A desperate man's problems with PSU's, Barebones. And cheese on toast.

[el Chi]

Rightyho - I'm pretty pissed off so please forgive me if I am a tad incomprehensible at points. Here is my sad tale of woe:
I recently bought this barebones system from overclockers.co.uk (doubt that makes a jot of difference, but still...)
However the PSU's blown, undoubtedly because it was inadequate to power all the stuff I had in the sytem (2x IDE HD's; 1x DVD; 1x CD-RW; Radeon 9800 Pro; Athlon XP 3GHz) as it's just 200W, and I should probably be using about double that, right? I've been searching all over London for a replacement and I can't find one, so I was wondering if any of you kind people would care to help me? The measurements are: 125mm x 100mm x 76mm (this is the original)
Another horrible possibility that occurred to me is that it's a compatibility issue with some component and ze motherboard? The CPU (Athlon XP 3GHz) is 333FSB, which ought to be compatible, but the mobo specs don't mention a limit on CPU speed, so could it be that or something else?
Slightly unrelated topic: If I link a hard drive with Win98 on it to a hard drive with XP on it, will that cause major problems or will XP over-ride it?
Thank you so much for any help - I really am quite desperate...

 

[MindCrafter]

As for your last question, i've been experimenting with that, and as far as i can remember, that will work.
Just a tip: win98 does'nt support NTFS, it needs FAT.

 

[el Chi]

Cheers, that's fantastic! Basically all I need to do is transfer a bunch of files from the 98 drive to the XP and then format 98.
Cheers again. <Gives MindCrafter cheese on toast>

 

[MindCrafter]

Cheers, that's fantastic! Basically all I need to do is transfer a bunch of files from the 98 drive to the XP and then format 98.
Cheers again. <Gives MindCrafter cheese on toast>

You should consult others first, just in case i'm wrong


<Eats toast>

 

[ComradeBadger]

Actually, as long as the drive with XP on is the Master, just jack in the 98 Drive, transfer the files over, and then format the 98 Drive with NTFS, should be ok.

 

[MindCrafter]

Yeah i was right!


<Eats more cheese>

 

[Maxi]

Yeah, what badger said is right, if you have the 98 as slave and xp as master, xp will boot. Or it'll give you a screen to choose wich os to boot, just choose xp.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Maxi, I don't think Windows does that, you'd have to boot manually to the second hard drive.. I think..

 

[Direwolf]

I've had a duel boot system a few times either by accident or intentionally.
I know when the OS is installed when both drives are present another entry will be made on the boot drive so you can have the choice of which to boot.
Actually just yesterday I set up two hard drives with different OS's on them from seperate comps, and it just booted to the one that was marked as the master.

 

[el Chi]

Ok, well that's all quite promising. As a soon-dead member of French royalty (I forget her name) once said: "Let them eat cheese on toast"

But has anyone got any suggestions regarding PSU stuff?

 

[Maxi]

Well, I had that happend to me when I wanted to format a drive without installing windows, but I installed windows on it by mistake, weelll... then I installed windows on my other HD and untill I formatted the other HD again I got to chose which windows Xp boot to boot... Only problem was that the screen looked like this:

Microsoft Windows Xp Home Edition
Microsoft Windows Xp Home Edition

So I had to guess which one was the correct one, heh.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Maybe you should quit overclocking an amd without sufficient amount of power, 400W psu is what you need.

 

[ComradeBadger]

He's not overclocking.

Right, I'd go with what DiSTuRbEd said, a 400W PSU, you can pick up a decent one from www.komplett.co.uk

 

[el Chi]

I'd like to thank folks for helping me with the Wndows conundrum - things seem to be ok for now - files are transferring as I type.
Still, I need to find a PSU - at the moment I'm using one I borrowed from a mate, shaped for a Shuttle and so everything's all outside itself. A bit like if a person could survive quite comfortably with all their intestines and insides spread everywhere...#
Cheers again

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

http://www.antec-inc.com/us/pro_powerSupply.html

^^^If you don't have a flashy computer case etc...want just a PSU no neons or whatever. Thats what I ordered(PP-403X - 400 Watt ATX2.03 Power Supply), damn good I must say too!

 

[Direwolf]

Note: If you get the OS choice screen, but one or more of the OS's doesn't exist anymore, run MSCONFIG, go to the boot tab, and click "Check All Boot Paths." Should take care of it.

 

[el Chi]

Is there any chance that if I disconnect one of the hard drives it would make a slight difference? Thus there would be CPU (3GHz), Gfx card, 1 x HDD, 1 x CD-R, 1 x DVD
Or is there any chance I could blag it by using a 300W? I'm desperately desperate here...

 

[ComradeBadger]

I don't think you could mate :/
I blew a 300W on 1 harddrive, Radeon 9800SE, CD, and 1.6 Ghz.

 

[el Chi]

Ok, so the general gist is that I'm f*cked, and I have spent £170 on something that is not only utterly useless as far as my purposes are concerned, but totally unreturnable or re-sellable (unless I get a new, similar PSU and try to blag it - even then I'm still screwed probably) - this is so so so sh*tty it's unbelievable.

 

[ComradeBadger]

You can get a 400W PSU, surely..

Sorry to hear that mate.

 

[crabcakes66]

I don't think you could mate :/
I blew a 300W on 1 harddrive, Radeon 9800SE, CD, and 1.6 Ghz.

that must have been a very crappy PSU.....

Or is there any chance I could blag it by using a 300W? I'm desperately desperate here...

badger is wrong. a 300w psu should be fine.

 

[el Chi]

badger is wrong. a 300w psu should be fine.

Really!? Are you sure? Ireally hope you're right This only leaves the task of FINDING ONE... Argh!
One of the worst things about this is that my dad was very disapproving of my decision to get all this new gubbins and spend the better part of £700 so close to my 1st year uni exams. And now it appears he may be vindicated through one reason or another.
I hate it when someone tells you something you don't want to hear, but you know/it turns out to be right.

 

[el Chi]

I'd like to add the following query in my quest; do you think the following could work?
get overclockers to replace the PSU under warranty. just say it failed.

Could I return the barebones to overclockers due to the failed PSU (naturally scaling down the content of the case, when it fused). Tell them I'm apprehensive about getting another one the same in case it too fails. too much stress, hassle, etc.

Is it possible they would, when seeing the scorch-marks in the PSU, send it back to me and tell me to f*ck my self with it? And then if I sent back the whole barebones, surely something similar would happen, just with a far larger butt-plug?
Or do you think they'd fall for it and give me credit? (I highly doubt they'd refund me)
And is it possible that they could say: No, we won't give you credit, we'll send you a new one of what you ordered? And could I contest that if they did?
Finally, should that work, are the following compatible and/or worth while getting:

Chieftec Dragon DX-01BD Midi Tower - Hi-Fi Black (CA-031-CT) Would the 360W PSU in this be sufficient?

Asus A7N8X Deluxe nForce2 (Socket A) Motherboard (MB-019-AS)

Apologies for my frantic, incessant questions.

 

[crabcakes66]

A 360w PSU should not have any problems whatsoever with that setup. :thumbs:

 

[Alig]

I'd spend the extra few quid and get a 400 - 500watt psu...they are'nt expensive, look. http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/home.php?cat=482 Plus if you ever wanted to upgrade graphics card you could do it without having to buy yet another PSU (I mean when new cards drop to like £150)