont trip it

It def sounds like a PSU problem. Do you have fry's or a staples near you?? If so they have killer return policies and staples actually has decent Antec PSU's.


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## Altered (Jan 25, 2009)

Spook where are you at? Maybe a TPU member is near you that can help walk you through your build. Never hurts to have extra brain power especially one with experience in case a issue like this comes around.


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## Spook (Jan 25, 2009)

Yea definitely...Well im in NYC manhattan the worst city  (-.-") but yea there is a staples like 10 blocks away from my apartment...i guess ill have my first time in RMAing something....which i have NO CLUE how to do jesus this sucks so much man.....anyways thanks guys any "first time" advice for RMA process for me? Thanks again guys its good to know you guys are here to lend a helping hand


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## Altered (Jan 25, 2009)

Always keep the original receipts etc just send copies only. 
Package it back just as well as it was sent to you preferably in its original bag and box.
Follow their RMA instructions to the hilt. If your unsure get confirmation from their support site preferable in email so you have a copy to back you up. 

Just a few I thought of quickly.

Im too far away but someone else may be able to help you.


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## Spook (Jan 25, 2009)

thanks Altered  
UPDATE my friend came over today we just did some trouble shooting. Guess what guys the frggin psu IS alive!!! we tried it on my Dell Dimesnion 4400 which is 20 pin and it turned on and my old Dimension 4400 posted normally like it would!!! the fan on the psu was spinning i fel relief and anger at the same time lol. ok so we tried on the new rig same problem it wouldnt even turn on no lights on mobo nothing the GPU we took it out "i have an AGP on 4400 but i just connected the pci-e and the gpu fan started spinning too. so either mobo is dead or the cpu is...


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## Aevum (Jan 26, 2009)

theres a test you can do, you basicly short the ground and the on and grn, and the PSU should turn on, i dont remember what pins, but it was easy do to, i even did it with a paper clip once,


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## Spook (Jan 27, 2009)

so guys is there a possibility of the CPU also being dead or just the mobo?


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## Laurijan (Jan 27, 2009)

Spook said:


> so guys is there a possibility of the CPU also being dead or just the mobo?



If it got a voltage spike while the PSU failed yes..


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## Spook (Jan 27, 2009)

well the psu DOES LIVE but im not sure yet...so should i just rma the board? or both?


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## Laurijan (Jan 27, 2009)

Spook said:


> well the psu DOES LIVE but im not sure yet...so should i just rma the board? or both?



Do you have a friend who has a same socket mobo as you where you could test your parts one by one?


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## Spook (Jan 27, 2009)

nope again case of bad luck.


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 27, 2009)

Odds are its the motherboard, I would start there.


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## madmanjohn (Jan 27, 2009)

this all reminds me of two bad situations:

going from micro atx to full, near the fron middle of the mount plate is two mount holes appox 1 1/2 inches apart some micro atx use the upper, some the lower at the corner by the switch pins.

buddy of mine in midst of a build didnt catch the hp bubble face case that had the raised steel bump at the upper and proceeded to mount a brand new asus full atx in it and proceeded to fog his room before it was over. psu,mobo and cpu toast.

same dude six months later; totally diffgerent rig but this wasnt his, building it for someone else. some psu's have the extra 4 pin plug that fits just so at the one end, i know theres a name for this and im not looking it up youall know what i mean- calls me up- i tell him ther should be a notch that lines the extra four pins up and sort of locks them together to make one big full plug. should click into place. four phonecalls and 1 hr later i finally go to his house and i swear to god he got it in place but off turn. if ya cant fit, force it- thing was so tight i nearly broke it pulling the plug out.never force anything, it should be snug but if you need more force than it takes to break a standing egg with your pinky your pushin too hard.

i always plug everything up on the foam pad before i put the cpu in, and before the board is in the case. its a lot easier to catch a suprise in full unobstructed view-same for mounting the mobo- there aint nothing in the case and done in an extremely well lit room to make sure the only things contacting the backside of the board are the things that belong.

unless its a discontinued pc chips then anything goes

also- always doublecheck every mobo jumper before power up--you never know until you KNOW


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## Spook (Jan 28, 2009)

Thanks for the advice Madmanjohn  you too JRacingFan  . Who should i call for the RMA Biostar or Newegg? this may sound stupid but what should i tell them? i did bend the northbridge heatsink a bit should i say it came DOA or Damaged what do you guys suggest? *thinks to self* i sound like a total noob <_<


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## Altered (Jan 28, 2009)

Spook go into the User CP and fill out your system specs so people can see exactly what you have. It will help answering your questions. If it is still in the newegg warranty period I would tell them it doesnt work and get a replacement. They are usually faster than the manufacturer. I will say I have had excellent dealings with Biostar people. Always courtios and nice to deal with so if its out of warranty go to them and say it quit and you need a new one. I dont lie but I may just be for a lack of better terms noobish.  Which I am on some fronts anyway. 
Example: Wife asks where did you go last night? I say "out". See you dont go into any details and always stay with the original answer.


