I'm stupid, help.

[Potato]

Fried the memory? Hm. One of the times when it started up, I checked to see if the computer was recognizing it, and it was, said I had 1 GB of ram. It froze shortly thereafter.

[Omyn]

Potato, did you try moving around memory chips in different slots like
starting off with just one and try all slots, and keep going?

What about clearing the CMOS battery?

Seeing how you have a new power supply and cord, still makes the noise it could be possible you fried your board :[ If you can I would recommend getting in a place where you can take the whole thing apart away from the case, hook up the bare minimum basics and try running the computer outside the case, lay it out on the static bags or if you dont have the static bags lay it out on a wooden table or somewhere you know theres not going to be a problem with static.

I hope you get it working :[

[Potato]

Would the little green light on the motherboard still go on if the board were fried?

[mountain_rage]

Shove a fork into the power socket to see if tis not that not giving out enough power. If you get a very large shock then its not that.

[Omyn]

I wouldnt know.

Check your motherboards documentation or check their website.

If you dont know the name just look for a label somewhere on the motherboard that should tell you.

The electricity could have damaged another part of the motherboard, you could have one side work and another totally gone so nothing is a sure bet : /

[Montoge360]

accidents happen trust me as a pc repair tech i see it every day you need to replace both the power supply and the cord you can get them both inexpensively at tigerdirect

inexpensively at tigerdirect? lol

I'm not sure if they have exactly the lowest price to service quality ratio around.
Check out these sites, newegg and zipzoomfly. They both have excellent service. If its still too expensive, try the 'master price index', pricewatch. But becareful who you buy it from through pricewatch. Not all companies in there are all that great.


BTW, if your pockets are deep, and you want a super nice PSU for an ATX, look at the Antec True Control 550W. It has a front 5.25in drive bay adapter with PSU fan control, and rail adjusters for the 3v, 5.5v, and 12v lines so you can fine tune them if you need better stability when overclocking or for just heavy power usage. It also has a 3.5in drive bay holder so you can put a hdd in there or other 3.5in drive if you want. I'd recommend this one if you've got the money. If not, just get a standard one. But beware of generic PSU's. They are often the source of a few prolbems. Im not saying that they wont work, because i had an old generic 450Watt that i got for $15 through pricewatch. But in my new system, the Antec TrueControl 550W sounded pretty good to me. But its just a *tad* more expensive than a generic 450W PSU.

[Montoge360]

Fried the memory? Hm. One of the times when it started up, I checked to see if the computer was recognizing it, and it was, said I had 1 GB of ram. It froze shortly thereafter.

If you're afraide that it was your memory that is causing prolbems, get a bootable version of Memtest86. Its an excellent memory testing and checking utility. Its free for download. Just google it up.

[Malakai1911]

Uh, is the sad little meepy noise constant, or a series of beeps, by any chance? If it is a beep code, it will tell you exactly what the problem is (just look in your motherboard manual, or download the manual online from the manufacturer's website).

Otherwise, remove everything except video card, master hard drive, and one stick of ram. Be sure to reseat the video card and the one stick of ram, to ensure that they are properly installed. Unplug or remove ALL other components (cdroms, floppy, other hard drives, sound card) from the motherboard and power supply. You want to isolate the possibility of other components being bad, causing the problem.

If that does not solve the problem, try reseating the RAM and a second time, just in case.

Next, try removing the motherboard from the case and place it on a piece of cardboard (or any smooth, hard, dry surface like a table). Wacky thing is sometimes the computer will work outside the case, in that case a screw may have been bridging traces, something could be wedged behind the motherboard, or any number of things. If it works outside the case, you will be left with one really worrying question "now why didn't it work IN the case?"

Then, test each remaining component. If you have access to a second computer, try the video card in the different computer. Then try each stick of ram in the different computer (if it boots with each stick (one stick at a time), use memtest+ [ www.memtest.org ] to test the RAM for errors). Lastly, try the hard drive as a slave in the different computer, and try opening a few files.

The above pretty much narrows it down to CPU or Motherboard seeing as how your bought a brand new power supply and power cord.

If you can test the CPU in a different motherboard, you will have narrowed it down (the hard way) to the motherboard. If it is still under warranty, call the manufacturer, explain that it mysteriously stopped working, and explain what you have done to narrow down the problem to the motherboard being the culprit. If the CPU doesn't work in the second motherboard, then the problem is with the CPU, and you better hope you bought a retail box for the warranty coverage.

Worst case scenerio, the Mobo or CPU manufacturer wont help you and you will have to buy a new one. www.zipzoomfly.com is pretty good.

[WE_DELIVER]

Wait a minute.....If you dipped the cord in water, and then plugged it in to the socket, replaced the power cord and the psu, and your computer is reacting just by u moving the cord....

...you could have potentially fried that particular electrical socket....

why else would a computer react to you moving the power cord arround...?

[Malakai1911]

Wait a minute.....If you dipped the cord in water, and then plugged it in to the socket, replaced the power cord and the psu, and your computer is reacting just by u moving the cord....

...you could have potentially fried that particular electrical socket....

why else would a computer react to you moving the power cord arround...?

Hmm... did I misread, I thought she dropped the ram into the water.

Perhaps you should replace all your outlets with GFI outlets :-P

[aqlo]

why else would a computer react to you moving the power cord arround...?

It's a short circuit, agitating it makes it possible for current to "jump" across the short temporarily, sometimes wacking things* can make the circuit work for periods of time, nevertheless it is defective, will require replacement, and may constitute a fire hazard.

Tato have you replaced the power cord yet? If the short is in the cord that will stop it. If not, suspect the power supply.

* "percussive maintanance" :)

[Potato]

It's a short circuit, agitating it makes it possible for current to "jump" across the short temporarily, sometimes wacking things* can make the circuit work for periods of time, nevertheless it is defective, will require replacement, and may constitute a fire hazard.

Tato have you replaced the power cord yet? If the short is in the cord that will stop it. If not, suspect the power supply.

* "percussive maintanance" :)

Yes, replaced the power cord. Yes, replaced the power supply. No, nothing is helping. It is making faint meepy noises. They sound sad. Like me, sad. Very sad.

It wasn't the ram that was dropped in water, it was the power cord, for whoever was confused.

Thank you, everyone, for your input. I really do appreciate it. Now, if only the damned thing would work....

[homie_da_clownx]

i thought it was "chasing waterfalls" in that TLC song, and tiger direct sucks.

[Potato]

I got a new motherboard, and all is well....

Thank you to everyone for their input.

[cpugeniusmv]

/me claps for potato