I think I fried my system.....

So yesterday everything was running smooth. Purchased a new GFX card, my PC was running great and fast. Then I decided to step into waters that I knew nothing about. I decided to switch the voltage switch on the back of my PC from 110 to 230. I started up the PC. Everything was fine and smooth. This morning I come down stairs to get onto my PC and hit the power button. Nothing......I immediatly though, oh crap, the voltage switch. I look behind the box and switch it over to 110 and it fires up. But hangs at the 'windows is loading' I crap my pants. I shut down and reboot, same thing. Finaly after about 15 minutes the thing loads up, but very slowly. Everytime I load up, it seems to be working faster, as if it is working a kink out or something. I decide to do the 3DMark03 bench mark. Yesterday I got a 9056, today a 5512. What did I do?

I look in my specs under hardware and it says everything is working; however something is not. Could someone help me narrow down my idiotic problem? :cry

 

Not a really good idea. :cry

230VAC is mainly used in the UK, Australia, NZ and many other Commonwealth / ex-Commonwealth countries.

Switching from 110-->230 is bound to fry something.
110VAC is the USA standard and not advisable to change away from that. Bazza

 

I know, worst mistake ever. I feel stupid coming forth with this. However the next step is find, WHAT fried. How do I do this?

 

So what else did you do with your pc yesterday?

I can't see a mechanism for the wrong voltage to change the speed of your pc.

 

Yesterday I did a few things.

One, purchased a new gfx card. PCI-express Nvidia Geforce 8500GT. Installed and updated driver. Everything was fine and really fast.

I also used ccleaner to change my startup processes. Here is a thread that I was at yesterday in software. http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=150773

I stopped some startup processes, seeing that I did not use many of them.

I am just affraid that this moring when I switched back over to 110 v. that it instantly book up, did not have to hit the power button. It was progressivly getting faster today, however it has climaxed and what I have now.

 

Probably reffering to the switch on most power supplies.

 

Definitely, the OP was asking about it in another thread.

Could cause a slowdown if a component has degraded through the switch, no?

@TheBlackClap do you own and/or know how to use a digital multi meter?

I would start by testing the PSU, and then moving on to other components. If the PSU is damaged, you should not run the machine for risk of further damage to other components.

 

No I do not know how to use a Digital Multi Meter, nor do I own one....

 

Hmmmm... are you adverse to buying one, and learning how to use it?

Otherwise, you'd have to take the machine somewhere to get the PSU tested, should you decide that it is a wise course of action to do so. (Maybe another geek has better advice, though)

I can get a cheap one for ~$20-$30 CDN... probably work out to be cheaper than having someone do it for you.

 

When I did the benchmarking program. Now that I think of it, not the smartest thing to do. All of the Graphix tests were great. However when it did the CPU test, really slow and fragmented.

 

http://www.radioshack.com/sm-buy-th...ltimeter-on-wwwradioshackcom--pi-2103174.html

Would something like this work? If so, where can I get information on how to test each part?

thanks in advance, I can't believe I did this crap.....

 

There seemed to be some doubt in the other thread about this pc, a Sony Vaio VGC-RB30.

This is not a laptop but a P4 tower.

To the poster,

I repeat I can't see your adventure with the voltage switch affecting speed.
You have listed quite a few things done yesterday, look there for the your problem, then light a candle to St Sony that you did not destroy the pc.

Check your speed tests again. How can the graphics be faster if the processor is slower?

Congratulations on installing a new card. It's always nice to do something yourself.
Since your knowledge of electricity is shaky do you know you must disconnect the power (preferably pull the cord out) when working on a modern pc? We have another thread here at the moment from a user who has cause to regret not doing this.

The voltmeter would be a waste of money in my opinion.

 

I repeat I can't see your adventure with the voltage switch affecting speed.
You have listed quite a few things done yesterday, look there for the your problem, then light a candle to St Sony that you did not destroy the pc.

I will go to the software thread and ask for help there then.

Check your speed tests again. How can the graphics be faster if the processor is slower?

I don't know, I visually saw a difference when I was running the program. Yesterday, everything was completely smooth and high score. Today, just the CPU tests were laggy and low score

 

I was the one on the other thread who somehow got the idea the OP's machine was a laptop. I realized later that was not the case.

I'd think if he really fried something his computer would be having much more serious problems than he's reporting. But I wonder, given that by changing that switch, he was telling the power supply it would have 230 volts coming in, instead of 115 if that meant the machine actually wound up with insufficient voltage (given that the power supply was configured to run with 230 volts but actually only had approx. 115 volts coming in) and that, in turn, may have caused some writes to his RAM and hard drive to be in error. I assume he's running some flavor of Windows and as that OS (and I imagine many others) writes to a lot of files each time it starts up and shuts down he may have really crapped up some files running his RAM and hard drive on lower voltage than required.

I realize, of course, that nothing on the motherboard runs at 115 volts (or 230 volts either), that the power supply steps it down to 5 volts, 12 volts, etc, but how would those lower voltages be affected by telling the power supply it's got 230 volts coming in the back door when it's actually 115 or so? Anyone know how the consequent output voltages would be affected for the RAM and the hard drive for example? Not to mention the effect on the operation of the CPU.

I'm guessing that the power supply's output voltages were not any greater than usual and may well have been less, but I don't know beans about how power supplies work.

TBC, you might contact Sony and ask them what the effect would likely be of changing that switch to 230 volts and letting the machine run that way for however long it was. Or maybe someone here knows and can reply to this question.

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that his machine's problems are due to his hardware operating with less than normal voltage, causing faulty RAM, CPU and maybe even hard drive operation. Even if the RAM alone was affected that would be enough to wreak some havoc I'd think. Or would the OS have picked up any such errors and/or crashed immediately?

 

If I'm correct in my assumptions, then he may be able to back up as much data as he can salvage and wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall the OS and his other software and find out everything is fine. I'm assuming that given the power supply got only 1/2 the voltage it was "told" to expect that it's output voltages were less than they should have been.

Adrynalyne? studiot? anyone else know if this assumptiion is correct and what the likely affect on his hardware would have been? And would reformatting/repartitioning and reinstalling the OS and other software likely set things to rights?

 

Hi Blackie there is no need for yet another thread, we will keep supporting you, we are all friends here.

You best option, I think, is to download Everest and post the details here. Everest will not only checkout your hardware but do some reliable benchmarking.

http://majorgeeks.com/google_search...f;S:http://majorgeeks.com;LP:1;FORID:11&hl=en