Reviving an Acer Aspire M5641

[Arcanyx]

I probably should have started this right at the beginning of the revival, but oh well.

 

I am currently in the process of reviving my old Acer Aspire M5641 system into a HTPC for the living room. I got this PC in 2008 as a reward for a final year exam, and it sat idle at home for a good 4-5 years without anyone using it. I took an interest in PCs during the summer after getting a new gaming rig, so I figured I revisit this old system and see if it can still be salvaged for other purposes.

 

Specs

 

As it was

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00 Ghz

MOBO: Acer MCP73PV? LGA775

RAM: Transcend 1GB DDR2 800 Mhz DIMM 5-5-5

GPU: nVidia G100 512MB

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200 500GB

PSU: Liteon 300W

Case: Acer Aspire M5641 OEM

 

Current

--to be updated

 

 

In chronological order:-

Completed Tasks

• Managed to POST after removing faulty 1 GB DDR2 RAM stick
• Migrated to a new case - Bitfenix Nova Windowed Black
• Added an SSD - SanDisk SSD PLUS 120GB
• Added a HDD - Seagate Barracuda 2TB
• Installed Linux Mint 32-bit onto the SSD

 

Current Tasks/Issues

• Looking for 2 x 2 GB sticks of DDR2 RAM
• Managed to POST without a GPU
• Does not POST with the GPU installed; GPU fan still runs

--to be updated

 

I've logged below the threads I've started here on LTT directly involving the re-build (as at 22/11/2016). Yes, that many.

If y'all have any advice on this LGA775 system, feel free to let me know! Thanks for dropping by 

[SCHISCHKA]

you had an E8400 and you did nothing with it? no wonder the pc gods are not smiling upon you

[Arcanyx]

2 hours ago, SCHISCHKA said:

you had an E8400 and you did nothing with it? no wonder the pc gods are not smiling upon you

I honestly had (have) no idea about it; during my uni days I pretty much became laptop-dependent and the old system just sat at home collecting dust or used by someone else at home for web browsing etc.

 

Is there something particularly special about it?

[SCHISCHKA]

Just now, Arcanyx said:

I honestly had (have) no idea about it; during my uni days I pretty much became laptop-dependent and the old system just sat at home collecting dust or used by someone else at home for web browsing etc.

 

Is there something particularly special about it?

I had the Q8400 a long time ago. Had quite good performance and overclock, nothing back then really needed a quad core. I think yours has a higher stock clock speed. That Nvidia G100 is the lowest card they had; i dont know why they stuck it in a prebuilt with a quad core. if its faulty you can get better for under the price of a box of beer. The Nvidia GT210 are very cheap and fanless. Iv got two in my repair box and they've been through shit and back and still work. Good luck finding RAM, a PC recycler will have them

[Arcanyx]

7 hours ago, SCHISCHKA said:

I had the Q8400 a long time ago. Had quite good performance and overclock, nothing back then really needed a quad core. I think yours has a higher stock clock speed. That Nvidia G100 is the lowest card they had; i dont know why they stuck it in a prebuilt with a quad core. if its faulty you can get better for under the price of a box of beer. The Nvidia GT210 are very cheap and fanless. Iv got two in my repair box and they've been through shit and back and still work. Good luck finding RAM, a PC recycler will have them

Well I never knew the E8400 was anywhere close to being superb for its time, heck I barely knew what was inside the computer all this while anyhow.

Thanks for the tips. Yeah the RAM seems to be a tough one, will probably find some when I go down to the IT lifestyle mall an hour away from where I live. The G100 issue I'm having now is an odd one: when it's plugged into the system, I can't post. When I remove it (and use integrated graphics), everything works fine. I'm hoping its the GPU failing so I can replace it, but if it turns out to be the motherboard then that's a whole other problem.

[SCHISCHKA]

1 hour ago, Arcanyx said:

Well I never knew the E8400 was anywhere close to being superb for its time, heck I barely knew what was inside the computer all this while anyhow.

Thanks for the tips. Yeah the RAM seems to be a tough one, will probably find some when I go down to the IT lifestyle mall an hour away from where I live. The G100 issue I'm having now is an odd one: when it's plugged into the system, I can't post. When I remove it (and use integrated graphics), everything works fine. I'm hoping its the GPU failing so I can replace it, but if it turns out to be the motherboard then that's a whole other problem.

the only reason I'm not still using my Q8400 is because the motherboard died and i couldn't get a replacement

[asand1]

12 hours ago, Arcanyx said:

Well I never knew the E8400 was anywhere close to being superb for its time, heck I barely knew what was inside the computer all this while anyhow.

Thanks for the tips. Yeah the RAM seems to be a tough one, will probably find some when I go down to the IT lifestyle mall an hour away from where I live. The G100 issue I'm having now is an odd one: when it's plugged into the system, I can't post. When I remove it (and use integrated graphics), everything works fine. I'm hoping its the GPU failing so I can replace it, but if it turns out to be the motherboard then that's a whole other problem.

What is your location? I have 4x2GB DDR2.

[Arcanyx]

18 hours ago, SCHISCHKA said:

the only reason I'm not still using my Q8400 is because the motherboard died and i couldn't get a replacement

Shucks, I do hope I don't run into issues like that.

7 hours ago, asand1 said:

What is your location? I have 4x2GB DDR2.

I'm all the way in Malaysia, half a world away.

 

[Arcanyx]

Update: So I found out that it seems the G100 GPU did work on my brother's MSI B85 board during the time I had been moving the parts into the new case, and now I'm wondering whether that (putting the GPU into another mobo before I had tested it on the original mobo in the new case) could have caused what I am facing now. Sounds weird, but heck, any thoughts?

 

It seems like I've been dragging this for a bit too long, so for the weekend I aim to tackle this project in either two routes:

 

If it is a motherboard issue, I did look up what were my options. I've managed to find a Gigabyte GA-G41M-Combo and a Biostar G41D3+ at the retailers near me, at RM300 and RM279 respectively (about $67 and $62).

 

DDR2 is also a challenge, with RAM prices generally skyrocketing here in Malaysia by about 30% over the past 2 months - our currency had depreciated again vs the USD. With that in mind, I am thinking I could easily obtain at least 4GB of DDR3 and then convert the OS into Linux Mint 64-bit. The new mobo has to happen first, though.

 

If it is a GPU issue, perhaps I'll search out a cheap GTX 750 Ti or an AMD RX 460 and call it a job done. RAM would then be a nagging limitation I'll have to solve some other time when DDR2 prices come down, if ever.

 

 

Thoughts?

[Arcanyx]

Small update: I managed to get a Hyper 212 LED cooler on a discount the other day; happy to know it supports LGA 775. So in the event I do bust out a new mobo for this, at least a new cooler is covered (current one is OEM and is pretty huge and feels a bit hot after a few hours). Either way I wanted to get one on standby for next year's experiments.

 

I expect to do final tests on the GPU later this weekend, and if it is a dead card then at least I wouldn't need to overhaul the entire build with a new motherboard.

 

Travelling to Lowyat in the coming days, which is a multi-storey tech mall about an hour away from where I live. May my wallet stay strong.