jowl

Okay, I've built/upgraded literally hundreds of systems but I think I must have fried my brain now.

Recently installed an XFX 6600GT graphics card in a systems motherboard - the kid wanted to play some games that required better than the onboard VGA. I was - and told them - reluctant to do it as I wasnt convinced it would all work out that smoothly ( I could see it wanting extra ram, more power etc) and turning into an expensive job for them.

Anyway, card goes in, everything works wonderfully - for about a month. Now the machine will not POST or even power on fully. When power switched on (at the plug socket), the fans/board will power on for a few seconds before stopping and the power light will flash on every few seconds.

I immediatley thought it could be the PSU so I've tested with a good quality unit - no joy. My conclusion is it's the m/b - but how would (could) an additional graphics card cause a m/b fault ? Sucking too much power from the psu?

I've lukily managed to find a replacement board (it's a older AMD S754) but don't want the same thing to happen again.

PeteBrant

Could be just "one of those things".

You're right to suspect the PSU, that would be my first port of call but an 6600GT is not going to be *that* power hungry. And typically you would get regular BSDs if ithe PSU was struggling.

Given its an oldish machine, I would say its just the Mobo that gave out - I wouldn;t say there is anything inherently wrong with sticking a gfx card in there.

jowl

Yeah, thats what my initial thoughts were. The 'customer' reported no other symptoms - BSD, corrupt graphics, re-boots etc.

Thanks.