I traded my cousin some really expensive RAM that I happened accross for his old desktop, that he put his graphics card into that he swapped from his newer computer. If I plug the desktop into the wall and try to turn it on nothing happens. If I open it up I can see that the where the wire from the power supply plugs into the motherboard there Is a little light on. So clearly some power is getting somewhere…

How do I go about trouble shooting this, and what tools do I need? I assume at minimum a multi meter? Not really sure what to do, it’s been decades the last time I built a computer.

  • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The MB probably doesn’t jive with the GPU. Look up online for the MB manufacturer if it supports that sort of GPU.

    If your RAM is seated as 1 and 2, make it 1 and 3 or 2 and 4.

    Fans usually means the BIOS is recognizing some hardware as funky. I had this same issue when I bought RAM that was incompatible with my MB.

    • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Unless the GPU is an Arc, compatibility between the motherboard and GPU shouldn’t affect much more than the maximum performance you can squeeze out of the GPU. As a protocol, PCIe is backwards compatible.

      If your RAM is seated as 1 and 2, make it 1 and 3 or 2 and 4.

      Never assume. RTFM when trying to use dual channel memory.