Hi, I was running a
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Dell Dimension 2400
P4 2.4 Ghz
1 40Gb hard drive for OS
1 160gb hard drive for storage
2GB Ram
Geforce FX 5500
1 Sony DVD-RW/CD-RW dual layer etc. etc. (was an upgrade)
1 CD-RW drive (came with computer)
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I’ve been trying to upgrade this computer over the years (hence the FX5500, 160gb hard drive [that didn’t have a drive bay by the way] and DVD-RW drive) and finally hit a stopping point when I realized that I couldn’t upgrade to a P4 HT cpu because my motherboard didn’t support HT Technology and highest FSB of 400Mhz (BOO!). So I set forth to build a computer half with new parts and half with old parts (ps: in the future I will never attempt this again… just all new parts)
Also, I have installed and reinstalled Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Pro, and SuSE Linux 10.1 and openSuSE 10.2 over and over again on that 40gb hard drive (I’m surprised it even works)
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The new system consisted of this
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Asus P4P800-SE Motherboard
P4 3.0Ghz HT 800Mhz FSB 512 L2 Cache
same 2GB DDR Ram
the same hard drives 40gb for OS & 160gb for storage
same DVD-RW and CD-RW drives
same Geforce FX5500 graphics card
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I’ve been having so many problems since I first put it all together I don’t even remember when it all went sour.
When I first got everything, the new 500W power supply I got with the case had a 24 pin connector and my motherboard had a 20 pin. So while I was waiting to get my converter I used the old 200W from my Dell. It seemed to be running alright except that every once and a while it would either freeze up or randomly restart. I don’t think it was until I put in the new 500W power supply that things started getting real bad.
All of a sudden everytime I started my computer it is in an extremely low resolution with 4-bit colors. I tried everything I could to fix it and finally figured maybe its a virus. So I attempted to reinstall Windows XP Pro SP2. Everytime I tried it wouldn’t finish the format of the drive.
I replaced the 40gb hard drive with a new 160gb and tried again, still same problems but I eventually got past the partitioning stage and to the install stage. It kept having errors copying files from the cd to the hard drive but eventually kind of worked when I restarted and tried installing XP using the CD-RW drive instead of the DVD-RW and resulted in a very unstable (more than Windows usually is :P) XP install.
Hardly any programs would install or work after being installed. The computer was either randomly restarting or freezing all the time and sometimes the resolution would switch back and forth. I tried to repair windows but it happens over and over again.
I changed the voltage on the power supply thinking that was the problem and I think I killed my Geforce FX5500 because the screen would stay off when I powered up my system (don’t worry, it was plugged in, i’m not a complete moron) I checked the card while the computer was running and the fan was barely spinning.
I figured I killed it so I bought a new VisionTek Radeon X1550 256MB (i’m on a budget). And went back to the Dell 200W power supply and the monitor worked again.
I also upgraded my BIOS thinking that was the culprit. Didn’t fix the problem.
Today, I took the power supply out again and took back the hard drive I bought since it wasn’t working. When I got home I put the 200W power supply back in to try once again to reinstall windows on one of my hard drives and the monitor didn’t work again. I checked the new graphics card and the fan was spinning and everything seemed fine…. I hope I didn’t break this one too.
Now I’m just waiting for my new power supply to get here. I ordered a Coolmaster 450W that had very good reviews. Also ordered a new 300Gb Seagate hard drive (Since I’ve tried Maxtor and Western Digital in the past few years and they’ve both failed me)
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Sorry for the novel I’ve written, I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
After reading all of this do you think the problem resides within the hard drives, the dvd or cd roms, the motherboard, the power supply, the ram? do you think its a hardware issue or a virus? should i take the whole thing outside and shoot it? lol please help
