Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

so I fried my mother board.......

Jul 11, 2006 12:23PM PDT

First time poster, I recently bought a new power supply and assumed that the 4 pin plug that was bundled next to the 20 pin plug was to plug into the 4 pin slot on my motherboard. Well, apparently it was an extension for the 20 pin. OK, I'm new to this stuff.

So now, upon powering up, my processor starts up fine, but after about 15-20 seconds, everything slows down and begins pulsing and the MB starts flashing FF. I had a friend look at it and he is convinced that the MB is toast. He also told me, that in order to be able to restore it so that I can turn it on and not have to reload everything, I will have to find the same exact board. Is that true? This MB is atleast a year old and it may be tough to find one. Here are the specs (that I know).

NVIDIA
EP-8rda3i (these are the #'s directly printed on the Board.

Thanks for any info you can give me.
Will

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
You didn't share...
Jul 11, 2006 12:41PM PDT

Why we can't reload the OS. I've done this numerous times and only lose a few files (the ones I didn't backup?) Also I often take the time to toss in a new hard disk so I can start fresh then add the old drive so I can retrieve my files from it (not mine, but the poor soul who hasn't learned about backup yet.)

Bob

- Collapse -
Well...
Jul 11, 2006 1:45PM PDT

Is that All (windows XP) I will have to reload? Or All of my programs and files.

- Collapse -
If you use my method...
Jul 11, 2006 9:11PM PDT

Files don't get reloaded since we left them on that other drive.

I find such a reload of the OS to help in the long run as there are old programs I stopped using and they are left behind.

Bob

- Collapse -
That's not so bad
Jul 12, 2006 3:11PM PDT

So what your saying is that if I get a new (different) Mboard and a new C drive and hook up my old C drive as a second drive, I will be able to copy and paste all my files? Including programs? Including the ones I dowloaded off the net?

Sorry, I am new to this stuff. Thanks for the help.

- Collapse -
Some, not all.
Jul 13, 2006 12:56AM PDT

While it's well discussed why this is so, Microsoft designed this to happen. Nothing busted.

Bob

- Collapse -
or did I
Jul 15, 2006 6:31PM PDT

How can I check to see if it is my MB. I unplugged the RAM, Video card, HD's, and everything on my pci slots. That leaves the MB and CPU. How can I test the CPU?