puntoMX

memtest86+ is the most popular, if you didn't know that already.

Sell those DDR2 and go with DDR3, that's what the 6 cored CPU is made for. I've not seen any motherboards around that would do DDR2 or DDR3 on the same board, but ASRock is one of few that would make such a thing if it exists. The 785G chipset was released on DDR2 and DDR3 boards. But again, get a DDR3 mobo with the RAM and sell what you have now "as is", so basically your whole system as it is, put what you wanted to spend with that, and buy something new with that cash.EDIT: Not even ASRock was that crazy .

Did you test the memory, swapped out the PSU?

If it's a nVidia 6100/6150 chipset, it could be the northbridge that is going down, but that would not explain the noise... So, when you are at her house, does it happen too? Or is it just when she is (ab)using the PC?

Sound like a harddisk or a cable in that hit's the CPU cooler-fan. So, turning off looks like the CPU overheating (P4 dual core?). It's hard to say from a distance, but you better ask her to bring in that PC again.

That depends on what you render; if they are clips of a few minutes at 1080p I would go for the 6 cored CPU, but if it's just a still image render even a quad core would be overkill.AMD has the best price/performance ratio, like coffeefiend said .

CrazyDoctor, What you need is the logic and knowledge jaclaz has. --- You also know that useful knowledge here on the forum must come from both sides, so, all we ask is to give something back to the community, that before you fix someone else his/her harddrive for, or without, profit of any kind. ---

Well, He might be better off selling his notebook DDR2 and get a DDR3 based laptop (this time not a notebook ).

I think those are the Benq 8xx series keyboards, they are flat and feel like a notebook keyboard.

Any way, a silly question will have a silly answer I would say (flame me! ), sooo: I will turn into a beaver and use my teeth to get that tree down, heck, I would not live long on some concrete with burned trees, I would take my last swim or stick my head out towards a shark to make it quick!

Now, LED backlight does consume less energy, say 20 to 30W less on a 23 to 27" screen, so I think that's worth it alone.But, why go with a brand like that? There are so much other brands, unlike this one that only sells in the USA (Read, unknown brand and given a brand in the USA).

Well, the Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 can do some real 9MB/s, so, your average USB 2.0 stick will walk twice as fast around it, but hey! An USB stick doesn't have a network feature and it's own OS... Now, I want to say to the OP that the Seagate BlackArmor NAS isn't much more than just a harddisk in a network setup that is so darn slow you wish you never had bought it... it will take days to fill up 1TB with the 9MB/s speeds at tops, and that's with large files, if you are talking about MP3 and JPG files, well... be happy to get 6 to 7MB/s. So, most of us can download faster from the net. Any way, I don't know what you are willing to do with it, but think twice before you buy it .

That's most likely the 5V OK LED, but doesn't say much about the 12V for the CPU for example. How did you test the PSU? You used another one to start up the same PC and it´s the same with the "new" PSU?

thank you, you ain't doing so bad yourself at all Now, let me clean my screen, next time warn me .

Just enter the Seagate website and request a RMA, that's all, no need for invoices or that kind of stuff.

What I'm going to do is to use freeNAS on a simple and low power consumption headless PC. This way I can build it like I want, upgrade it when needed and install all the modules for streaming video and audio. I must say I still have to play with freeNAS. I will use onboard RAID as the performance ain't so important but safety of my files is. I also use mostly Hitachi drives as they are cheap but very well made, sure 10 to 15% slower but I take than for granted.

Single SATA power plug, cheap a** PSUs have only one SATA plug, and some, like that one, have not the 3.3 line connected for SATA either . Yes, a new PSU will have the 12V P4 connector you are talking about (2 yellow 12v, 2 ground/neutral in black), I'm surprised that the motherboard even started. Get a brand PSU, Coolermaster makes cheap ones for example and they last. Don't buy Ultra, Rosewill or that kind of stuff...By the way, 20 or 24 pins ATX, all the same, just go for a 24 pin (yes, it will fit).

That would be good indeed, I'll sticky that one directly and unpin this monster of a topic .I pinned your other post as well, I saw it before but never thought about to pin it, but, better later than never! So, if I get this right, it's mostly working but people don't know how to use the phone to USB cables and rebuild it. I thought that half the time it wasn't working because of a non compatible setup (I got that part of 5V from USB or 3.3V from phone (so a SR2023 battery is needed for example)). Any way, thank you for what you have done so far and I look forward to pin your new FAQ / Topic!

Jaclaz, shall I edit the first post in this topic? Split it up (coffeefiend had that idea too) to a new topic and give credit to the appropriated person? You make a new topic and I'll pin that one... Any ideas on this? I see that a lot of people buy useless cables that are suitable for cellphones but not to "talk" with the HDD, so I would like to add that to the fits post as a warning . VideoRipper, you have done some great work too, I won't forget that (goed werk maat )

Apply new thermal-paste between CPU and cooler, other than, what CoffeeFiend said; that looks like a capacitor plague so check he ones inside the PSU and on the mobo .

Indeed, would have ditched that PC a long time ago.I must say that Dells are not my first choice when it comes to hardware, and especially to the BIOS... So much problems in one machine is hard to get... But yes, like CoffeeFiend said, it must have been most likely faulty hardware from the start... Bad PSU, bad mobo, bad memory... faulty cabling... it's just guessing for us. but if none of both memories do give you an image on your screen, I think it's time you leave that PC for what it is and save yourself a lot of frustration for 300USD... Just my 0.02...

First, welcome to the forums. Second, I need you to give us the motherboard model to see if there are any bugs or driver issues with that specific model.

OR Sell the paperweight and put the 340USD on top of that and get yourself a new notebook; for 350USD you can get brands like emachines 15.6" notebooks (Acer in black) that will serve you some 4 years, Walmart had some cheap ones, and not so bad ones either... better don't touch anything that has an nVidia chipset, but AMD with ATI and Intel with Intel will do fine. I call it a paperweight as it's better to use it as-is, I see that you like to put Windows 7 on every machine so go for something that comes out-of-the-box with Windows 7 .

That would work, there is still hardware that works with XP (wanted to be a bit sarcastic too ), I personally like the Microsoft and Logitech products.

Yes, pure sales talk but they were better than the Microsoft OSes before that... now, if you look at Apple you will be fooled again; hacking a Apple will cost way less time than a Windows 7 based computer with all it's updates .So, both modules give the same beep codes (yup, like Morse just not like a languages )?