Building a new Gaming PC!

Moving finished games onto PC that are completed and will play them on a PC after I start up Blustacks 10

Quite a few are done I want to finish.

So I have some sad news.

This past Saturday we had a really bad thunderstorm and my house was hit by lightning. I actually saw the lightning come out of the outlets when it hit. I am extremely grateful that no one was hurt when it hit. Unfortunately, it fried everything in my livingroom, a GCFI outlet in the garage, and this PC in my office. The poor thing was barely used. I used it for taxes, some game development, and a little PC gaming, but not nearly enough to get my moneys worth of it. I am going to add up everythign and see if I got over the $3700 deductible I have, but this still sucks. Just to replace the parts on this PC these days runs $2476.44 plus tax and shipping.

Are you sure it's not just the power supply that got fried? I would expect them to have some amount of buit-in surge protection these days.

It powers on, the fans come on, but it doesn't run the post test.

I would still take it to a pro and see if anything can be saved.

Might be a ram problem: pop the sticks and test the slots one at a time.

Well, I can try to get it looked at, but there are so many things that could be broken. It might just get more expensive to do a full repair. The PC is also only one of the things that got fried in the storm, so I just filed a claim for it. We will see what that brings.

Things lost to the storm and the replacement costs for it all:

Best of luck my friend. Insurance is a bitch at the best of times.

wonko the sane? said:

Best of luck my friend. Insurance is a bitch at the best of times.

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Thanks! Hopefully it won't be too bad.

I assume the insurance company will only cover your claim if you replace the entire computer with another one made from the exact same parts? Because there are definitely a few places you could cut corners if you had the freedom to; that 1000W power supply was overkill for example and, again, is the very first thing you should be replacing before writing everything else off as dead. Followed by the motherboard or maybe the CPU. I've heard that the RAM crisis has actually made parts that are not RAM or SSDs cheaper because so few people are bothering to build new rigs now, meaning they're not buying any of the other parts either, meaning sellers are getting desperate. I've particularly gotten ads in my NewEgg junkmail for some dirt-cheap power supplies.

One other thing that would help is having another working computer on hand to use as a testbed for each of the parts. You know, take one part out of yours, pop it in the other one, see if it works, repeat. Maybe you know someone personally who could help out there? (I'm just now realizing that for the first time in a long time, my current desktop is too advanced to do this with any of my others, and now I'm concerned.)

Yeah, depending on how much storage/RAM you need to replace, might want to add a couple hundred to EACH of those lines...

So I am finally getting back to trying to fix this. Here is what it currently* does. I can power the PC on, and the case lights up, the case fans and the CPU fan power on and start working. The GPU fans do not. The PC doesn't output a signal and it doesn't POST, as it doesn't make that beeping sound on start up. I tried removing the RAM sticks and trying them out one by one, but it didn't change anything.

So what I am going to start with is to replace the power supply, as if something got damaged in the GPU , RAM CPU, or motherboard, then it had to go through the Power supply to get there. So even if the Power supply is working properly, we have no idea how long it might continue to do so. And without checking all the levels, we don't know if it is giving the right amount of power.

If this doesn't fix the issue, then I guess that I will replace the motherboard itself, as who knows what could be damaged there, and as far as replacement parts goes, it's not that expensive to replace.



* Pun intended!

Just realized that I need to order thermal paste to switch the CPU over. So I added that to my order for tomorrow!

Motherboards and power supplies are generally the cheapest things to outright replace: so long as it's the same model or compatible with everything you already have. Good luck my dude!

Already too late to mention this, but I've managed to get by with just transplanting both the CPU and the cooler and leaving on the thermal paste that's already stuck to them, rather than clean it off and replace it. Like opening up a peanut butter sandwich and then sticking it back together.

Also why are you repasting if you're only switching the power supply for now?

I mean... and don't repeat this... I've done that repeatedly. And linus tech tips did an entire episode testing thermal past and even operating with none was a negligible hike in temperature.

wonko the sane? said:

Motherboards and power supplies are generally the cheapest things to outright replace: so long as it's the same model or compatible with everything you already have. Good luck my dude!

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I ordered the exact same power supply and motherboard that I got last time, so it should be a direct swap over. I am looking forward to getting it done tonight and see if I can get it working again! Hopefully these two things fix it!

Pocket said:

Already too late to mention this, but I've managed to get by with just transplanting both the CPU and the cooler and leaving on the thermal paste that's already stuck to them, rather than clean it off and replace it. Like opening up a peanut butter sandwich and then sticking it back together.

Also why are you repasting if you're only switching the power supply for now?

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It's more of a just in case thing. An extra $7 to have on hand in case I need it.

And of course, the order was delayed. It sat in Atlanta for 28 hours, and I didn't get to work on it yesterday when I had a ton of free time after my Dr's appointment.

However, it should be here today, and I am looking forward to getting to fixed. Otherwise, I am just going to have to wait until this weekend.

The Predaking said:

It's more of a just in case thing. An extra $7 to have on hand in case I need it.

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And need it I did! Some good news, the PC works! I replaced the power supply and the Motherboard and we are back in business! The RAM, GPU, CPU, and Hard drive were undamaged!

I tried the power supply first, but that didn't change anything. The GPU fans still weren't coming on and nothing else changed either. So I took it back out to the kitchen and began swapping out the motherboard. Disconnecting all the cables, removing the GPU, taking out all 12 screws, and the RAM.

Getting the CPU off of the board was a bit tricky, as I was trying to figure out how to get it off without disconnecting the heat sink and fan. Spoiler, there wasn't really a way on my Motherboard to do that. So I cleaned off the three year old thermal paste with some Iso and a cleaning wipe as they said not to use a paper towel in the youtube video. After that I used the three lines method to apply the new thermal paste, and put the heatsink and fan back on. After that it was time to put the new motherboard in the case, screw it down, and plug everything in. It took me a while as I always have trouble getting those case buttons and light indicators plugged up right. After that, I brought it back into the office and hooked it up.

It didn't post, and I didn't get a signal, but the GPU fans were running! So that was something different, and then I had to adjust the GPU as my cable management wasn't done right, and I look up and we finally have a signal on the monitor! It took forever to get up to a login screen, and then I had to reset my user login for it, and after that I spent the rest of the evening downloading and installing drivers.

But I am happy, as I haven't lost all my stuff on it. Tons of pictures and videos of family as well as some personal game development stuff. This weekend, I am going to setup the VR Headset my brother loaned me and let the girls try that out.