PC death- help please!

hj2k_x said:
Rocking my 1997 PIII now. It still works. SLooooowly.

The funeral for my other PC will be held tomorrow. :( I have poked all the components and cleaned and fiddled with the CMOS battery and still no joy.

So I shall be stuck until end Feb, when I can consider a decent-ish mobo/cpu upgrade.
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Read your story and my heart goes out to you hjk_x.

I hate a bad ending!
 
So i have given her to computermania to look at. They knew not what was wrong so they have sent her to the workshop for testing...
 
Ouch, would hate to know what the bill's going to be... :(

Could probably cover a new mobo, and half of a new CPU.

Good luck, nonetheless. :)
 
Indeed. I have always found their prices good. Service not so much.
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Sorry, just had to step in here. Their pricing is good compared to other retail stores, and I've always had good service from them. I've never had them try to get me to buy something I didn't want/need, and unlike most sales staff at other stores they seem to know what they are talking about.

On topic. Your pc is pretty ancient, I would just pay R4k and get a new system coz it'll be a hassle trying to find replacement parts for your machine.
 
zolly said:
Sorry, just had to step in here. Their pricing is good compared to other retail stores, and I've always had good service from them. I've never had them try to get me to buy something I didn't want/need, and unlike most sales staff at other stores they seem to know what they are talking about.

On topic. Your pc is pretty ancient, I would just pay R4k and get a new system coz it'll be a hassle trying to find replacement parts for your machine.
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I hear what u r saying. But if its just the mobo then i can pick up a cheap replacement to tide me over till i have saved up for a full new machine which i will want to last as long as this one has.
 
So the mobo is officially dead but the cpu is fine. So i am hoping to fetch the machine from computermania without them charging me for just looking at it, bang in the cheapest AM2 mobo cafeviva has to offer(R500) and be a for away :)
 
Get ready for some detailed feedback. Whoever solves this gets a prize.

Sourced a new board. A Biostar A780L BS710.

The other components remain the same.

Took it to IC (i know but don't judge, the guy did not even charge me). He connected the PSU. Plugged it in. It posted fine with no hdd and with the new blank 1TB sata drive i had bought from IC a few weeks back it also posted fine.

Brought it home. Did the same. All is fine. Boots and posts fine. Get to the end of the intro to the windows xp install process and it says it cannot detect any hdds and has to quit.

Try my original 80GB sata hdd with xp already loaded on it. Using the same sata cable and power cable. No other peripherals. Just keyboard and mouse. Pc does not boot. Lights come on and all fans spin up for a split second then it goes dead.

Try the old 20GB IDE hdd from my P3 which works in my P3 just fine. Even remove the IDE cd drive and set the hdd to master and to first boot device in the BIOS. Pc boots. Gets to that recovery screen saying "windows did not shut down properly" etc etc. Whichever option i choose it just restarts and i end up back at that screen...and again and again...

At one stage i got very similar errors to the checksums i was getting with the old board saying that CMOS settings are wrong and to set the time etc. They seem to have gone now that i have set the time in the BIOS though it might have been when i took out one of the RAM sticks. In any event that message has disappeared as i stands.

Have tried all four of my RAM modules. Tried using the onboard video. Tried with GPU. Tried without. Tried a different power cable to the PSU(which i just bought let us not forget).

Does this leave the CPU?? I cannot think of anything else. And i cannot fathom why my initial hdd being plugged in would cause the pc not even to start at all.

Wits end reached.

Prize to anyone with a solution that does not involve either lugging the machine somewhere again or replacing the cpu and/or RAM.

:(
 
SATA drivers?

Also check bios for ACHI settings as well as SATA/native IDE.

Biostar :sick:
 
hj2k_x said:
Get ready for some detailed feedback. Whoever solves this gets a prize.

Sourced a new board. A Biostar A780L BS710.

The other components remain the same.

Took it to IC (i know but don't judge, the guy did not even charge me). He connected the PSU. Plugged it in. It posted fine with no hdd and with the new blank 1TB sata drive i had bought from IC a few weeks back it also posted fine.

Brought it home. Did the same. All is fine. Boots and posts fine. Get to the end of the intro to the windows xp install process and it says it cannot detect any hdds and has to quit.

Try my original 80GB sata hdd with xp already loaded on it. Using the same sata cable and power cable. No other peripherals. Just keyboard and mouse. Pc does not boot. Lights come on and all fans spin up for a split second then it goes dead.

Try the old 20GB IDE hdd from my P3 which works in my P3 just fine. Even remove the IDE cd drive and set the hdd to master and to first boot device in the BIOS. Pc boots. Gets to that recovery screen saying "windows did not shut down properly" etc etc. Whichever option i choose it just restarts and i end up back at that screen...and again and again...

At one stage i got very similar errors to the checksums i was getting with the old board saying that CMOS settings are wrong and to set the time etc. They seem to have gone now that i have set the time in the BIOS though it might have been when i took out one of the RAM sticks. In any event that message has disappeared as i stands.

Have tried all four of my RAM modules. Tried using the onboard video. Tried with GPU. Tried without. Tried a different power cable to the PSU(which i just bought let us not forget).