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## Spook (Jan 28, 2009)

Lol thanks a ton Altered ^^. now i have a NEW problem my old 320GB WesterDigital i was going to use in the new build wont work in my Dimension 4400. you can see it in the bios and everywhere else but "my computer" so i cant really access it. my friend suggested reinstalling windows xp all over again...i really dont have the urge to format my whole primary for this <_<.... the 320GB is in Slave by the way.


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 28, 2009)

Regarding the 320GB 

OK right click "My Computer" go to "Manage"






Then go to "Storage"->"Disk Management". Give us a screenshot of how it looks.


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## Spook (Jan 28, 2009)

Yea it wont show up here either it used to be named "D:" heres the screeny


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## Altered (Jan 28, 2009)

Did you ever hear of Data Lifeguard Tools? Go to WD site and get the correct version for your hdd.  It has a utility that if it can be saved it will usually do the trick. Just familiarize yourself with it, it is pretty simple to navigate. I have had the same issues with some drives and it will magically make them appear. haha


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## Spook (Jan 28, 2009)

lol yea i remember the CD the HDD came with had it thanks man i never would've thought of that . lets see if this works
Edit: its being stupid i open DataLifeguard Tools and it doesnt pop up.. ok i wait a while nothing...i decide to check windows task manager its there but its using 00 Cpu and 5,904K but its not visually on the taks bar or anything. heres a screeny:


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 28, 2009)

WTF? So it shows in bios .. how about device manager? Any exclamation points?

I haz feelin' u may need to format it ...


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## Spook (Jan 28, 2009)

in device manager it shows fine too...yea so do i....damn my dad is gonna be so pissed for losing all of his songs....yea maybe i should just stick to my Xbox 360.....


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 28, 2009)

Hmmm ...

Are you sure it doesn't show up under disk management?


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## Spook (Jan 28, 2009)

yea here wait ill take a screenshot again


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 28, 2009)

Thank you! Now that is very very weird. I have never seen that happen before.


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## Spook (Jan 28, 2009)

Lol welcome i should actually be thanking you man you've been nothing but help  . well on my side its actually very annoying. oh side detail forgot to add the computer takes YEARS to boot now ever since i tried to build the other rig... Oh and yea most of my icons, programs that were installed in the secondary now just show up blank like a blank window you can see it in the above screen shot nextto the taskbar. the icon nex to Firefox is supposed to be Photoshop CS3...


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## js01 (Jan 29, 2009)

Are you sure you have the jumpers installed correctly? This definently sounds like a grounding problem.


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## Spook (Jan 29, 2009)

yea i left them the same.


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## js01 (Jan 29, 2009)

the standoffs I always called them jumpers should look like this against the back plate.


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## Spook (Jan 29, 2009)

oh you mean those? i think the mobo is just completely gone dude...and thats on the new rig i've tried to build..so yea....im going to RMA the board...and now my old 320GB is acting up.


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## madmanjohn (Jan 29, 2009)

i saw that happen with this one once- i tried all the normal stuff

just for kicks- reinstall the current chipset driver- in the process of the reinstall, it may make it re-read the drive-

i was at an all else fails point once and that "psyched" the board into reidentifying it in vista-

saved me from a reboot- no guarentees though

when it shows fine in bios, but not in vista-you dont have much to lose- the suggestion made earlier about wd diagnostics is good too- it should show up there even if vista is not seeing it.

ill be watching to see how it all comes out


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## Spook (Jan 30, 2009)

ok after much annoyance...i opened up the case again reconnected the drive and rebooted...it took years to load up again...then i opened up Data Lifeguard tools again...it took years to open up to it finally "recognized" the drive and i set it up...which probably means i lost everything in that Drive :'( . after it finished i went to my computer and nothing only the primary!?! i was like WTF!!! i kept at it again and this time i went to Drive information or something like that and look at what i found!


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## Altered (Jan 30, 2009)

Yeah you can set it up there now to format it over but that just means it wipes it. All will be lost but it will repair it to be used for windows and or I presume vista. Then it showes back up in the operating system for use.  I have had several drives pull that crap but WD Tool has always repaired it for me. 

Did I count 93 desktop shortcuts? LOL


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 30, 2009)

Guys correct me if I am wrong but, doesn't that look liek it has both drives in RAID 1?


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## Spook (Jan 30, 2009)

lol Altered dont ask. this comp is full of`crud xD. ive already tried setting it up 3 times and it says its "complete" but the HDD still wont show up and everything stays the same...in my computer i only see Local Disk "C" which is my main drive where i installed Windows XP.....im about to just copy all the "important" stuff which are my dads music files...and just reformat the thing....JRacingFan i have no idea how to set up RAID so yea...


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## hat (Jan 30, 2009)

whats with all the hacking? heh


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## Spook (Jan 30, 2009)

uhm...uhm.... i can explain LOL!!!!
Edit: btw guys can i RMA more than one product if i have ONE UPS Shipping label?? and do i use one of the boxes that newegg shipped me or at UPS do they give me a new one? ( yes its like teaching a baby to walk...sorry bout this guys...like i said first time..)


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 30, 2009)

2 different boxes, 2 different items, 2 different RMA #'s.


