Your Computer Building "sob" (crying) story

[paperlate777]

ARRGH!

I'm frustrated!

I just built my computer, and, man, I need to vent!

My Pentium II had just finally kicked the bucket in December, and I needed a new computer because my son has just been born in November. I had to have a computer to stay home and work.

I decided to build a computer (I've already bought some parts). The first thing I bought was a motherboard MSI KT266A motherboard from Fry's for 34.00 in 2002. I had the motherboard for a year, and decided to buy parts separately. Bought memory at its lowest price (2 sticks of 256 MB of Crucial, totaling 512MB), and 120 GB WD 7200 RPM and 8 MB cache from Best Buy for $80 (with $70 rebate) in Oct. I had all those parts ready, so I needed a CPU, Case, and videocard. My old computer had everything else.

Bought case (Antec 350 Watt), AMD Athlon 2400+, and ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (Sapphire). I put them all together, then nothing! I had a dead power supply (according to my voltmeter . Bought a new powersupply, returning the old one to Antec via RMA. Powersupply works, but the computer is not turning on! I looked closely at the motherboard...leaked capacitors! ARGH. Bought ASUS KT400 motherboard (didn't want to spend money for nForce 2). Motherboard installed and everything else installed! Power turns on...BIOS comes on! Success! Then I put in Windows XP...my old CD-Rom drive doesn't work! NOOOOOO. Ordered CD-Rom and DVD/CD-RW Combo while I was at it. Installed it! Finally works. Win XP installed smoothly without problem. Then looked at temperature of CPU...70 degrees Celsius. I knew this was high. (Used stock AMD cooler with AMD 2400+) Sigh...ordered Zalman heatsink and fan with Artic Silver 5. Arrived and heat sink and artic silver installed...no problem. Test...45 degrees celsius with UT 2003 running for 20 minutes. Outstanding! Put computer back to my bedroom desk. Put monitor in place, then placed the monitor jack into videocard and slipped...broke the pins of my monitor connector...useless now. NOOOOOOOO! No other monitor Can't afford another component. I have a brand new computer that is doing nothing right now It's for sale for $800 if any wants to buy it.

Please, let me know I'm not the only one that this has happened to! (I've built 10 computers...this one has been a major headache, hassle.)

Slag-King

 

[MercenaryForHire]

:Q

I think you just ate all the negative karma that the other PC builders have been dodging in one sitting. That's a serious string of bad luck. What'd you do, step on a mirror under a ladder in front of a black cat with your umbrella open indoors?

- M4H

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
:Q

I think you just ate all the negative karma that the other PC builders have been dodging in one sitting. That's a serious string of bad luck. What'd you do, step on a mirror under a ladder in front of a black cat with your umbrella open indoors?

- M4H

I have the remnant of the broke mirror at the end of the hallway

 

[Atlantean]

Hmm... the last computer I built had a faulty ide cable... oh and I decided to try out an sata drive and it took me about an hour to figure out that I needed sata drivers installed before installing windows xp (I thought windows would automatically detect the drive...) but other than that nothing.

 

[Serp86]

generally it's a good idea to purchase all computer parts at once.

Will the local computer store be able to fix the broken connectors?

 

[farscape]

OUCH!

I thought that the last system I built was a bear. Generic MWave case that didn't like anything that was put in it. Nothing lined up correctly, bad Biostar MB, ...

Feel your pain.

And congrats on the new baby. Hopefully a LOT easier and more fun than the comp.

 

[techwanabe]

You wouldn't happen to be Badluck Shledrock from the Flintstones would you?

"hi gang, whats new? Wousy wousy woo woo"

 

[paperlate777]

It's funny because I bought all the parts at a great deal. The total came to be 695. Not bad at all. It's unbelievable that so much happened at once.

As for the connector, doubt it. I've fixed monitor connectors before and this one is shot. (The monitor is 5 years old from Gateway...a nice little monitor that got me through many hours....)

Oh well! I think I will shrug it off

As for my baby boy...he's a joy! At least he keeps me from tearing my hair out

David

 

[Abhi]

"Then looked at temperature of CPU...70 degrees Celsius. I knew this was high. (Used stock AMD cooler with AMD 2400+) "

You sure you installed the heatsink correctly?

If u installed correctly, there is no reason the temperature would be as high as 70 degrees celcius , even with the stock cooler.

Somebody correct me if i am wrong....

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Abhi
"Then looked at temperature of CPU...70 degrees Celsius. I knew this was high. (Used stock AMD cooler with AMD 2400+) "

You sure you installed the heatsink correctly?

If u installed correctly, there is no reason the temperature would be as high as 70 degrees celcius , even with the stock cooler.

Somebody correct me if i am wrong....

agreed, temps should never reach that level on a stock cooler.

