Total PC Failure?? HELP

[Re83L]

Hi guys, a friend of mine had a total PC failure an hour and a half ago, he requested that I post here to try and see if you guys knows what has happened here...

1. He recently bought a 8800GTX, installed it (in place of 2x7800GTX SLi) and everything was working perfectly for the past few days.
2. I want to buy one of his 7800GTX's, so I went by to check whether it's working...
3. We installed the 7800GTX into his PC, turned the PC on, fans went on, but nothing else...
4. Swopped the cards back around , tried turning his pc on, same thing.
5. All that happens is his fans start up for a few seconds, nothing shows on the screen, his power led just flashes...

Does anybody have a clue as to what might be the cause? Motherboard failure or screencard that might have buggered things up?
P.S. - I know the description is vague, but really, that's all that happens...

 

[|tera|]

Switch off the pc. Take out the plugs at the back of the pc, unplug everything. Unplug the mobo power connector from the mobo, which comes from the PSU.

Remove the CMOS battery for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Put everything back in the same order> battery>mobo power>plugs.

Test now

 

[Brawler]

I had the exact same problem last week, PC completely dead besides for the fans spinning at low RPM & cathodes dimmed.
Was the PSU.

 

[kronoSX]

I had this problem to and all i did was remove my ram chips,then started the pc with one chip then restarted with both chips,fixed.This happens why,i dont know...its a man made thing

 

[Re83L]

I know this is a noob question, but :
What's the chance it was the screencard that he's looking to sell?

And oh yeah - almost forgot:
Thanks for the help thus far!!!

 

[killadoob]

dont u have to put power on and then off again tera for the battery thing to work?

 

[3g usr]

The same thing happened to me a year ago... Couldn't figure it out, checked everything, rebuilt everything, took parts out tested in another pc, that pc stopped working, put parts back in my pc, wouldn't work, I hit the heatsink, blew my CPU and Mobo, bought new ones... now it works

 

[|tera|]

dont u have to put power on and then off again tera for the battery thing to work?

Yip, I believe that's what I meant killa That's why I said disconnect the mobo power too, so there shouldn't be any power in the motherboard.

It's actually best to read the motherboard manual, do all the steps and use the clear cmos jumper, it's easier than removing the battery

 

[3g usr]

dont u have to put power on and then off again tera for the battery thing to work?

Yip, I believe that's what I meant killa That's why I said disconnect the mobo power too, so there shouldn't be any power in the motherboard.

It's actually best to read the motherboard manual, do all the steps and use the clear cmos jumper, it's easier than removing the battery

If you just plug power out of your PSU / MB the caps still contains a charge. You must always remove power from a PC's PSU, and then hit the power button. In most cases CPU/case fans will start spinning up and then stop after a second or two. After this it is safe to remove equipment from your computer.

 

[|tera|]

Okay, that's pretty cool, didn't know that before. I'm not a techie lol, I know the minimal stuff

 

[adamr]

Frag, thanks for your help while my PC was KO ... did get a 8800GTX for R4500 ... Nvidia reference board beleive it or not ... it sid appear to knock out my Antec TP2 550W ... would not beleive it was the PSU but it was the PSU ... got a 750W Silverstone now ... hope it does not go KO as well.... cause i spent good money on these supplies ...

 

[3g usr]

Frag, thanks for your help while my PC was KO ... did get a 8800GTX for R4500 ... Nvidia reference board beleive it or not ... it sid appear to knock out my Antec TP2 550W ... would not beleive it was the PSU but it was the PSU ... got a 750W Silverstone now ... hope it does not go KO as well.... cause i spent good money on these supplies ...

Yeah, nowadays computers are power hungry, I run 2x 500W PSU's on my one system just to get enough power to all the components so that the machine doesn't reboot all the time