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My PC Died

TheBobcat

TheBobcat

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 1, 2006
351
0
East Lansing, Michigan
Hey, I had a question. I know you guys are mac guys, but I thought I'd still see if anyone knew what's up with my PC.

I don't know exactly how it happened, but its been working for a few years now and apparently it died all of a sudden.

I thought the power supply might have burnt out or something, so I replaced it with one of equal wattage as before. So when I plug it in, the Mobo shows a green solid light, like its recieving power. When I attempt to start it up, anohter light on the mobo flashes red for a split second, and the CPU fan spins for an instant before stopping, and the external power light on the switch goes solid amber. It will not do this again until you unplug it and plug it back in.

So its not the PSU, any other suggestions?

Thanks

Bobcat
 
ouch, i had a similar issue with the dfi mobo i had. replacing the mobo fixed it, but your situation might be different. try removing as many things as possible (and unplugging things as well) and get it down to the bare minimum to see if it still boots.

if you know that the two PSUs are known-good, then it's most certainly something else...and there isn't much you can do beyond figuring out what's causing a problem (at which point you might be replacing practically everything but :( )
 
Trash your PC and get a Mac.:)
Get a MacBook for portability and consumer needs (some professional needs too)
Get a MacBook Pro for power on the road
Get a iMac for Desktop Consumer needs
Get a Mac Mini for saving money and consumer needs
Get a Mac Pro for ultimate computing power
 
Oh, OK, let me pull a grand or so out of my ass for you. Believe me, if I had the means I'd have a desktop counterpart to my MBP.

And yeah, I'm going to start pulling stuff apart.
 
nazmac21 said:
Trash your PC and get a Mac.:)
Get a MacBook for portability and consumer needs (some professional needs too)
Get a MacBook Pro for power on the road
Get a iMac for Desktop Consumer needs
Get a Mac Mini for saving money and consumer needs
Get a Mac Pro for ultimate computing power
Click to expand...

He already has a macbook pro :rolleyes: (a little research before posting might help)

I am assuming the OP needs help with his PC as he either needs it or want it and doesn't want to have to spend lots of money solving a problem when someone on here knows a possible solution.
 
Then the OP should sell his PC for parts and use his MacBook Pro as a main machine equipped with a display. If he needs to buy a desktop, then he could look at the refurb Apple store. Buying a refurbished Mac will be cheaper than fixing that PC.
 
first just pull out the drives. if that doesn't work, try resetting the video card, and then the ram. if still no luck, try resetting the CPU. Best of luck you man
 
nazmac21 said:
Then the OP should sell his PC for parts and use his MacBook Pro as a main machine equipped with a display. If he needs to buy a desktop, then he could look at the refurb Apple store. Buying a refurbished Mac will be cheaper than fixing that PC.
Click to expand...

Yeah right.

My replacement mobo was not even $80 and my PC works again. I coulda sprung for the DFI lanparty mobo I wanted and that woulda been $150. Where the hell do you get Macs that cheap?

And please understand people need things their Mac just can't do. Every single Intel Mac for sale sucks for gaming, I could build a gaming PC for way cheaper than a Mac Pro. That's just one example.


And...This coming from the guy who tried to replace a G4 iBook's proc with a G5...oh my god.



Also, if the OP knew which parts were broken, it would be a trivial matter to fix it. He wouldn't get anything from selling parts if he didn't even know if they worked or not. Imagine an ebay auction..."XXX mobo for sale! dont know if it works but..."...sheesh!
 
Yeah Right!:cool: A 3Ghz Xeon, 16Gigabytes of RAM, Nvidea Quadro FX 4500 Mac Pro with a 30" Cinema Display with beat any PC in gaming. This Mac Pro is the best machine for gaming.
 
nazmac21 said:
...Nvidea Quadro FX 4500...This Mac Pro is the best machine for gaming.
Click to expand...
The low end Mac Pro comes with an nvidia geforce 7300gt and is $2500...hmm, my PC with a 19" lcd and accessories+devices galore has the same card for much less than half the price...

the quadro is not a gaming card. the quadro was designed with workstation usage in mind (CAD, for example).

The cost of the quadro fx card (upwards of $1500) alone you could build one killer gaming PC with a dx10 card.

Stop talking out of your ass.
 
