My computer is intent on destroying my sanity!

**Candyman** · 10-22-2003, 04:20 PM

Sigh...in the last 24 hours I have both lost a hard drive and (probably) fried my mobo in two separate instances. My main hard drive (a Maxtor) just kinda randomly got a page file error and caused a BSOD. Thinking nothing of it (except that it was my first actual BSOD), I powered down hard and restarted. On the subsequent reboot, my BIOS wouldn't even recognize it. I put in my RMA with Maxtor, then installed and configured Red Hat 9 on my spare drive.

After realizing that I only had one hard drive left, I shut down about 6 hours later and opened my case to replace the 3-connector ribbon cable with a 2-connector rounded one I had laying around to reduce some cable clutter. I push the motherboard end of the connector in, my mobo flexes, and ZAP! my fans start whirring and the LEDs come on. I choke back a sob as I realize that I forgot to actually turn the power switch off (stupid stupid stupid...) then cross my fingers and push the power button, to no avail. Not a fan whirring, and no lights at all. I took everything out of my case and inspected all the parts one by one, but saw no visible damage anywhere.

So, here goes:
1) Is it feasible that my moderate overclocking (166 -> 190 FSB) would ruin a 4-month old hard drive?
2) Is there any (easy) way to be certain my mobo is causing the lack of power issue? I don't want to replace it only to find that I toasted my CPU and my mobo still works. Would there be any outward signs of chip damage?
3) Finally, Newegg has a special on the Asus A7N8X Deluxe ($116). Is this a good replacement if mine is truly dead?

**gkline** · 10-22-2003, 04:53 PM

Asus is a great board. What a tale of woe! Man you need some luck in your life. Time to start praying to St. Jude, patron of hopeless causes!

**Russell** · 10-22-2003, 07:36 PM

Well, if you're increasing the FSB that far without a locked PCI bus, it could lead to a fried HDD. As you overclock the FSB, it changes the PCI bus which will eventually overload any parts using that bus, including the HDD.

What board do you have and I wonder if it supports it?

Of course, the entire "ZAP" thing can't be good at all...

**speedstream5621** · 10-22-2003, 08:02 PM

It sounds like all you need to do is reformat the hard drive. Sounds like you only corrupted the data/OS on it, but didn't actually fry it.

**XP1800** · 10-22-2003, 08:07 PM

Originally posted by speedstream5621
It sounds like all you need to do is reformat the hard drive. Sounds like you only corrupted the data/OS on it, but didn't actually fry it.

And if you do reformat, make sure your CPU is back to stock settings. It's a bad idea to install Windows with an OC, I don't know why, but I've heard it's bad

**Saffire** · 10-22-2003, 10:19 PM

Dude, I know how you feel. I killed off my NF7-S Sunday, so I got another one in today, was testing some ram when I found out that one stick is faulty (errors at 166 fsb lax timings). I got mad so I pumped like 2.1v through my cpu, and now that one is dead (confirmed death).

I'm about up to *here* with this.

**speedyaxon** · 10-22-2003, 10:28 PM

2.1v killed your cpu?

Was it the temps or what? Sorry to hear that.

**Saffire** · 10-22-2003, 10:44 PM

It was like 52C, I'm hoping I can RMA the RAM at least.

[edit] On the bright side, the new mobo lets me go up to like 230 fsb without errors on memtest on the stick that does work.

**coolqf** · 10-24-2003, 05:45 PM

Originally posted by Saffire
Dude, I know how you feel. I killed off my NF7-S Sunday, so I got another one in today, was testing some ram when I found out that one stick is faulty (errors at 166 fsb lax timings). I got mad so I pumped like 2.1v through my cpu, and now that one is dead (confirmed death).

I'm about up to *here* with this.

Anger management?

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