Fried mother board

[syncroid]

I'm really bummed out. My home computer is dead. I thought it was just a bad power supply. I bought a new one last night and installed it this morning. As soon as you plug the computer in it would start running, no hard drive sounds, no video output, no nothing. I took it into a repair place and they are telling me that the power supply cooked the mother board when it went out.
I have most everything backed up, so thats not a real big deal. Just really inconveient. I'm out fifty bucks for diagnosis and eighty bucks for a new power supply. Its been a really good computer up until now. They tell me I can put a new mother board and cpu in and it will work.
It was an AMD based mother board with a socket 939 cpu using pc3200 memory. Operating System was Win XP Pro.
Is this too old of computer stuff to even mess with? Everything else was perfectly fine.
I won't be able to check on this again until tomorrow. Using the wife's lap top at the moment.

[slodave]

Most of the time, some of the caps go bad. I just replace them and pc is fine. Bummer.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by syncroid

I'm really bummed out. My home computer is dead. I thought it was just a bad power supply. I bought a new one last night and installed it this morning. As soon as you plug the computer in it would start running, no hard drive sounds, no video output, no nothing. I took it into a repair place and they are telling me that the power supply cooked the mother board when it went out.
I have most everything backed up, so thats not a real big deal. Just really inconveient. I'm out fifty bucks for diagnosis and eighty bucks for a new power supply. Its been a really good computer up until now. They tell me I can put a new mother board and cpu in and it will work.
It was an AMD based mother board with a socket 939 cpu using pc3200 memory. Operating System was Win XP Pro.
Is this too old of computer stuff to even mess with? Everything else was perfectly fine.
I won't be able to check on this again until tomorrow. Using the wife's lap top at the moment.

Check New Egg. You can probably pickup a cheapo MB and CPU that will work.

[89911]

Hp computer? Had this happen to one I had that wasn't too old.

[syncroid]

I have been poking around on Ebay this morning and found a mb that I think will work for $75.00 bucks. Its new/ old stock. My board is a ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe. The one on Ebay is a ASUS A8N-SLI SE. Anyone know what the big differences are? I built this thing six and a half years ago. (my first home built) I was really into it at the time but not so much anymore. I have forgotten most everything about it since then.
The cpu is a AMD Athlon 3800+ 2.4GHz socket 939. I found a 4000+ on Ebay too for $40.00 bucks.
The guy with the mother board is local for me. (San Ramone) The guy with the cpu is in California but I don't know where.

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by syncroid

As soon as you plug the computer in it would start running, no hard drive sounds, no video output, no nothing. I took it into a repair place and they are telling me that the power supply cooked the mother board when it went out.

I had the identical problem for my Dell while under warranty. I figured it was a mother board but it turned out to be a bad memory card. That said, if the computer is really outdated you may be better off just getting a new machine if you can afford it. Why pour more money into it and then another component goes bad...? Everything out there is bigger, faster, and cheaper than what you paid for your machine back then.

[LSA]

939 is pretty old Although I only run am2 on my gaming desktop so I don't really have much room to talk.

It's not too old to bring back although I would go to something newer, if you're savy enough build your own and use the xp pro license you already have on it.

[RedBaron]

Do you have an OEM or Retail copy of Windows XP? I believe if the OS is an OEM license key and it thinks there is any change in the Motherboard, your license key will not be valid anymore. If it is a retail copy it is fine, though.

[syncroid]

It is worth fixing to me if I can get the mb for $75.00 bucks and the cpu for $55.00 bucks. I still have the original XP disc and the code for it. The cost seems like peanuts now compared to what I paid for all the parts way back then. They were top of the line back then.
I'm not going to fix it myself this time. I'll let the repair shop do it, and I'll pay them the $169.00 labor to swap it out for me. I'll just aquire all the parts for them.

[mikester]

Originally Posted by RedBaron

Do you have an OEM or Retail copy of Windows XP? I believe if the OS is an OEM license key and it thinks there is any change in the Motherboard, your license key will not be valid anymore. If it is a retail copy it is fine, though.

The license key will be fine but due to extensive hardware changes (if you go to a drastically different MB) you may need to do a reinstall to get it right. So long as you have the key (which would be with the installation CD presumably) you'll be fine.

Now - more to the point on the comment - it is Microsoft's stance that OEM licenses are not 'portable' from the computer they were purchased on to a new computer. Still - technically there is nothing really stopping the end user from doing so. Your own ethical compass be your guide in this situation.

To the original issue - what you have is a very old computer setup. If the problem ends up being memory as stated before then you have to buy MORE parts to fix this old girl. At that point I would think that unless you're replacing exactly like for like (there is some benefit in that simplicity) then you can probably check out your local Fry's ad and come away with a better setup probably for not much more.

This week's ads aren't great on the combos for the prices you're looking at now but you get the gist.