I don't like PCs (unless they run Linux) and I didn't know that PC Repair part was so cheap. Still the maxed out Mac Pro will beat any PC in gaming (except in DirectX10 gaming, this will change with ATI Radeon X2800 XT whis is scheduled to come to Mac Pro in the next update).
 
nazmac21 said:
I don't like PCs (unless they run Linux) and I didn't know that PC Repair part was so cheap. Still the maxed out Mac Pro will beat any PC in gaming (except in DirectX10 gaming, this will change with ATI Radeon X2800 XT whis is scheduled to come to Mac Pro in the next update).
Click to expand...

I repeat my above statement.

1. You don't know what you're talking about, because the hardware that runs OS X is the same hardware that runs Windows-based computers, Linux, FreeBSD, name any other OS. Repair is repair. Depending on what's broken it will be anywhere from $20 to who knows how much. This also applies to Macs in every way. And it's helped by the fact that many parts are readily available on websites like Newegg.

2. You don't know what you're talking about. DX10 cards are available right now without waiting for Apple to add them to the Mac Pros (god they're taking forever), and people have them. People use them! And it's a very, very simple upgrade for people who want them in non-preassembled computers.

3. The Mac Pro was not designed to be a gaming machine. It's designed to be a workstation in every way, including the workstation-class Quadro available for the Mac Pro.

You can be an Apple fanboy all you want, but the gaming market is not going to pay $5000 for a computer from Apple to play games because those $5000 computers weren't designed to play games and even if they were they're extremely overpriced cause you can spend half the money on a spectacular setup. Nevermind that it won't ever be the best gaming machine either, just because it is what it is.
 
nazmac21 said:
Check Apple Mac Pro's website and see the benchmarks. The Quadro FX 4500 beats the Radeon X1900 XT in all of those games.
Click to expand...
oh em gee i'm gonna go look at almost artificial benchmarks there for being pretty and for marketing...yeah. And if you're talking about the ridiculous benchmarks on http://www.apple.com/macpro/graphics.html the quadro and the radeon were both on Mac Pros. Nothing else. Great comparison, kiddo.

Edit: Might I also add the price difference between upgrading to the radeon x1900xt vs. the quadro has a difference of well over $1000usd (nevermind that apple overcharges) with minimal performance increases? What did I say about workstation-class cards?! :rolleyes:

the radeon x1900xt is also not the only card on the market.

It is that the Mac Pro you have in mind has a workstation gfx card and a server processor that also happens to be insanely expensive for gaming, and also underperforms compared to cheaper rigs built specifically for gaming.

You want actual, real benchmarks that are more respectable that don't use ancient games like doom 3 or quake 4? Try
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=13
 
janey said:
oh em gee i'm gonna go look at almost artificial benchmarks there for being pretty and for marketing...yeah. And if you're talking about the ridiculous benchmarks on http://www.apple.com/macpro/graphics.html the quadro and the radeon were both on Mac Pros. Nothing else. Great comparison, kiddo.

Edit: Might I also add the price difference between upgrading to the radeon x1900xt vs. the quadro has a difference of well over $1000usd (nevermind that apple overcharges) with minimal performance increases? What did I say about workstation-class cards?! :rolleyes:

the radeon x1900xt is also not the only card on the market.

It is that the Mac Pro you have in mind has a workstation gfx card and a server processor that also happens to be insanely expensive for gaming, and also underperforms compared to cheaper rigs built specifically for gaming.

You want actual, real benchmarks that are more respectable that don't use ancient games like doom 3 or quake 4? Try
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=13
Click to expand...


lmao. jane its not worth it.

especially if its someone who... loves digimon...
 
Sorry I started a fight. I just gave up and bought a new Mobo and CPU tonight with some new RAM and a heatsink. The Mobo must have fried after checking several sources. Thanks to those with relevant responses.
 
A few years back I had a PC that wouldn't boot up, unless I first unplugged every wire from the back of the case and replugged everything back in. It would restart fine, but if I shutdown, I would have to unplug and replug everything from the back of the computer.

Very strange. I also suspected and replaced the PSU, but no luck. I never did find out what was wrong. My friend, a pc tech, couldn't even fix it.
 
nazmac21 said:
I will not accept the fact that PCs are better for gaming. Anything a PC could do a Mac could do better.
Click to expand...
you're a perfect fit to get a job at the apple store preaching your nonsense to people who wouldnt know any better.

