My PC seems to have died today. It simply doesnt boot. It powers on but there are no beeps from POST and no display. I have removed every component one by one and tried booting each time, clearing CMOS, as well as trying another power supply to no avail. I think the motherboard is fried but I am not sure.

Is there anything else I can try..?

If not, I need to buy another motherboard. Which might give me the excuse to upgrade most of the components (not that its wise with my current bank balance!)

The current specs are as follows:
Gigabyte S478 motherboard, 3.4ghz northwood, 2gb DDR400, 2x250gb, Audigy 2 ZS, Geforce 6800gt (most of which will go on eBay to fund new parts).

I would opt for a Core2 E6600 cpu based system. Thats as far I know. I am not sure what motherboard (or even which chipset) to get, what memory, what graphics... any advice would be greatly appreciated. Im looking for a decent price/performance balance. I would buy 1 graphics card but would want the possibility of adding another in the future (SLI/Crossfire).
So basically I need recommendations for Mobo, Memory and graphics (playing latest games maxed out at 1280x1024). Rough estimates to spend are Mobo: £70-130, Memory: £70-110, Graphics: £80-150.
Thanks!!

where are you planning on buying this from (website) ?

i cant say much other than that recently happened to me, there was a contact missing from a DIMM slot. thats the end of that.

along with the vendor of choice, what would be more important from this system, energy efficiency or performance. not only that, but what will it be used mainly for, and what would it do once in a while?

Id say the main use is Internet/gaming with occassional office apps.

... where gaming is the key word What games do you play? There is quite a difference between Solitaire and Rainbow Six Vegas

FPS games like Quake4. I have opted to buy MSI P6N SLI-FI. Just need nvidia gfx recommendations for around the £120 mark..

As ripken said, where do you intend to buy from? Is newegg ok for you? If so (and you're willing to add an extra 30 pounds), you could get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814186020

Newegg do not ship to UK so its a no go. Maybe just ebay or www.ebuyer.co.uk...

Found this on e-bay.co.uk. Hope that helps...

Nice, a 7950GT...


But I would wait a month if you have that time, the 8600 series from nVidia would be a nice option.
For the same price it will outperform the 7xxx series any time and you will get DX10.

Just my 2 cents .

@puntoMX
I wanted to tell him to wait for the 8 series of nVIDIA, but if you read his first post his pc is dead and I doubt he`ll be wanting to wait that long

You never know, he´s still posting here .

True, maybe using a neighbour's pc

Im using my laptop! Also have Internet at work (where I am now).

So far ive bought that MSI mobo, Core2 E6600, and Geil DDR800 4-4-4-12. Just need the graphics, thinking I might just fork out and get a 8800GTS.. Is it worth it or is it better to opt for the cheaper 7950GT?

The 7950 is DirectX 9, whereas the 8800 is DirectX10 (the future ). Definitely get the 8800 if you are not pressed by time!

8800GTS is already available everywhere..

Yes, it is, but there are still not so much appz and games that are using DX10, that´s what nitroshift is saying.

I have installed the new motherboard with nforce 650i chipset (my old one was a Intel based chipset). However now my installation of XP cannot boot, I get the STOP error 0x0000007B. I have tried putting nvidia sata drivers onto a diskette and booting the XP cd with F6 to no luck (it just tries to install XP fresh, no repair option).

Formatting the drive is out of the question, I need it to boot into windows.

Can anyone help??

Much appreciated.

When you change all of your hardware like that, it can put windows into "shock". I had a similar problem.

First thing: make sure you have the latest BIOS for your mobo.

Question: Are you using SATA RAID, or just plain old SATA?

If you are not using RAID, you don't need to hit F6. WinxpSP2 should detect the drive. You may have to check your BIOS to make sure that SATA is enabled. Some boards need you to enable both SATA and RAID, even if you aren't using RAID. Make sure you upgrade the BIOS first.

If you are using RAID, check out this thread on using nLite to slipstream the latest service pack / hotfixes and burn a new cd. It allows you to install drivers ahead of time: I highly suggest you use nLite to create a custom CD.

Within nLite (I think it's the Unattended tab). There is an option to have Setup suggest a Repair install. Make sure that is enabled when you burn your cd.

Boot off your new CD. When it asks to press R to try to Repair the system with the Automatic System Recovery Console, say NO. On the next page it should find your current windows install and ask you if you want to Repair it. Choose [R]epair at this screen.

Doing a repair install is your best bet. If it still doesn't work (and it didn't for me). Ya gotta reformat. Use BartPE to boot from and setup a network share so you can backup all of your stuff to another computer (or partition if you have multiple drives/partitions).

From what I gather, most RAID driver floppies won't work at the F6 screen, because they are not WHQL certified (GG Microsoft).

Hi, many thanks for the reply. I will give that a shot.

BTW im using normal SATA2 not RAID.

This worked a treat! I created the nlite cd with integrated nvidia drivers and prompt repair option. It booted into Windows fine! Many thanks for the advice, you've saved me a lot of time and effort!