I've been building my own PCs for years now and at this point with the price of dell laptops being so low these days - I may be done with that practice. I enjoy it to a point but want to downsize my footprint and don't see the point of moving to a micro-mini atx setup. I do however really like the latest Mac-Mini but that's probably because I'm a bit of a snob.

The biggest problem I see with doing a rebuild with like components on your current setup is getting the memory. At Fry's you can get 8GB of DDR3 memory for $49.99 where as for $49.99 you only get 2GB of PC3200...

Newegg.com - pc3200

Fry's Electronics Ad


You can find great deals on motherboard combos on newegg that are both AMD or Intel based. I would not shy away from the AMD processors at all - they are great with great performance. This time I do have an Intel in my computer but it's the first one I have purchased in probably 6-7 years. The last one I had because someone gave it to me. This one I got because I really liked the MB more than anything else and it was an excellent combo deal from Frys.

[azasadny]

I gave up building my own PC's years ago. I simply cannot compete with the prices that the big manufacturers are selling them for. Buying the software costs me more than I can buy a PC for. I can use Linux, but many people need applications that run on Windows, so they're stuck. I have been buying Dells for a long time and have been mostly satisfied with them.

[mikester]

Originally Posted by azasadny

I gave up building my own PC's years ago. I simply cannot compete with the prices that the big manufacturers are selling them for. Buying the software costs me more than I can buy a PC for. I can use Linux, but many people need applications that run on Windows, so they're stuck. I have been buying Dells for a long time and have been mostly satisfied with them.

You know you don't have to buy the software every time you rebuild right?

I swear - I used the same XP disc for probably 8 years (purchased new from a retailer when XP came out). It wasn't an OEM and every time I rebuilt my PC I'd pop that bad boy in. I purchased Office a few times through my company's 'Home use' program for probably about $10-20 each time. I've had MS sales folks give me copies of software as well (legitimate sales promotions) which is how I got Windows 7 Ultimate on this PC. I'm certain that this Windows 7 license will make it onto my next rebuild once it is time for that. This computer though is a Quad core Intel with 8 GB of ram for me to do Email and Browse the Pelicanernet with the occasional Flight simulation. I also use VMWare to test things on occasion so that is why I maxed out the RAM. This thing is flipping sweet...

I'm just saying, my software costs have been probably $500 total in 10 years. I am sure I've spent quite a bit more in bits and pieces of my computers in that time.

For friends and families - I recommend the Dell route. Even my wife's using a Dell now. I only build my own PC these days. I will build my kids a PC though - mainly to teach them HOW to do it themselves so that they know how they work. Teach them to fish I always say.

[syncroid]

Update: I delivered the mobo and cpu today to the repair shop and called this evening for an update. Its up and running, but they are still running tests on the memory and so forth. Maybe ready tomorrow but probably Monday. I'm jazzed but have kind of gotten used to using my wife's laptop. Never been a laptop kind a guy.
More later

[nota]

Originally Posted by syncroid

It is worth fixing to me if I can get the mb for $75.00 bucks and the cpu for $55.00 bucks. I still have the original XP disc and the code for it. The cost seems like peanuts now compared to what I paid for all the parts way back then. They were top of the line back then.
I'm not going to fix it myself this time. I'll let the repair shop do it, and I'll pay them the $169.00 labor to swap it out for me. I'll just aquire all the parts for them.

buy a new i3 from tiger with W7 a way faster for the same 400

why fix old slow out dated stuff

minimum buy a good 4 core amd3 or core2quad used for 200

[Por_sha911]

Let us know what the problem was.

[wdfifteen]

Mmm. Not a recipe thread, huh?

[syncroid]

Update.
The computer is still in the shop. I think the "so called NEW" mother board that I bought on Ebay may be a problem. They have tried swapping cpu's, graphics cards, memory...etc. etc. Right now the replacement mother board I supplied is out being tested. The problems they have encountered are: No video output what so ever, and no audio beep codes on start up.
I called on it today to check progress and there does not seem to be any.
I've been getting used to using my wife's laptop in the mean time. If they can't fix my box, then I will be getting a laptop to replace it. I'll have them put all my information from the hard drives on a mobil drive that I can just transfer to the replacement computer.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by azasadny

I gave up building my own PC's years ago. I simply cannot compete with the prices that the big manufacturers are selling them for. Buying the software costs me more than I can buy a PC for. I can use Linux, but many people need applications that run on Windows, so they're stuck. I have been buying Dells for a long time and have been mostly satisfied with them.

This is not correct. I built 5 PCs in the past year and they are all way better for the money. NewEgg has excellent pricing.

OTOH, they also sell complete PCs. I picked a desktop unit and a laptop recently for my sister, better and cheaper than Dell.

[syncroid]

Its official. I got hosed by the seller on Ebay. The mother board is junk!

[red-beard]

What OS do you want on there? NewEgg has PCs for under $200 with XP Pro on them.