If you knew any better you'd realize what you just said is preposterous...as they are the same thing excluding software and there are MANY MANY things windows/linux/bsd/other OSs can do that MacOSX can't.
 
At least the software on the Mac is simple and easy to use. That ATI Radeon X2800 XT with Crossfire support is going to bring gaming to Mac. People will be using a Mac Pro for both as a workstation and a gaming station. I seriously believe that Mac Pro could be a gaming machine if you add Boot Camp to it (if you have a game that is not ported to Mac OS X).
Fine then, stock Mac Pro with the ATI Radeon x2800 XT Crossfire is still going to blow any PC away for gaming (in Boot Camp mostly).
 
nazmac21 said:
At least the software on the Mac is simple and easy to use. That ATI Radeon X2800 XT with Crossfire support is going to bring gaming to Mac. People will be using a Mac Pro for both as a workstation and a gaming station. I seriously believe that Mac Pro could be a gaming machine if you add Boot Camp to it (if you have a game that is not ported to Mac OS X).
Fine then, stock Mac Pro with the ATI Radeon x2800 XT Crossfire is still going to blow any PC away for gaming (in Boot Camp mostly).
Click to expand...

Nope. Even in this case everything else in the Mac Pro would screw it up. And this has nothing to do with Mac software...oh btw did I ever tell you I need to use Visual Studio and other Windows-only apps? Not just games are windows/linux only.

In addition to that, crossfire/sli is a lot more common and a lot cheaper when you do it yourself...so no not really, a PC half the price of a stock Mac Pro (which has 1gb ram btw) with any two cards would most likely blow it out of the water if you even gain any such benefit from sli or crossfire.


And I never questioned the ability of the Mac Pro to be used for gaming...it can, most definitely. But it's certainly nowhere near the killer gaming machine you keep claiming it is.
 
You just don't get it. You probably haven't ever gamed on a Mac before. That ATI Radeon X2800 XT card (even without Crossfire support) is going to be one of the best gaming graphics cards.
 
nazmac21 said:
You probably haven't ever gamed on a Mac before.
Click to expand...
I'm playing hl2 ep1 right now on my macbook, thanks very much.

nazmac21 said:
That ATI Radeon X2800 XT card (even without Crossfire support) is going to be one of the best gaming graphics cards.
Click to expand...
It doesn't matter what card the Mac Pro can handle. There are other issues and bottlenecks in the mac pros, and just because it's gonna be a killer card doesn't mean it'll be so for long - and to top that off, apple is STILL screwing people over by only offering a tiny handful of cards at a prohibitively high cost. an UPGRADE from the 7300gt (~$60-150) to an x1900xt (~$250) is the same as a new card (~$249)..yeah right. sheesh.

Besides I can do sli in my econobox PC that was new two years ago, the Mac Pro has merely speculative crossfire support with the radeon x2800xt.
 
Back on topic

Bobcat,

When you try to start the computer do you get your normal quick single beep startup chime?

If you are not getting any beeps then you likely have a bad motherboard or CPU. Though I would suggest this.

1. Unplug every component (just check that your CPU's heatsink is secure, there is no reason to detach your CPU yet)

2. Then only plug in your power cables, internal speaker, front panel connectors (power,restart and led's) RAM and Video card (assuming that you have a dedicated video card).

3. Turn on the computer you should get to the BIOS if your CPU, Motherboard, Video Adapter and RAM are in good shape. If at this step you do not get any boot screens listen note what the computer does when you press the power button.

-Do you get a quick single beep? Then you board passed initial self tests for memory, CPU, and motherboard functionality. I would then presume that the video adapter has bit the dust.

-Do you get multiple quick beeps, extended beeps or a mix of the two then there is a problem with a core component. (check your boards manufacturer to find out the meaning of the specific BIOS error code)

-If you get no reaction when you press the power button then you could have a bad power supply, motherboard, CPU or Power Button (you can test this by swapping the power button and reset button where they attach to the motherboard then press your reset button). Since you said that you get lights and a quick spin of the fans with your new power supply I would suspect that your power supply is fine.

4. If you are able to get to your BIOS then turn off the computer and plug everything back in something probably got knocked loose.
 
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