Need suggestion in troubleshooting HCL desktop

[shiwa436]

I bought a HCL branded system. its configuration is
Mother Board:ASUS P5P vm/s
Processor :Intel p4
RAM : 256 MB

Recently, when i tried to power on the system, the system doesnt responded. A local serving centre checked the system and told that the mother board shorted... and i have to change the mother board. Which mother board should i opt for? and also i want to upgrade my RAM. Please help me in this regard. Thank you..

 

[Ishu Gupta]

PS I had a HCL PC and the Power Supply was crap. I didn't know much about tech then and the HCL guys always told me to get this and get that. Never said anything about the power supply.

IMO it will be hard to find a mobo for P4 and DDR ram (the one you have) is stupidly priced.
I recommend getting a new mobo,CPU, RAM,PSU.

 

[Reaper_vivek]

What's your budget??and how much RAM do u need??

 

[Gollum]

Why not just get the psu checked. If that has failed you can get a new one instead of getting a whole new system.

 

[shiwa436]

Thanks guys, I got checked the PSU, it was failed. The serving agent told me he will fix it in a day. But, which PSU should I opt for.? About RAM, 1GB is needed, which one should I opt for?

 

[Ishu Gupta]

Whats the budget for PSU
FSP saga II 350W @ 1500 <------ should be enough IMO.
FSP saga II 400W @ 2000
CX400W @ 2700.

About RAM 1GB DDR, it will cost you Rs 2000.

 

[The Sorcerer]

PS I had a HCL PC and the Power Supply was crap. I didn't know much about tech then and the HCL guys always told me to get this and get that. Never said anything about the power supply.

So how did you assume on your own that HCL's power supply is crap?

OEMs usually deal with products that have EU certifications and usually EU has very strong guidelines about power supplies made for anything. Back in the pentium 4 days, atx specification guidelines for intel says they have AC inlet overvolt protection as an optional but no manufacturers except a handful (that too for high end systems, power requirement was low for general and even gaming dating even before 6600gt).

FSP saga II 350W @ 1500 <------ should be enough IMO.

His board uses 20 pin ATX connector. Power supplies come with 20+ 4 pin connector. If the OP is worried about the extra dangling 4 pin from the atx connector, he shouldn't. I assume the +4 pin is detachable from the 20 pin. If not I also assume/hope that engineer knows which one to connect.

 

[Gollum]

With the notch facing the top the 4pins to be detached are on the far right of the 24pin connector. The 24 pin connector can be connected even if the extra 4 pins don't detach from the rest of connector.

 

[Ishu Gupta]

So how did you assume on your own that HCL's power supply is crap?

OEMs usually deal with products that have EU certifications and usually EU has very strong guidelines about power supplies made for anything. Back in the pentium 4 days, atx specification guidelines for intel says they have AC inlet overvolt protection as an optional but no manufacturers except a handful (that too for high end systems, power requirement was low for general and even gaming dating even before 6600gt).

All I know is that it had a 250W PSU and all the problems I had were the symptoms of a low end PSU. Maybe its good. I still have it.