cant figure out what part is messed up

[phelix22]

Ran into some problems about a month back, long story short i moved and power outlet in my new place had a 2-3prong converter, but didnt have ground connected so it ended up frying the motherboard and my graphics card (maybe more).
Before system ran stable, specs were:
Abit VT7 mobo
P4 "C" 2.8 ghz northwood w/ HT
80 gig maxtor HD IDE
Gf4 6600 gfx card AGP 8x 256mb
2x512 Mushkin DC ddr400

since i knew motherboard/gfx card were definately dead (due to lock up before even being able to get into bios, and testing gfx card in different computer) i ordered a new mobo, ASUS p4v8x-mx and use the onboard video.

looking at specs it seemed compatible with my cpu. only issue was that from various sites some said it only supported ddr333 some said ddr400. after getting it, manual says it only supports ddr333 but sticker with specs on outside says ddr400. i plug in one of my memory sticks, try to boot up, keeps restarting, and eventually harddrive stops being detected by bios or boot or anything. i then plug in a different harddrive, try formatting and installing winXP pro, keeps freezing during installation. havent got past this yet.

main question is... could the initial power overload to my computer have messed up more than just my mobo/gfx card, or is the ram causing it to freeze? and if its not the ram inconsistency how do i test if the ram/cpu is actually damaged? or the PSU?

 

[ShackledPhoenix]

Memory is scalable, it will clock itself down to the speed of your board if your board only supports slower speeds.

But it's quite possible that when you fried the board other pieces went with it. Have you run memtest on the RAM? that would be my first step. Also if you have different sticks of memory that are compatible try using those instead of what you have in there.

If you have another PC that supports it, try the processor in another unit. 99% of the time if a CPU is bad the computer won't do anything at all, but I've run into one before that caused similar problems to what you're describing.

If you have one you can use, try a different power supply. You can use a multimeter to test a powersupply too, but it's mucho easier to just use a different one you know works.

Update the BIOS to your board too. I've owned many that needed an update straight out of the box to work properly.

It's also entirely possible that one of the new parts are defective. Remember that with PC components new does not mean "Guaranteed to work". If everything else tests out okay, Consider getting a replacement board from whoever you bought it from.


Oh and Never, EVER use a 2 prong - 3 prong converter. That third prong is there for a reason as you've found out, and they're actually more dangerous than just shorting out your PC. They're a fire hazard as well, which is why alot of electrical hardware shops no longer carry them.

 

[phelix22]

thanks for response. i would try running memtest only problem is that i cant even get into the OS. i formatted the partition of this harddrive with my OS on it to try to reinstall and see if i could get system stable again. when trying to reinstall windows it will just freeze at random spots during the installation, its happened 3-4 times already. i also dont know how to update bios without being in the OS. i have a feeling that bios isnt the problem and that its some hardware issue, because its very sporadic. so basically, the harddrive that i was using in my old setup before everything went wrong is dead, and my other one i cant install the OS on. my brother has a computer similar to mine that i built for him that may support my processor. do you suggest i try my processor/ram in his cpu? and if they are defective will it mess up his comp? also how should i test my PSU... just swap one from another computer? one last thing, if all of that stuff checks out fine how do i test if the new mobo i ordered is DOA or not?

 

[phelix22]

okay so i got windows installed using all of my own hardware. but when i got into OS i was getting extreme lag when using my video card. eventually itw ould freeze on me when trying to install nvidia drivers (couldnt even open task manager) so i swapped in my brothers cpu and his ram in mine, reinstalled windows and everything seemed to run fine. when i swapped my ram back in it worked for a little bit then i was getting random restarts and critical error messages. i ran memtest86 and before even getting to test 5 i had pages of bad blocks. does this mean that the memory was causing my restarts and freezes? i have yet to test my cpu with my brothers ram, but i ran memtest on his ram and got zero errors

 

[phucng_10]

If you ran Memtest86 and you got a bunch of failed tests then its a bad RAM.