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[Nirur Torir]

Please help me!

My computer broke down recently. Thinking it was the power supply, I took it to my grandfather's house. He used to do all sorts of computer repair-y things. After using his power supply checker to confirm that yes, the power supply was dead, he gave me a replacement. It does not have the power cord for my Nvidia 8800GT PCI-E card, as it is an older unit (Same wattage as my dead one). The rear chassis fan was also dead (I hadn't noticed previously. Ooops, good thing the Motherboard came with software to monitor the internal temperature, which I hadn't seen being particularly high. It also automatically turns off the computer if it gets too hot.), so I replaced that as well. The motherboard has no display output, so I can't test the computer particularly well.

When I turned it on, all fans worked, but the computer gave a persistant, deafening beep until I turned it off. My grandfather said that it's because of the video card isn't plugged in. Anyone know if this is correct, for an Asus motherboard? I didn't see anything on their tech support forums about it, and my Google skills are a bit weak.

Question 2: These are basically the same cord, right? They look the same, but I'd like confirmation that they'll both work.
http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Unlimited-Express-Power-Adapter/dp/B000V6T5ZY/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1243434255&sr=1-13
http://www.amazon.com/PCI-E-Internal-Power-Supply-Cable/dp/B001UIX4N6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1243434255&sr=1-1

[Tormy]

My advice: Buy a new, decent ~550W PSU. It's the "soul" of your computer. I said 550W, because if you gonna upgrade your comp, you won't have to buy a new PSU again.

[Mr Tk]

Some cards are so powerful that they can't draw enough power through the PCI-E bus, hence why they have the extra cable. This is most likely the case why you are getting the beep. However if you want to investigate more then vist http://www.5starsupport.com/info/beep_codes.htm for beep codes according to the type of bios you have. This could narrow it down

As for the cables I don't see any reason why they wouldn't work as they both look the same. As far as I know all the cables are standardized.

[Nirur Torir]

Thanks for the advice.
Tormy - A good alternative plan. I hope I won't need to upgrade for a few more years at least, and I don't have much money to spend on computer parts right now.
Mr Tk - Thanks, that website was just what I was looking for. I was tired when I wrote that; not quite sure why I thought they might be different.

[Sorcerer]

"The good things about standards is that there are so many different ones to choose from"

In this case however, either cable will do

[Nirur Torir]

I ordered the second cord listed, and received it. It isn't compatible with the 8800GT card. Anyone know why? I suspect it is because the 6-pin connector is white instead of black. Are power cords for PCI-E cards not compatible with those for PCI-E 2 or something strange like that?

Edit - As it turns out, the card came with the needed cord. It was in the box when I went for the manual. Let this be a lesson: Always read the manual before buying new parts.

[Yanlin]

The proper advice would be:

RTFM.

[Peewee]

Read
The
Funny
Manual.

Indeed.