problem turning pc on

[wraper]

Oh, my  . Really, take some piece of wire or whatever and hack the cooler. Or even better, use only 2 holders on opposite sides, should be good enough to work. As you already don't use this PC, dissemble that PSU finally. My guesstimate based on experience is that, with 90% probability, fault is there.

[Monkeh]

I have a suspicion he means the pushpins.

Don't let your friend touch anything again.

[wraper]

I have a suspicion he means the pushpins.

I understand that. Also can hack it with using something like screw and nut instead, to make as reliable as it was originally. Upgrading i7-2600k does not make much sense either, especially if don't want to spend much money. Not that much performance will be gained unless buying at least 6 core CPU (CPUs really stagnated all those years). Fix the cooler and buy new PSU to fix the issue (if too lazy to be bothered fixing the old one) and GPU + SSD (if want real upgrade).

[rdl]

...

still getting the error Nvidia Display driver stopped working and has recovered ect well only had it pop up twice in 4 times i used the pc 

funny thing is i played gta v for about an hr and never got the message strange as gta v using a lot of graphics card and also played tony hawks 4 and never got the error

my video card is nvidia gforce gts 450

Definitely get a new video card. Your 450 doesn't even meet the minimum specs for GTA V, I'm surprised it runs at all.

[Ampera]

my friend came over today and took a look at my graphics card and saw my cpu fan was a little dusty so he took it off but when putting back on he broke one of the clips on it now i can't use that computer till i get a fan so now im having to use a android tv box as my pc

might just have to save up for a new pc and just sell this one for parts i will keep the hdd tho as there is important stuff on them

If you want help designing a computer, DM/PM me on the forum or we can email each other (Sorry I need to mask it) 7d65e86a@opayq.com at this address.

I think a lot of people here are trying to give you an answer on EE experience instead of computing. If it was working after reseating stuff, I doubt the PSU was the immediate issue.

I have plenty of experience in designing computers, and I can get you a major bang for your buck. Building computers are like lego. It's just a bunch of slots you need to put in. There isn't soldering, no tricky configuration, and if your careful, nothing to go wrong. I currently run a box (Not designed to be a bang for your buck, rather a future proofed machine) with an i7-4790k (Current i7 bang for your buck spot) GTX 970, 16GB of some DDR3 RAM I had for a few years, and a 500GB SSD.

If you feel to go on your own, check out some of the older Xeons. You can get a 4 core hyperthreaded Xeon (Older architecture) for (Refurb) 30$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4GH48R9677

And if your REALLY in a money pinch, check out Scrapyard Wars from Linus Tech Tips on youtube. They normally have a budget cap, so they use different skills to get the biggest bang for their buck.

Again, I am here to help pick out parts, I don't ask anything, happy to help you.

[wraper]

I think a lot of people here are trying to give you an answer on EE experience instead of computing. If it was working after reseating stuff, I doubt the PSU was the immediate issue.

Experience in both, including expierience repairing failed PSUs. 4 years is about the average when "average" (not the cheapest stuff) PSUs start to fail with bulged capacitors. What most of all suggests about fail of the PSU is need to disconnect it from Mains.

[Ampera]

I think a lot of people here are trying to give you an answer on EE experience instead of computing. If it was working after reseating stuff, I doubt the PSU was the immediate issue.

Experience in both, including expierience repairing failed PSUs. 4 years is about the average when "average" (not the cheapest stuff) PSUs start to fail with bulged capacitors. What most of all suggests about fail of the PSU is need to disconnect it from Mains.

I have a build from the Athlon XP era. I still use it as a music room system.

[wraper]

I think a lot of people here are trying to give you an answer on EE experience instead of computing. If it was working after reseating stuff, I doubt the PSU was the immediate issue.

Experience in both, including expierience repairing failed PSUs. 4 years is about the average when "average" (not the cheapest stuff) PSUs start to fail with bulged capacitors. What most of all suggests about fail of the PSU is need to disconnect it from Mains.

I have a build from the Athlon XP era. I still use it as a music room system.

Then PSU is either of good quality with Japanese capacitors used, has low load for it's power rating, or was not used that much. On the other hand, motherboards from i-7 2600 time period, nearly never develop capacitor defect (unlike those from early-mid 2000s), and many don't use or use a very limited amount of them.

[Ampera]

I think a lot of people here are trying to give you an answer on EE experience instead of computing. If it was working after reseating stuff, I doubt the PSU was the immediate issue.

Experience in both, including expierience repairing failed PSUs. 4 years is about the average when "average" (not the cheapest stuff) PSUs start to fail with bulged capacitors. What most of all suggests about fail of the PSU is need to disconnect it from Mains.

I have a build from the Athlon XP era. I still use it as a music room system.

Then PSU is either of good quality with Japanese capacitors used, has low load for it's power rating, or was not used that much. On the other hand, motherboards from i-7 2600 time period, nearly never develop capacitor defect (unlike those from early-mid 2000s), and many don't use or use a very limited amount of them.

I actually have a modern PSU in it. It's only a ATX-20 connector on the board (Why they needed another 4 I will never know unless I look it up, but who has time for that.) so the PSU I am using is a bit overkill, but the one I had in there (A Cheifmax one I think, I forget) I modernized with newer connectors, and thus was suited more for a SATA based system than a PATA based one.

[Bud]

I had that nvidia driver error on my GTX460, it was the GPU failing, fixed it by disassembling the graphics card, heating the GPU to 120C for 10 min, then reapplied the thermal paste.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/my-experiences-reflowing-videocards-(so-far-100-success-rate)/msg874097/#msg874097

[wraper]

It's only a ATX-20 connector on the board (Why they needed another 4 I will never know unless I look it up, but who has time for that.)

