Solved Would appreciate some help identifying this problem please.

[Makalu]

So another poke around in the machine this morning and I think I have narrowed the problem down to a dead HDD - the 120Gb one with the OS on it. I have tried all the SATA ports and they work fine and I have tried the power cables and they work fine so I'm left to think that its the HDD - the bios does not see it at all and the clicking noise I can hear is (I think) the PSU trying to get power to it to power it up.

I will nip out and pick up a 120Gb SSD and reload Win7 and take it from there.

Thoughts and comments always welcome - and a belated but significant 'thankyou' to everyone who has chipped in with advise and suggestions so far.
Mak.

 

[essenbe]

Good to hear from you, Mak. I'm not sure how much we helped you though. But, I am glad you decided on an SSD. You'll think you have a new computer. When you go to install Windows on the SSD, make sure you have only the SSD connected and your sata controller in Bios set to AHCI. The Windows Installer will do most everything else. Before the install, I would download all of my drivers from the Motherboard manufacturer's web site and the Graphics driver from Nvidia. They will be much more current than the ones on your disk. When you are finished, come back and let us know if there is anything we can do to help.

 

[Makalu]

So its been a long day.

Took the machine to pieces again this morning and I narrowed it down to the boot drive being DOA. Since this is supposed to be a birthday gift upgrade for my son I decided to replace both the drive and the PSU. A couple of hours later I had a Samsung 840 Pro 120Gb SSD and a Corsair CX600 psu neatly installed and wired up. The next several hours were spent reinstalling various drivers and Windows 7 and then configuring it all to run nicely on the SSD (TRIM, ACHI, Indexing off etc). It's midnight now so I will test it thoroughly tomorrow but I did quickly run through Cinebench and it swallowed that up without skipping a beat so I'm kind of hoping that this has solved my BSOD problem. Time will tell.

Thanks for the kind words and assistance Essenbe.

Mak.

 

[essenbe]

Happy we could be of a little assistance. It sounds like you did most of the work though. Keep us posted and if you need any more help, we'll be right here. Let us know how it does and how your Son likes it.

 

[MeOnMine]

Sounds like you have it all worked out "Great"
Reading your thread my first instincts was that the power supply could not supply the graphics card.
500 watt would probably be peak not RMS.
You have replaced it with a reputable brand and you have reduced the current load by changing from HDD to SSD.
All this means happy smooth gaming for your son

Wayne

 

[Makalu]

Final post for this thread - problem seems solved.

New PSU and SSD fitted and Windows 7 HP reinstalled and optimised for SSD. Drivers reloaded and all ok so far. Ran Memtest and prime95 for 8 hours yesterday and all ok. Games seem to be playing fine at pretty reasonable graphics settings so son is happy. Problem has gone away I think. Many Thanks again to everyone who helped with guidance and advice. For now, this case is closed!

Mak.

 

[Boozad]

Good to hear mate, glad you got there in the end.

 

[essenbe]

Great news, Makalu. I'm happy you have the problem resolved and your Son is happy. Well done.