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Crash Help

W

wkelly1368

Junior Member
System:
Chaintech VNF 4 Ultra Mobo
AMD Athlon 64 3000 Venice
SAPPHIRE 588L Radeon X600PRO 128MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150😕 Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JB 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive
Windows XP SP2
ASUS Beige IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E616P1
NEC DVD Burner Beige IDE Model ND-3500A

The 2 DVD ROMs are just under 2 years old
The 80GB HD is about 3 yo (2nd HD)
Everrything else is about 14 months old.


For the last week or two I have noticed the system rebooting on its own with the resulting box to notify Microsoft of a severe event.
Yesterday it crashed big time. When I tried to reboot all I got was a continuous beep from the unit.
After letting the unit sit for awhile I wass ableto restart but the BIOS page said NTLDR was missing. I found that the BOOT order for the HD's and CDrom's were changed. I reset them and Windows was able to restart.
At the BIOS page before Windows loads I was getting the following POST Codes: 52,65, 75 and 7F. I think they are probably important, I checked the Chaintech webpage but I could find nothing about this. I sent them a support request but the automated reply said they are backed up. That doesn't sound too promising.
When I was able to restart Windows yesterday, I tried to run Check disk on C. The system rebooted before finishing. I did run chkdsk from the Windows repair area after restarting with the XP disk in. It said the disk was fine.
As of late last night and this morning, all I get is the continuous beep and nothing else.

I hope that wasn't too long winded and confusing. Any ideas where I go from here?

Thank You in advance.
 
Ideas: Download and run memtest86, let it run at least 6 passes with both sticks of RAM installed, then with each stick individually. If their are errors, you might have found the problem:

Your Windows install might simply be borked; a re-install might be in order but I would take this step last:

What is the brand and specs of your power supply? I don't think your rig is underpowered since it was working for over a year, but if you've taken an electrical power hit it could have damaged the power supply. If you have access to a multi-meter, you can check the power coming off the different rails; the readings you get should be within 10-15% of the ratings for that rail, e.g. the +12V line should read no lower than 10.8 - 10.2 (although I'd be concerned if it was towards the lower end.)

Your hard disk(s) are probably okay but you could run the manufacturers diags against them just to rule them out.

Hope that helps.

alzan
 
Thanks alzan. But I cannot get the system to boot to run the tests. The only thing I did but did not mention was cleas the CMOS.
 
My bad; I was concentrating on ideas and overlooked that. Does your manual or Chaintech's site make any mention of the continuous beep? Or if you know which BIOS maker (AMI, Phoenix, et al) you could look up the beep code on their page. There's also a site, it's bioscentral.com that lists the BIOS maker and beep codes of most BIOSes. That might point you in the direction of which component is bad or suspect.

alzan
 
OK, Im up and running. After smacking it with a sledgehammer............lol Actually I tried to restart again with the XP disk in and it booted. Once I changed the boot order it is running. I went and did a system resore to an earlier date it has been running for about 5 hours. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Thanks again for your help
 
Well I'm glad you're up and running, but still a bit mystified as to what caused the initial problem.

alzan
 
I got home from work this AM and the problem is back. It is beeping again and I cannot load from the CD now. I will try again later. Could it be the CMOS battery?
 
Definitely replace the battery.
This is why it will not remember your boot order.
 
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