Help! My wired prob on Abit KR7A-Raid

[Metallica]

I have a self-built system with Abit KR7A-Raid. I got the mainboard in Dec. 2001, and it
has been worked fine until mid Apr. 2002. It was a stable mainboard until 2 weeks ago,
one morning I found the system cannot boot.

Only the yellow LED is on before I try to turn on the computer. When I press the power
on switch, cpu fan starts working, and 'power on LED' and 'HDD LED' goes on. However,
with in less than about 1 second, the system will shut off itself. If I try to press the power
on switch dozens of times, sometimes I will be lucky enough to boot the system. Otherwise
I have to clear the cmos. After I clear the cmos, as soon as I press the power on switch,
the system boots up. Sometimes if I shut off computer and power on again, the system
will successfully boot up, however, most of time I won't be that lucky and will have to clear
the cmos and power on the system. It really bugs me!

My system configuration is as following:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1600+
Cooler: ThermalTake Vocanlo 7 with speed control
Case: Aopen HX-08 24 inch full tower
Power: Aopen 300W AMD certified
RAM: Kingston 256MB DDR x 2
Display: Cardexpert Gefore2 MX 400 32MB
Mointor: LG 995 FT 19'
Mainboard: Abit KR7A-Raid
IDE0 master: Maxtor Diamond Max DX740 40GB
IDE0 slave: Acer DVD-ROM 1648A
IDE1 master: Maxtor Diamond Max DX740 40GB
IDE1 slave: Pine CD-ROM 44x
Raid controler: Disabled in BIOS
PCI 1: Realtek RTL8139 NIC 10/100MB
PCI 3: Realtek RTL8139 NIC 10/100MB
PCI 4: Creative Sound Blaster Live value OEM

BIOS ID: 6N, 2001/12/27
(Actually it was 6G 2001/11/23. After the problem occured I upgraded the BIOS to 6N,
but it does not help at all.)

OS: Windows 98 second edition + Windows XP (5.1.2600) + RedHat 7.2

The problem remais if I unplug all devices on the mainboard except for the RAM and display adaptor.

Help me, pros!!!

Thx a lot!

 

[WhoDeeny]

I have the same board, that's what made me look at this but haven't noticed a similar problem. I want to say its either a heating problem but try to remember if you made any other changes around the time you upgraded your BIOS. In my own experience problems that seem to "come out of nowhere" (I seriously doubt its an issue with the BIOS, I've beeon it since the day it came out) can be attributed t osomething I've done, but overlooked...

 

[Pederv]

I'd try replacing the battery on the motherboard. Though they usually last longer than 5 months it could be bad.

 

[Woody419]

Check the connection and/or the cpu fan. If the connection is bad or the fan has an intermitent starting problem the computer will not start. The shutdown also happens with a low rpm fan and can be disabled in the BIOS. The shutdown feature might have saved you from toasting your chip.