Does this leave the CPU?? I cannot think of anything else. And i cannot fathom why my initial hdd being plugged in would cause the pc not even to start at all.

Wits end reached.

Prize to anyone with a solution that does not involve either lugging the machine somewhere again or replacing the cpu and/or RAM.

:(
Click to expand...

The bold bit sounds very much like the PSU. Really hope this isn't the whole Huntkey thing coming back to nip you in the @ss. ;)

Next would be CPU. You're going to need to test it in another board with some Prime95 (that's even if it POSTs). Would love to offer, but I don't have AMD test rigs.

Next would be the new mobo. Might be easier getting another CPU to test in your board than getting a board to test your CPU in.
 
PostmanPot said:
The bold bit sounds very much like the PSU. Really hope this isn't the whole Huntkey thing coming back to nip you in the @ss. ;)

Next would be CPU. You're going to need to test it in another board with some Prime95 (that's even if it POSTs). Would love to offer, but I don't have AMD test rigs.

Next would be the new mobo. Might be easier getting another CPU to test in your board than getting a board to test your CPU in.
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Which bit is in bold? On my phone it all looks the same :p

I am not sure where i am gonna be able to test the CPU or mobo without taking it in again.

I find it odd that it would be either the mobo or PSU seeing as these are both new. That would mean that not only did the old one fail but so did its replacement. :(

Also. With the IDE drive in, after the did not shut down correctly there is a BSOD for a fraction of a second. But it is too quick to read anything on it.

Thanks for the feedback. I shall see what i can arrange and report back...
 
In the meantime i have procured a win7 install CD in the hope that it might detect my SATA hdd and fix whatever else is ailing my machine. Here's hoping.
 
hj2k_x said:
Which bit is in bold? On my phone it all looks the same :p

I am not sure where i am gonna be able to test the CPU or mobo without taking it in again.

I find it odd that it would be either the mobo or PSU seeing as these are both new. That would mean that not only did the old one fail but so did its replacement. :(

Also. With the IDE drive in, after the did not shut down correctly there is a BSOD for a fraction of a second. But it is too quick to read anything on it.

Thanks for the feedback. I shall see what i can arrange and report back...
Click to expand...

hj2k_x said:
Pc does not boot. Lights come on and all fans spin up for a split second then it goes dead.
Click to expand...

I also find it odd but it's nothing that hasn't happened before. These are computers after all. ;) Mobos can DOA (dead on arrival) and Huntkey and other cr*ppy PSUs can go bust soon after purchase. :D Pretty sure you've ruled out RAM and HDDs.

You could try taking a video with your phone of the BSOD and pausing on the BSOD frame and checking if you can make out the error code. Remember you'll need to repeat the process to make sure it's throwing out the same code each time.
 
PostmanPot said:
I also find it odd but it's nothing that hasn't happened before. These are computers after all. ;) Mobos can DOA (dead on arrival) and Huntkey and other cr*ppy PSUs can go bust soon after purchase. :D Pretty sure you've ruled out RAM and HDDs.

You could try taking a video with your phone of the BSOD and pausing on the BSOD frame and checking if you can make out the error code. Remember you'll need to repeat the process to make sure it's throwing out the same code each time.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I hear ya. I only get the BSOD with the IDE hdd. Really hoping the win7 install will just detect the sata drive an all will be well...
 
hj2k_x said:
Yeah. I hear ya. I only get the BSOD with the IDE hdd. Really hoping the win7 install will just detect the sata drive an all will be well...
Click to expand...

Hope so too. Can't ever rule out a dodgy Windows CD. Let us know.
 
hj2k_x said:
Try my original 80GB sata hdd with xp already loaded on it. Using the same sata cable and power cable. No other peripherals. Just keyboard and mouse. Pc does not boot. Lights come on and all fans spin up for a split second then it goes dead.
Click to expand...

PostmanPot said:
The bold bit sounds very much like the PSU. Really hope this isn't the whole Huntkey thing coming back to nip you in the @ss. ;)

Next would be CPU. You're going to need to test it in another board with some Prime95 (that's even if it POSTs). Would love to offer, but I don't have AMD test rigs.

Next would be the new mobo. Might be easier getting another CPU to test in your board than getting a board to test your CPU in.
Click to expand...

The fact that it boots with the other two HDDs and not this particular one tells me that HDD is causing a short or drawing excessive current etc so PSU protection kicks in. I think that drive is cooked unless you can test it on another PC.
 
ponder said:
The fact that it boots with the other two HDDs and not this particular one tells me that HDD is causing a short or drawing excessive current etc so PSU protection kicks in. I think that drive is cooked unless you can test it on another PC.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, did he not boot with it at IC though?
 
ponder said:
The fact that it boots with the other two HDDs and not this particular one tells me that HDD is causing a short or drawing excessive current etc so PSU protection kicks in. I think that drive is cooked unless you can test it on another PC.
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Yeah. Seems so. I lost my last boot drive to that as well. Same thing happened. So i got a new drive and it was fine.
 
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