So, my computer, which has had some minor issues since I assembled it, finally shat part of itself this weekend.

A few months ago the on board LAN died, luckily I had a spare card lying around.
The damn thing has been crashing on me for a while now, and im guessing the mobo is slowly dying (Asus M2N-E). However something really ate it this time. The computer still works, but with horrible graphical artifacts. If I try and run anything other then basic productivity apps, the damn thing freezes/crashes.

I'm thinking the GPU (ATI x1800) might of farked itself, but is there any real way to know for sure? I'd hate to waste what little money I have on the wrong part.
 

sorry to hear that mate! Computers going bad, are always a big pain.

It would help though if you put the full specs of the computer down. After hearing this I would take a good look at your PSU, did you buy a brand name one (if yes, which brand and model) or is it a generic one that came with the case? Overstressing of a PSU can cause anything from lockups to bad current frying all parts of the computer. On the otherhand, a bad motherboard might have similar effects.

Did you check the fans? Maybe things are just overheating because of bad fans, maybe you have bad airflow or a nice layer of dust (or all three).

succes
 

Specs:
Asus M2N-E Motherboard
AMD Athlon X2 3800+
2gb Corsair XMS 6400 (DDR2 800)
ATI Raedon X1800XT
320gb Seagate SATA HD
Hiper 580w modular PSU


Nothing is overheating, dusted it out and all temps are normal. If the PSU has been causing this, and fucked over my parts, i'll be kicking myself...
 

The 3.5 inch floppy wasn't meant for that, Greyscale. Only hump other people.
 

The mention of the onboard lan dying is suspect, but don't take my word for it.

Ideally if this is still under warranty try to get the board RMA'd.

Anyway I would suggest you try to swap parts out, for instance, remove all the extra cards (including the NIC Card -- and if you have onboard video, remove the graphics card) try to track the issue down to one specific thing.

Testing the ram might help as well (memtest86).

But honestly I really think it might be the motherboard. Onboard LAN dying... D:
 

Greyscale, does somebody have a computer in which you could test the graphicscard? The card could have broken or the connection with the mobo is just not good in which case the mobo would cause the card to artifact.

Testing like Neo said is the one thing to do and if possible exchanging parts with other computers to test them in an other environment.

Prime95 (for CPU and mobo), Memtest86 (mostly memory and thus also related to the mobo) and the lastest 3dmark (for the videocard) are good programs to stress test and to force a problem, which might allow you to narrow down the cause of it all.

Good luck!
 

Sounds like you could be stressing the PSU, but 580 *should* be able to handle that... how many rails does that thing have?
 

any news from the front?
 

I'm fairly sure its the mobo, but not 100%. Got an error code today on the video adapter, took out the card and reseated it and everything started up normally again, minus the artifacts.
My main issue with testing the hardware is that out of my friends and family, i'm the only one with PCI-E graphics. I'm also pretty useless when it comes to diagnosing problems, I usually hit something until it works or replace the whole thing.

Anyone have any good mobo recommendations under $100?
 

Under $100? No. But if you raise your budget to $150 you can get some killer deals on Newegg.com.