Faulty hardware. What to do?

[SAR704]

This year, my computer has experienced several episodes of it not being able to turn on. Initially it came with some old stock Antec PSU which ran it quite fine for 3 years until the computer stopped turning on early this year. I replaced it with an Antec 520 which ran it ok for about a month until it ran into trouble, which subsequently caused a fault with the hard drive. After not touching the PC for months, I then put a Thermaltake TR2 600 PSU inside it, but also reinstalled windows on a new Hard drive. After about a week of it working without a problem in the world, I went to turn it on, and once again it was as dead as a doornail. This is very strange. At the computer shop, the diagnostics only indicated that a new Windows install would be necessary.

Each time a new PSU goes in, it seems to work fine for so long, and then it dies. Could the motherboard be in need of replacement?

Here are the specs, including what's already been mentioned

Thermaltake TR2 600 (Approx 3 months old)
4GB DDR Ram (exact details unsure of)
Windows 7 home premium 64 bit (recent install)
Intel Core 2 duo 3.0 ghz
Antec Sonata lll case
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
Gigabyte ep45 ud3

[arizonachris]

Older Antek PSU's had bad capacitors. I had more than one ruin an entire PC. Was True Power, maybe Real Power series? I have been using Cooler Master PSU's, cases, heat sink fans, for many a year now and never ever had a problem. A bad PSU can and will damage every single part of a PC.

You could have a damaged motherboard, CPU, even video card or RAM memory. You have a new PSU and hard drive and Windows install. I really can't see Windows being the problem. Thermaltake is very top notch stuff. You have a darn nice PSU. Gigabyte boards are great boards, I have several of them, rock solid boards, but anything can happen as with a bad PSU.

I think you have two choices. Build it all new. Or replace piece by piece, which you are basically doing now. Have you run a disk check on the hard drive to see if you have any bad spots?

I'm still leaning towards a dodgy motherboard. In the meantime, do a "wiggle" check of all the connectors that plug into the motherboard. Could just be a bad connection? (if that works, you owe me a Scotch and soda )

[SAR704]

Hi Chris

All the connectors were checked by a technician prior to a Windows install. For all I know, there could be a link between the 3 year old motherboard in it, and the PSU failing. It just seems odd that it shuts down one day, and refuses to turn on the next.

Is the Gigabyte ep45 ud3 an obsolete board now? That's what the tech told me, but no doubt with some bias towards me throwing down some cash for a new one. He also said the CPU may be obsolete, or incompatible with modern boards.

Just a case of looking before I leap here anyhow.

[arizonachris]

Yeah, that Gigabyte board is discontinued. It's an older socket 775 Intel board. Also DDR2 memory (RAM) all newer boards use DDR3. I'm not an Intel CPU guy, I like AMD chips, so I really don't know what the new Intel i7 or i3 boards are all about.

Taking a PC into any shop, until you get to know the tech/ owner/ etc is always a crap shoot. Upgrades can be tough, new boards don't have IDE connectors for older type hard drives or CD/ DVD drives. No more floppy drives either. My latest quad core PC with a really nice video card was about $600, but I did reuse a lot of the existing parts.

Figuring out why your board won't power on isn't gonna be easy. It could be bad capacitors on the motherboard. Damaged components from the bad power supply. Did you use the new power cord with the new power supply? Try a different wall outlet.

[SAR704]

Well, a lot of signs are pointing to the replacement of the motherboard. Assuming this drastic step is necessary, what would be ideal as a replacement (with RW/moderate gaming in mind) do you think? The DVD drive uses an IDE connection, so that could pose a slight problem, but I haven't used an IDE drive as a main drive since about 2009. I'm looking to spend under $300, and probably throw in a new CPU as well.

[arizonachris]

I'm gonna be ordering this stuff on or after Black Friday, may just get a better price:
http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/Shopp ... ubmit=view
If you were to drop the hard drive, the CPU cooler and the video card, it's well withing reach money wise. The Asrock board uses the cheap DDR3 and I already have that G Skill Ripjaws in my gaming PC (this PC will be for Folding @ Home only) and that board has an IDE connector as well. The Phenom quad core CPU is just fantastic. I buy all my PC hardware from New Egg, they are the best, but they are US/ Canada only (so far) http://www.newegg.com/
If you want to stick with an Intel board and CPU just do some searching on the New Egg site, even if you can't order from them you will get an idea of prices.

This is my gaming PC:
Phenom II 970 CPU (quad core)
Gigabyte GA990XA-UD3
8Gb G Skill RAM
2x 500Gb Western Digital black hard drives
EVGA GTX670 video card
Cooler Master PSU and HAF 922 case
Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit

There is no game that I cannot run on the highest video settings, including RW.