 

[boran]

If you can't beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing.

man, mine would definetly win, cous it hurts to kick sharp metal corners

anyways on the topic, bad luck is just that, bad luck, or hurry, etc, cous I have built around 12 puters the last 3 years and never had one go bad. okay one didnt start up cous a screw was fallen behind the mobo and shorted out a bit, was very tense moment cous I tought I had fried it. but the mobo only died 2 years later, so that wasnt it

 

[OverVolt]

I have a over 3gran puter i built and to this day i can't figure out why sometimes it boots up and restarts itself over and over, but once its going it can be stable for months. I think it may be the soundcard since the Aud2 screeches during gameplay sometimes, and when the comp restarts sometimes the sound screeches. If it manages to give me a BSOD its IRQ_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL, which is useless and tells me that the system is generally unstable but i already know that!!! GRRR :|

Oh yeah and one more thing, after running memtest86, sometimes it randomly gets 10,000+ errors in 3seconds, or i can leave it on for two days and 150+ loops without a single error crazy huh?

 

[paperlate777]

"Then looked at temperature of CPU...70 degrees Celsius. I knew this was high. (Used stock AMD cooler with AMD 2400+) "

"You sure you installed the heatsink correctly?"

Yes, made sure that it was firmly held and had no pressure to the CPU. The 70 degrees Celsius only happened when I played UT 2003 with 8 bots in 6 random maps in 20 minutes (my testing for stability). I checked the temperature and it was 70 degrees celsius. At idle, the temperature stablizes at 45 degrees celsius. The MB temperature was 29 degrees...very cool (it ought to be, I have 2 120 mm fans running full speed intake and outtake). I'm not sure why it was that high, but the Zalman cooler brought the idle to 30 degrees celsius and the full load at 45. Right now it runs great with no hitch...just don't have a monitor.

Slag-King

 

[Snoop]

Yes, made sure that it was firmly held and had no pressure to the CPU.

You do understand that the heatsink base is supposed to seat firmly on the cpu core? Because, honestly, a stock AMD cooler is fine for all but extreme aplications and if the zahlman heatsink you purchased is the flower type, I believe the stock heatsink may be more efficient.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Where do you live? I have 2 17" monitors I'm not using. I would be willing to let one go cheap if you are near San Diego (you mentioned Fry's so I assume you are in So. Cal.).

 

[Special1Sauce]

wow I dont think I can counter such a story as that.

 

[bigpow]

Sorry. I won't even consider buying those (cheap) parts for $800.

I guess you've learned your lesson, next time just buy a package from Fry's or Dell. ($400-500 with Monitor)

Leave the computer building to the "experts".






The only time I had f&*cked up my build is when my friend accidentally SPIT on to the harddrive (it was a bare system running without case, the drive was laying on upside down). A trip to the computer dealer took care of the problem.

 

[MrCodeDude]

How do you accidently spit on a hard-drive? "..."

I have problems whenever I build a computer for someone else and have to meet a deadline. I build a comp for myself, it works marvelously first time round.

Between the two computers I built for other people, a total of 4 dead mobos, 1 dead proc, 2 dead sticks of pc2100, 1 dead CMOS battery.

STAY AWAY from the ECS K7S5A v3.0 (the 1.0 is ROCK SOLID) and FIC AU13. The 1 dead proc was my dad's fault, he was sure that the problem was the proc, so he installed it on my working mobo, figured that he was just seeing if it worked so it DIDN'T NEED a heatsink and turned it on. I came downstairs right when he turned it on, bam, smoke coming from the core. "..." 2 Dead Sticks of PC2100 were caused by a crappy mobo that turned on then died and killed both sticks of RAM. The dead CMOS battery was part of the faulty mobo that killed my two sticks of RAM.

Whatever, I love Fry's return policy

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

The worst thing that's happened with my newest computer (see sig) is I tried Kingston Hyper-X PC2700 with it. Needless to say my system wasn't stable for more than about 20 minutes, so I RMA'd the Hyper-X, got some Crucial and some Kingston and I've been good to go since.

 

[MrRobercik]

I wouldn't cry too much about your old monitor. Go to local thrift store and I'm sur you'll find a decent monitor for $5-$10 (our local store sells them for $5- 15 inch, $10 -17 inch), or maybe your cable detaches ?

 

[Mavrick007]

If you have a little know-how, you might be able to find a monitor and detach the cable and rewire it up to your old monitor if it's worth it for you.

 

[screw3d]

Holyshit you are one unlucky dude! :Q:Q:Q

The next time you do this, pray hard and do it reallll slow!

 

[MangoTBG]

Doesn't that 9600 Pro have TV out? If so, do you have a TV?

 

[NokiaDude]

1. Buy all computer parts new, at the same time.
2. Don't buy budget MSI boards.
3. .......
4. Profit!!

 

[apac]

First system I ever built had so many problems, I must have been cursed.

1) Bad motherboard and/or processor (RMAed both)
2) Bad processor (very strange problem, took 2 new mobos before it became clear)
3) Bad video card from the start. RMAed it a month later, and after 2 more bad replacement cards newegg gave me a full refund.