Help! PC on death bed... can't diagnos.

[EricW]

Hello,

My 2nd (and newer PC) I built has bitten the bullet, and I can't figure out what is wrong with it.

It was an EPoX 8RDA+ /w AMD 2700 XP, 1 GiG of Corsair ram, GeForce 5700 Ultra (PNY), Antec 400W powersupply, etc. 2+ Years old now I think.

Well, ever since I got the case/PS, it misbehaved sometimes if I turned the switch off on the powersupply and then back on. It would take 2 or 3 "switches" to get it to go back on. I rarely did this however. Anyways, a few days ago, it started getting hard to boot. It'd stop in mid BIOS, and just freeze, I'd power off, then back on, it'd get a bit further, freeze, then I'd get to where its telling my fan speeds, voltages, etc, and they'd be zero sometimes, then today they became just strange symbols (high ascii chars).

Well, I had a spare EPox 8RDA MoBo laying around, and I went and bought a new Antec 400W PS, and replaced the mobo and PS... well, it starts to boot ok, BUT, my video is completly borked, its all strange graphics, and the mobo stops booting at code 7F. If I press F1, it goes on, and you can see where the Windows XP start up screen would be fading in and out (the graphics fade in and out), and then it just hangs on an empty screen. Monitor tells me its not getting a signal. I've tried reseating the video card, no avail....

So, what happened to my PC in the first place, and second, what do I do now? Replace the video card?

Thanks in advance.

Eric

 

[Lasthitlarry]

The only thing I can think of is your video card and mobo aren't compatible, or maybe it has to do with settings in the BIOS for the video card (mobo might not support 8X) like fast write or X speeds. Or maybe the video card isn't locked in all the way or it isn't getting the power it needs. I went to an online dictionary but couldn't define "borked" so I have no idea. Someone else will come and post something useful in about 1- 2 hours.

 

[EricW]

Well, I just slapped in an old GeForce 5200 FX card I had, and it now gets past the bios, and got to a "Windows didn't start normally" screen, I told it to start, and now it just sits at a black screen after going through BIOS... I hope I didn't trash my HD heh.

Edit: Borked = Broken. Probably started as a typo of broken, but I see it used quite a bit in my games/forums. 😀

 

[FlyingPenguin]

First mobo is a dead mobo. Probably a bad capacitor. Having problems powering up as you described (especially having to reset it with the kill switch) is classic symptom.

You didn't go into any detail on this new mobo. Did you just drop your old HDD in it and fire it up with the old OS install? If so, that won't work unless they're identical mobos (you said one was the + version. Not sure if both are or not.)

If they're not identical mobos you need to do a repair install or a clean install.

Where you're at now, assuming the mobos are identical, instead of booting normally bring up the boot menu with the F8 key and select "Use last known good configuration...". That will reset the registry back to the condition it was in the last time it succesfully booted into Windows.

If this is a clean install then try going into safe mode.

 

[EricW]

Thanks for the hints...

Here's the update:

Tried fiddling with BIOS Settings, to see if that'd change anything, I got my memory timings set to SPD and FSB at 166, and it says I have the right chip, etc. It gets through the BIOS just fine now. With my old HD with my old settings I got it to get to the graphical Windows XP loading screen, but it'd just hang there with the blue bar running forever.

If I tried loading in safemode, it'd start, but always hang right after the file Mup.sys is loaded, and I have no idea what that is.

I put in a blank (never been formatted) 40 GB drive in its place, and tried to load WinXP fresh. It gives me the error DRIVER_IRQL_IS_NOT_LESS_THAN, and aborts. Says its USBPORT.SYS.

I've seen that before in my days of putting these PC's together, but I forget what I did to get around it.

I'm getting really, really irked. Heheh.

Thanks in advance,

Eric

 

[superkdogg]

With only the fresh drive in your machine you get that error? Or do you still have the other drive connected?

Most of the symptoms you're having point toward corrupted registry in my book. Install XP fresh with only the 40 GB drive and be sure to format it (not quick format) first. I am not the most knowledgable on this sort of thing, but that should work.

 

[EricW]

Yeah, I tried with and without the old HD in. 40 GB is in as master now, its still blank. Can't to the point where I can format it.

Thanks in advance,

Eric

 

[EricW]

Ok, update:

I had set my FSB to 166, thinking it was...

I set it back to 133, and now it works (even with the old hard drive).

HOWEVER, it now identifies my chip incorrectly, saying its a 2100 instead of 2700.

My memory is still at 400MHz, which is as it should be.

What can I do to fix this situation?

Thanks!

 

[zxcvb]

I had problem like that in a new setup no OS would load just freeze up and sit
,it turned out to be memory was causing the problem, get some fresh memory and see if that works

 

[superkdogg]

Originally posted by: EricW
Ok, update:

I had set my FSB to 166, thinking it was...

I set it back to 133, and now it works (even with the old hard drive).

HOWEVER, it now identifies my chip incorrectly, saying its a 2100 instead of 2700.

My memory is still at 400MHz, which is as it should be.

What can I do to fix this situation?

Thanks!

I don't know this for sure, but is it possible that your mobo ups your memory speed when you go to 166 FSB? Try setting your memory to 166 or even 133 and then jumper back to 166 FSB. That might work-like I said, just a suggestion-I don't know for sure.