Dead PCI slots??? Help me MCE community Your my Only Hope

[simbot82]

Ok

Abit an8 mainboard with 1gig ram running vista home premium.

I have been floggin this horse for about 18 months, even dropped in a 4200x2 socket 939 CPU to keep it alive all to no avail.

The PCI slots no longer respond to cards being placed in them. Sometimes the cards are recognised in the bios, and sometimes they are not.

I have cleared CMOS, reseated cards and cleaned terminals, removed all components from computer and run of just a switch, hdd and mainboard.

I have also flashed bios to latest and downgraded to earliest but still no luck.

Is there anything else you guys would recommend

[arkay]

Change the powersupply and try again?
Pull the MB/CPU ram everything out and run it up on a bench.

Between the two you should be able to work out if it's a power related issue (short/bad PS) etc.

Cheers,

Arkay.

[simbot82]

yeah its been out on the bench

will try different PSU next

Ram has been moved around and swapped.

will revert back to 3000+ after all that.

Don't like my chances though

[wklopek]

Have you tried toggling any BIOS options to auto-detect the presence of cards to reduce EMI on unused PCI slots?

[simbot82]

Cheers will look into it

Looking good though arkay. Only had a 300w spare power supply to test but plugged everything in and re added cpu and ram and it worked first go.

Cant believe I didnt think of that

[arkay]

Most people don't think about power supplies. Particularly if it's still semi working. I've had dodgy stuff like that before and it's turned out to be the PS. Annoying when you've changed our every other component first!

Cheers,

Arkay.

[simbot82]

thats the thing played till 2:00am fri/sat and 3:00am sat/sun then 8:0opm till 8:15 on sunday changing the power supply

[nikko1974]

I went through a similar type problem with my main PC recently ........pulled out every component - including a good deal of the little hair I have left!.....only to find that it was the PSU.

Too often people really go cheap on the PSU......as its hardly the most sexy component and seen as being all but generic in that one is as good as another.

But really it makes so much more sense to actually devote a good deal of your budget to getting a decent PSU as:

1. Is in all but extreme circumstances the ONLY component that can destroy every other component if it malfunctions (I lost 3 HDDs!)

2. Can save you lots of $$$ - FAR MORE THAN ANY OTHER COMPONENT if you get a very energy effecient one.

3. Why do people get after market heatsinks + ultra quiet fans and then a poor PSU thats loud?

4. Is a component that you can use over and over - so NOT have to upgrade each time.

I will definitely be making more emphasis on buying quality PSUs in my future builds.

[simbot82]

picked up a corsair vx 450. can do 30 amps down 12v line and all cords are sheathed top to bottom. great quality psu and reviewed well by silentpc all for $89