Because of increased power consumption of modern PCs. Additional wire for each power rail.

[sony mavica]

I have a suspicion he means the pushpins.

Don't let your friend touch anything again.

yes it was the push pin

[sony mavica]

my friend found a push pin in his draw so he gave it to me so i have fixed that now

also one other problem is that the cpu has very little thermal paste anybody know what paste i would need for it

also the power supply seems to work fine after i opened it up and got rid of the rest of the dust inside it but i still will try and replace it asap

[Brumby]

The subject of thermal paste is one that has raised many "deep and meaningful" discussions.

Last I went looking I was after some Arctic Silver (there are several varieties) - but that wasn't available from the place I went to, and I walked out with some Noctua NT-H1.

Either of those are good, IMHO, but there will be some who might want to be more 'particular'.


Don't go for the cheap white paste.  It will dry up more quickly than you might like.

[wraper]

Don't go for the cheap white paste.  It will dry up more quickly than you might like.

White paste is good enough if not overclocking.

[Brumby]

Overclocking or not, it will dry out quicker than you might like - or at least quicker than I like.

The white stuff will work - but the higher the temperatures and the longer the time, the less effective it becomes.  While this is generally true of any thermal compound, the white paste is at the bottom of the list.

[BradC]

Last I went looking I was after some Arctic Silver (there are several varieties) - but that wasn't available from the place I went to, and I walked out with some Noctua NT-H1

AS5 & NT-H1, my two favs. Oddly enough last month I had to re-apply AS5 to the CPU in my 2006 vintage Mac Mini. I upgraded it from a Core Duo to Core2Duo back in 2009 and used AS5. It recently started shutting down on overheat and turned out the old AS5 was a bit dry. First and only time I've ever had to re-apply thermal paste.

[wraper]

White paste on the bottom but because of a big heat spreader on top of desktop CPUs, that is not so critical compared to laptop CPUs and GPUs where you have just a bare silicon die.

[Brumby]

Yes, laptops do offer a much more significant thermal challenge.

I haven't had much work on them - but the only overheating one I was presented with was fixed when I removed the dust blanket that had formed at the air intake.  Seriously, it was almost like felt!

[tautech]

Some friends down the road had a PC with similar symptoms, pushes to the power button would result in a "lucky dip" as to whether it would latch on and boot. 
After a number of "taps" it latched on and a finger "walk-around" the Ecaps on the MB found a few that were f***ing hot....in seconds. 
Full MB recap and it's still going strong ~2yrs later. 

[wraper]

Some friends down the road had a PC with similar symptoms, pushes to the power button would result in a "lucky dip" as to whether it would latch on and boot. 
After a number of "taps" it latched on and a finger "walk-around" the Ecaps on the MB found a few that were f***ing hot....in seconds. 
Full MB recap and it's still going strong ~2yrs later. 

Not likely to be the case with more or less recent motherboards, most likely there are polymer capacitors on the CPU power anyway.

[tautech]

Some friends down the road had a PC with similar symptoms, pushes to the power button would result in a "lucky dip" as to whether it would latch on and boot. 
After a number of "taps" it latched on and a finger "walk-around" the Ecaps on the MB found a few that were f***ing hot....in seconds. 
Full MB recap and it's still going strong ~2yrs later. 

Not likely to be the case with more or less recent motherboards, most likely there are polymer capacitors on the CPU power anyway.

Maybe, but the OP has said ~5 yr old MB. Isn't that getting on a bit ? 

[TerraHertz]

I too would suspect the power supply, and want to get onto that right away. Having had PCs destroyed by power supply fails.

First thing is to check the rail voltages while running. This is easy, because the motherboard connects GND to the metal case via the metal screw mount points. And the power connector to the motherboard may look like plastic covered wires going into holes in a nylon connector body, but the metal crimp pins are just below the connector top, and can be reached with a pointy probe easily.

Do you have a scope or even a multimeter? With a multimeter, stick the common probe tip in some open screw hole on the metal case (ground), and shove the Plus tip down into the holes in the top of the power connector. The plastic walls between pins prevent shorts. Wire colors are fairly standard: red is +5, orange is +3.3, yellow is +12, etc. Anyway you can find the pinouts online.

Ideally you should have a look with a scope for ripple too. Or use the multimeter on AC volts.

Btw, I've had older motherboards exhibit unreliable boot (or no boot at all) when the CMOS RAM coin cell is nearly flat. It should be at least 3V. You can measure this relative to the chassis too (with the machine off.) Don't short circuit it, as you'd lose the CMOS setup.

[wraper]

Some friends down the road had a PC with similar symptoms, pushes to the power button would result in a "lucky dip" as to whether it would latch on and boot. 
After a number of "taps" it latched on and a finger "walk-around" the Ecaps on the MB found a few that were f***ing hot....in seconds. 
Full MB recap and it's still going strong ~2yrs later. 

Not likely to be the case with more or less recent motherboards, most likely there are polymer capacitors on the CPU power anyway.

Maybe, but the OP has said ~5 yr old MB. Isn't that getting on a bit ? 

5 years ago most mobos had poly caps already. Even my motherboards from 2009 have them.

[rdl]

I think I have cleaned the dust out of my PC, PS, CPU cooler and fans, maybe 4 times in that 9 years. I probably should do it annually given how much I find.

Yesterday I added a drive to this computer (actually just an eSATA port). It hadn't been opened in years and the dust inside was horrible. What's worse, I must not have cleaned the power supply last time. It may not have been cleaned at all in eight years. It was so choked with dust and fuzz I can't believe it was still working. I had to disassemble it to get all the gunk out.

Got it all put back together and everything is working fine. Eight year old Gigabyte motherboard and Seasonic power supply with all caps looking like new.