Posted: 3/16/2008 3:29:45 PM EDT
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A friend was attempting to install a new sound card into their crappy computer. Now it won't boot. All cables and devices are powered and properly seated. I believe it's a P3 with 320mb of RAM reassembled from an original Gateway. With everything in place, it starts up, displays the Gateway logo, and doesn't POST. Without any memory, it beeps, so I know it's at least self-testing. I believe it has sufficient power because I removed other pci devices and it would do the same thing. Any ideas? |
I'll give this a shot. I'll also let you know when I'm installing a graphics card.
It did not have onboard sound, but I can't get to the BIOS anyway to look for my own amusement at other things. |
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A couple of things: store-brand computers (especially the bargain-priced ones) famously come with power supplies that are just barely powerful for the devices that it ships with. Another issue is that during the period where P3s were made, there was a TON of problems with bad capacitors, used in power supplies, on mother boards, and on video cards. A capacitor looks like a miniature Red Bull can, and comes in various sizes. At the top there will be a flat aluminum circle with an indented X on it. If any of those caps are bulging or leaking brown fluid, you're going to have power problems. At this point, the board is so old that re-capping it would make no sense; it would be cheaper to upgrade to something much faster. -Troy |