Motherboard Dammaged?

[AKF]

Hi, this is my first post.

OK, I got a new PC last week - built it all myself etc etc.

Heres the deal, it was working perfect, installing windows when i noticed the backplate above my graphics card was off (i took the wrong one out earlier).

So, i decided to put it back in. I took the side of my case off, reached inside with the backplate, went to clip it back in place and DISASTER, it slipped onto my motherboard. There was a small spark and the computer went dead.

Yes i know it was a stupid thing to do but i didnt really think at the time.

So, i re-installed windows from the start and everything was fine. No problems at all. So, i took the CD which i got with my motherboard containing the drivers and installed them all. Then i proceeded to restart my pc. Once i restarted, the computer began to boot up windows but for some reason, crashed on the windows splash screen with the blue bar under (windows xp by the way).

So, i formatted - re-installed the drivers and the same thing happened again. Anyway, i switched it off at the wall and did a driver rollback and it was fine. Weird huh?

Now the real problems start. I installed Diablo2, went to install the expansion pack and got a corrupt data error. Now i know its not the disk because it worked fine on my old pc a few days previously.

Anyway, i installed the 1.10 patch for it and it worked. Great, untill it started to crash straight back to the desktop for no reason in the middle of the game.

Thats not the only problem. Firefox keeps crashing for no reason. I have had it for months and months previously on my old pc and i never recall it EVER crashing. Now its done that about 5 times in about 6 hours.

Later, I fancied a game of Counterstrike, so i started Steam - uh oh, THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH! So far i had the BSOD while opening Steam, clicking my Hard Drive, exiting programs etc.

So, here are my specs.

The motherboard is a Gigabyte K8NNXP NF3 and i downloaded all of the latest drivers off the Nvidia website.

Athlon 64Bit 3700
Corsair 3200 (XL or XMS i cant remember) 1GB
Western Digital Caviar 120GB SATA

Graphics card is a GeForce4 4200 64MB from my old PC, im waiting for X800's to come back in stock.

OK, im so sorry, i know the post is very long.

I hope to god i havnt fried my board.

HELP!

Thanks guys

[proffit]

no if it is booting u that means that it isnt your mobo that is fried. but from the bsod it could be your cpu or memory. but with the crashes id say more likely to be the memory. try swaping the stick of ram and seeing if that helps.

[Xtreeme]

well it could still be mobo. I mean Ive had bsod's from burnt NB chips. It is the memory/agp system on the mobo half after all. So Id run memtest 86 on it. Test for errors there. If it goes 100% no errors then let it run for 2 or 3x . And if that passes it isnt either-mobo or mem. If it fails. Try mem in another system again with memtest86. If it passes -the other mobo is bad or mem incompat. If it fails its the mem. Only sure way to know.


(NVM about the NB I missed it was A64) So even the cpu could cause it since its got the mem controler imbeded.

[AKF]

Hi again.

What i did was tried each RAM stick seperately (because there a matched pair).

Then i turned on my pc and loaded Diablo2.

Both of the modules loaded the character select screen in about 3 seconds and when i loaded a game there was no visible distortion on the page or loading screen. It didnt crash or anything either.

Then when i tried them both together (i swapped their slots) it went back to the way it was previously. It took about 6 or 7 seconds to load the character screen and there was some kind of colour distortion on the loading screen flickering, but its not like.. major enough to make you suspect there is something wrong, if you know what i mean. The game also took a while to settle, to stop the initial lag you get when you load a game (this happens on all computers i have played on) And it still hasnt crashed or anything.

Somehow i dont think the problem is the RAM, nor the CPU.

Do you, or anybody else, have any other ideas about what may be causing the problem? Could it have something to do with the drivers?

Thanks

[AKF]

Sorry, didnt see previous post. Ill run Memtest 86 on it now and see what it comes up with.

[AKF]

OK Guys, according to Memtest 86 there are like 21469 errors on my memory. I guess that must be pretty bad.

So is there a chance that the motherboard is what broke the memory and by putting new memory in its going to break that aswell? Or do you think the memory was just broken when i bought it?

[Xtreeme]

Thats why I like memtest86. I never pass a built rig as stable without useing it. Well is that mem compat with your mainboard? Ive had errors just due to the mem not liking the mobo chipset and working fine in other pc's. The eprom has a ton to do with it. And that varies between every single brand out there. They buy the chapest they can get-even the high end stuff. And thus buy from diff vendors all the time. Then its programed and this is little diff from brand to brand. So we now know there are memory errors. Now to find out why. See if you can find out if others with that mainbaord have compat issues. Search google on it. Also contact mobo manufacturer. THey usually have a list of tested mem known to work with it. If it is compat-the mobo or mem is bad. Only way to narrow that down. Is to either try the mem in another pc. Or send the mem or mobo back. But its really easier to test the mem in another pc.

[kenboyles72]

also you said that a spark occured when you tried putting the plate back in, that might have fried your ram. try using differant ram that you are not currently using in your pc right now and see what happens.

[proffit]

that is why it is recomended you turn off your pc and un plug it when you are doing any work. borrow a friends ram and see if it works just fine. id hate for a silly mistake to ruin your experience. btw why do you play such old games and a very new pc set up?

[AKF]

OK im gonna send the memory back to the place i got it from and ask for a replacement. Should be a week or two untill i get it. Ill post back here and tell you guys if its fixed.

Oh, and i know i play old games, but i do play new games aswell.

Thanks for the help guys,

Many thanks