A 'Puter Problem

[Typhoon Willy]

Hi all,

I have a Compaq SR5510F, AMD Athalon X2 5000 Dual Core Processor, 4gb Ram, 500gb hd, Windows Vista Home Premium. My video card crapped out, I diagnosed this by the beeping pattern when I tried to boot up. I installed a PhsyX GeForce 8400GS by Nvidia and all seemed well for a short time and then the system locked up and had to do a hard shut down (I believe that's what it's called). Tried to reboot, but after the initial start up screen appears, it locks up again. I replaced the hard drive but again, after the initial start up screen this system locks up. Before I sink any more money into this thing, can anybody possibly tell me what might be ailing my rig?

Thanks in advance,

TW

[Shessi]

Hi TW,
Hmmm, could be a couple of things. Did you fully clear out the old drivers? If in doubt, uninstall the new card completely, run a registry cleaner at the end, so you are starting from fresh. Install just the standard drivers that came with the card (or from the net site). See how yer go from there. If working, stable etc, then try to upgrade the drivers and see what happens.

The other possibility is a bad/failing RAM module or slot. Before the above try removing all you RAM and then trying each module in the first RAM slot (CFS2 only needs 128Mb to run, Vista 32bit will run (just) on 512Mb). Again trial and error. If all ok, then pair the RAM modules and try that. I doubt it was the HDD, but may be a motherboard problem.

Let us know.

Cheers

Shessi

[Milton Shupe]

Shessi is on it. Can you bring it up in SAFE mode?

[simonu]

Check your power supply unit is up to the job of running your new video card.

[Typhoon Willy]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your input. I've not had a chance to do further check things out as I'm going to school full time while off work.

Shessi: No, I didn't clean out the old drivers and don't believe I can boot up in safe mode but will give it a try. Think I'll try out the ram first.

Simonu: Is there some way I can tell if the power supply cannot handle the vid card? I didn't get a massive card, it is on the lower end.

EDIT: I removed the wireless card that was installed and removed one of the two memory cards, plugged everything up, hit the power button and bingo, it booted right up. I did a proper shut down to test the other memory card and now the thing won't even turn on. The green power light on the back is on (NOT BLINKING). I tried reinstalling the first memory card but still no joy. I did leave in the replacement video card when I booted up successfully. It's getting late, so I'll have another go at it tomorrow.

Kind regards,

TW