New (Used) Computer Blues

[halmotors]

Alright, I'm also going to post this in the Video Card/Monitor forum, in the off chance that I'm completely off base in regards to me problem.

I recently bought my girlfriend a used computer off of a friend. It's a Gateway (yeah, yeah, I know.....), about 2 years old, with 512 megs of ram, a 3.0ghz processor, and a Radeon 9800 128meg graphics card. The hard drive had to be wiped and have windows reinstalled, which is what I did. I installed the latest Catalyst drivers (6.2, I believe), as well as purchased a new networking card, to attach to my router. The computer had problems with windows installing...I'm fairly sure this was due to the cd drivers not being installed yet. Once it was installed, we started the computer up, and it ran wonderfully for a day or so. Whilst playing WoW (the main reason the computer was purchased....), the screen froze, and a loud, very high pitched noise started coming from the speakers. Did a hard shutdown, restarted the computer.....lcd monitor displayed a "Power Saving Mode", and wouldn't display anything, despite the fact that the computer was obviously started.

No problem, I thought, as I grabbed an extra 9800 128meg card sitting around from an older computer. I installed it, turned the computer on.....and it did the same thing. Computer started up fine, but the monitor stoutly refuses to display anything. Tried reconnecting the cables between it and the computer, to no avail. Now, this whole time, the computer is on, the fans are all running, the hard drive is spinning. There's a red Diagnostic LED that's come on on the motherboard, with no notion as to what it's in regards to. I tried clearing the CMOS jumper, but that didn't work, either.

My thoughts on the problem are as follows: video card problem (although having it happen on two separate cards, I doubt it's solely a card problem), motherboard problem (which, in my opinion, is the worst case scenario), or a power supply problem, in which the card is receiving no power. I'm hoping it's the latter problem.

Any thoughts on the matter? Have I missed any critical piece of information that might be necessary? Any and all ideas are much appeciated, and thanks in advance.

 

[halmotors]

Bump, for great justice.

 

[TheChef]

What sort of problems did it have while installing Windows?

Also, on the sticker on the side of the PSU, whats the rating under the +12v (in amps)? It seems kind of odd, however, that if it were a lack of power from the PSU, a high pitched noise would come from the speakers and it wouldn't just lock up and refuse to work.

Is there a beep code when you boot the computer?

No need to bump in a couple of hours.

 

[halmotors]

The computer would freeze while installing windows, and it only did it once. We also had problems installing programs onto the computer, for the same reason. There are no beeps coming from the computer when it's booted up, nor do I think there ever were.

I can't get a good look at the amp rating on the PSU, as it's hidden on the other side, and the thing is very difficult to get out, being a factory tower.

I didn't say that it HAD to be the PSU, just that that was my thoughts on the subject. It was the only thing (other than a potential motherboard problem) that I could think of. I'm not a computer technician, nor do I have access to diagnostic tools to determine what the problem is. Most likely, the tower will be brought into a computer repair shop, and fixed. I just wanted to determine if this is something I can repair on my own.

Saying "No need to bump in a couple hours" is not necessary. The rest of your post was constructive, but that was not. Please, if you're going to reply to my thread, do so without the criticism.