firewire card killed computer?

[adambuttress]

Hi All.

I did my furst build last week and everything was running perfectly. I tried adding a pci firewire card today, and it didn't seem to install correctly. Eventually I hit a blue screen of death that said recently installed hardware may be causing a problem. So I shut down the computer and removed the firewire card to try and reinstall.

Now when I boot up, however, I get no signal to monitor. Everything runs and all my fans hard drives are going, but no signal.

Could my firewire card have killed my video card? Any ideas? Help.

[newbuilder14]

Full system specs, please?

[adambuttress]

RAIDMAX X1 ATX-909WBP Black/ Silver 0.7mm Japanese SECC Body / Aluminum Faceplate ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450watts PS2 ATX12V SATA Ready Power Supply

GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

SAPPHIRE 100189L Radeon X1900GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 (RoHS) CrossFire Video Card

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) System Memory Model VS1GB667D2 x 2

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6400

When I boot up, I get one beep and everything seems to run...it's just the no signal to the monitor that seems to be the problem.

[newbuilder14]

This may not be the problem but I must tell you that power supply you have there is unreliable and should not be trusted to run your nice components. I'd suggest replacing it with this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104954

And if your video card has an additional power adapter, and the power supply is bad, then yes the video card could not give any output, resulting in a 'No Signal' message from your monitor.

[whubbard]

Well, wait, you were getting the blue screen of death...so the video card was giving the output

[newbuilder14]

Yes but now he has no signal, indicating no input to monitor at the moment.

[whubbard]

hmm...yeah, I guess he should try a different PSU

[adambuttress]

Thanks everyone!

I ran out and grabbed a new PSU and it seems to have the solved the problem. Haven't tried the firewire card again, but hopefully it was just the bad PSU.

I got an Antec Smartpower 2.0 450w...does that sound like a good solution?

[newbuilder14]

Yes. I use one in one of my PCs.

[adambuttress]

Thank you newbuilder14.

[newbuilder14]

No problem, my best guess is the power supply gave out on the line that powers the video card.

[whubbard]

I hate bad PSUs...
Glad you got your problem worked out.

[adambuttress]

Thanks whubbard.

[adambuttress]

Hey guys.

After replacing the PSU last night, I've noticed my CPU fan seems to run intermittently. Sometimes it won't even stop, it will just start to slow, and then speed back up again. My temps seem fine, but I didn't know whether the CPU fan even should run constantly, or only as needed to maintain cool temps.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[Cricket]

The newer 4 wire heatsink fans used with Intel processors are the thermal sensing type...runs faster when CPU is working hard...slows down when CPU isn't working hard.

:) Cricket

[adambuttress]

The newer 4 wire heatsink fans used with Intel processors are the thermal sensing type...runs faster when CPU is working hard...slows down when CPU isn't working hard.

:) Cricket


Thanks!

So if I just keep an eye on temps (use SpeedFan) I should be good? Since this is my first build I may be a little paranoid.

[Alaron]

Yup. Check your temps with the BIOS too, Speedfan is not always accurate. But Cricket said why the speed is not constant, dont worry. Core 2 Duos run cool.

[adambuttress]

Great!

Thanks to everyone who's helped answer my questions and diagnose my problems. :)