I'll appreciate any advice on the following problem I encountered while replacing what I believed to be a faulty graphics card and doing a computer clean. Here are my specs and the problem (...very detailed, but hopefully it helps). Thanks!
System Specs (purchased in 2003 from ABS computers):
450W power supply
Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro intel 865PE motherboard
Pentium 4 2.8GHz 512k 800MHz FSB processor
2 of DDR 256MB PC3200 memory
120GB hard drive
Radeon 9700 PRO 128MB DDR 8x AGP DVI/TV-out
Sound Blaster Audigy w/ 1394 firewire port sound card
DVD/CD-rom drive
CDRW re-write drive
With original system above, I started having trouble with the display. Vertical bands of large pixels, neon colors, and you could barely make out what was on the screen. First it was a couple times a month. Re-booting fixed it. Then it became constant. I saw the fan to the graphics card wasn't spinning while PC was on. It was caked in dust, so I cleaned it and the fan resumed spinning, but display problem remained. I resolved that the graphics card must have overheated and was damaged.
I just bought a new graphics card which I believe is compatible with my system and would be a budget replacement, a EVGA GeForce 6200 / 256MB DDR2 / AGP 8x / DVI / VGA / TV-Out Video Card. I installed it and all seemed to work fine, although I never checked to see if audio worked (this applies later on). After making sure it worked, I decided to do a thorough clean of the computer, cleaning fans, etc. I also re-applied thermal grease to the heatsink, making sure not to apply too much (...but I wonder now if this could relate to the problem encountered). After cleaning all dust with a combo of compressed air/vacuum, I plugged in the disconnected fans, turned on the PC and then encountered the problem.
The Problem:
The second I turned on the PC, I saw smoke and smelt fumes, and immediately unplugged the power. Other than these two things, everything looked and sounded fine (ie fans worked, led's were on, normal beeps). I inspected where I saw the smoke coming from and clearly saw that one wire in a ribbon cable had burned through the coating. This ribbon cable, oddly, was connected to the Audigy sound card and is labeled as the joystick port. No joystick was plugged in when PC was powered on. However, this cable was well twisted and folded back on itself with a tight tie strap. I've heard this can cause short circuits?
Now I'll explain what I've done to troubleshoot:
I checked my application of thermal grease to make sure it wasn't spilling over the sides. It was not. I unplugged the extraneous (now fried) joystick cable to the sound card. I then powered on the PC (with new video card) and all was normal (ie fans, lights, beeps, etc.) I plugged in the monitor cable and there was no display. The monitor led's blinked like it was on standby. I reset the RAM, the graphics card, and the sound card. Same problem. I tested the PC on a known working monitor and still no display.
Next troubleshooting attempt:
I then took out the Geforce video card and put back in the old Radeon video card, with the sound card in. The PC powered on as normal and the monitor worked, but the original problem of the messed up display remained. With the odd display, I was able to try opening both itunes and windows media player. Both opened, but detected a problem with the sound card and would not play audio.
I then decided to put back in the new Geforce video card and take out the sound card (which had the fried ribbon cable attached) . Removing the sound card required me to unplug a cable running from CD-IN on sound card to cd drive. I took this cable and connected it to the same socket (the on-board sound) of the MOBO. The second cable, the 1394 firewire cable, I unplugged, as well as it's connection to the MOBO, via the firewire and USB ports. I then powered on the PC, and all seems good. The internals of the PC seem normal. The monitor powered on and detected a signal. The display is good and normal. But then I tried opening an audio file with itunes and WMP and both detected a sound device problem again and would not play any audio. It wouldn't even show the seconds of the song ticking away on itunes/WMP. Same problem, just like before.
Sidenote: I've checked system hardware and found only the following error for the "PCI simple communications controller PCI slot 4" (...used by TV tuner adapter)
"The drivers for the device are not installed (Code 28)
So the questions I have:
Do I have to re-configure the PC to detect the on-board MOBO sound?
What could have caused the joystick ribbon cable to fry? And did this destroy the audio card and/or PCI slot?
Why would a bad audio card disrupt a good video card from working correctly?
Is a bad sound card my only problem now, or could there be damage to the MOBO?Is there something I've done/missed that could damage the PC if I decide to use it without sound for now? Any other tests I should do?
Thank you for taking the time to go over this hardware problem and I appreciate any advice.