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## Spook (Jan 30, 2009)

Thanks JrRacinFan i had to buy a frggin box since my mom was rushing me to meet her at UPS and forgot to take the newegg box....so i just bought on for $4  . Maybe i should RMA the heatsink too because "it came with a broken pin on the mounting board". meh ill think about it Thanks again for the help JrRacinFan. Well i think its off to reformat BOTH drives....i hate this month...its been nothing but hell for me...


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## Spook (Jan 31, 2009)

well guys i REFORMATTED EVERYTHING and installed windows 7 oh yea  . its pretty sexy and fast too! but guess what ITS STILL THERE IT WONT GO AWAY!!! this problem is like a frggin virus man it wont give up easily i uploaded some screenshots of what is happening NOW. i can see it in Disk Management but it wont show up in my computer and then i get this i/o error...i also tried with DataLifeguard tools...


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## CH@NO (Jan 31, 2009)

Spook said:


> ...its been nothing but hell for me...



Mybe It's off-topic, but I feel like you, since upgrading my past VGA 'till today I'm having a lot of issues with my upgraded hardware...

1.- Upgraded my HD3850 for a 9800GT, the 9800GT arrived faulty (dont knew it 'till later), and cannot RMA it.

2.- In the process of making the 9800GT to work, my floppy drive maked a bad flash of my EP35-DS3L mobo, corrupting the BIOS and leaving me a piece of garbage.

3.- Had to buy an 8800GTS (320MB) that are a little more better than my past HD3850, but takes a lot of more power....so my main upgrade will was totally lost.

4.- I was forced to buy a new mobo, so I choose a PQ5-E from Asus, and the onboard sound came dead, and had random lock ups, I dunno why, so I'm currently trying to sell it at a decent price to buy another P35 Gigabyte mobo.

5.- As you can see in the past 2 months I had a lot of issues with my rig, hope in the next 2 weeks I'll finally buy the rest of the HW I need to make my rig work to the way I want.

I tell you this just to say that don't give up, have patience and in the end all will work.


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## Spook (Jan 31, 2009)

Thanks Chano  its good to know im not the only one lol. now if only someone could tell me what the new screenshots i took mean..


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## Spook (Feb 1, 2009)

BUMP sorry guys..just need a bit of help


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## Altered (Feb 2, 2009)

Wish I could help more but Im out of ideas and I sure dont know anything about Vista or Win7 so maybe someone else can chime in.


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## Spook (Feb 2, 2009)

Yea the drive was pronounced dead yesterday at 11:44pm....even when i tried to re install Windows XP SP3 PRO again it said "Drive cannot be accessed" so yea...i popped it out and popped in a 80GB seagate and it booted up straight...so i guess the mobo took the HDD with it....guys what else might it have taken too?! The 4830 is still working the fan spins on at least thats a sign of life at least.. i cant test the ram,cpu or blu ray drive either...so yea.....i dunno if they died...


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## Spook (Feb 4, 2009)

bumpy ^^


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## JrRacinFan (Feb 4, 2009)

@Spook

Ok I need a re-cap on this thread. SO far what do you have working and what don't you have working? Able to test video card in a different PC?


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## Spook (Feb 5, 2009)

Sup JrRacinFan! so les go lol ok when we were troubleshooting the PSU because we (friend and i, you guys too) thought it was dead we took out my old Ultra from this comp and tried to turn this comp on with the Corsair 650TX and it started up right away! by the way this comp is the Dell Dimension crappy 4400 ( a little modded). so we definitely knew the motherboard was dead. the HD 4830 we tried to see if at least the fan would spin because in the Biostar it would not. the dell has a AGP slot so we only connected the pci-e on the back of the card to let it get power miraculously the fan started spinning on it too. so know we know the 320GB i tried to use for the new rig is dead. the mobo is dead i sent it to be RMA'ed. the E8400 i have nowhere to try out neither do i have the ram which is A-DATA VITESTA or VIETSA whatever so i dont know if they are gone also...maybe i should rma them just in case?? i think that pretty much covers it all...now im stuck witih buying a new SATA drive since the old dead 320 was EIDE anyways...
do you guys think the RAM and the CPU might be gone also?


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## JrRacinFan (Feb 5, 2009)

RAM Video card CPU and psu are still ok. Gotta wait for that motherboard.


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## Spook (Feb 16, 2009)

HOLY **** IT LIVES!!!!!!! IT LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   ok got that outta my system i finally did it!!! my new board was rma'd a couple of days ago and me and my friend set to work on this baby!! we finally managed to install everything and it was booting but guess what the E8400 was booting up as 79C im like wtf thats not normal. after hours of aggravation and thinking about rma-ing the CPU too we finally figured out the damn heatsink wasnt making Full Contact with the thing! we booted it up again and Voila!! 29C  . im using a old crapp 40GB EIDE drive though my 320GB sata comes in today. i want to thank EVERY SINGLE PERSON in TPU that stuck by me and gave me all their support throught this nightmare. seriously i could hit thanks more than once you would all have double the amount of thanks in your score ^.^ .


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