Need major help...

[Shargrath]

Hi,

I've been having a very difficult problem with my system as of late.

Here are the specs;

" A64 3000+ Venice
Chaintech VNF4
1GB Corsair Value Ram
200GB Samsung Hard Drive
400W Antec Smartpower 2.0
Antec Solution SLK3000-B
NEC DVD-RW 3520
Radeon X800 "

Here is the problem;

When booting up, at the first screen BEFORE windows loads, at the post screen, the computer hangs immediately after displaying my CPU info. If I hit the reset button, it will start as normal and act normally, working with no problems.

What I have tried;

I was informed that it is likely a hard drive problem. I have replaced the hard drive with a brand new one and the same problem happened with the new drive (I will now be returning the new one, hopefully). So, I think I can safely rule out the hard drive issue.

My temperature is normal. I have ran MemTest for several hours with no errors.

Any ideas on what this can be? This system is 4 years old so it may just be falling apart due to age, but I want to still know what it is so I can fix it because I don't really want to put together a new computer just yet.

Please help. This problem has been driving me nuts for a while.

Thanks in advance for reading.

 

[Harvey]

Some quick random possibilities:

1. Look closely at the power capacitors on the motherboard. If any of them look like the top is domed, or any of them is tilting at an angle, that cap may be defective.

If one of them is obviously bad, all of them are probably close to their end of life. Even if you know what you're doing, replacing them can be difficult and not necessarily successful in resolving any secondary problems this can cause. If any power caps are blown, it's probably time for a new motherboard.

2. Have you tried clearing the CMOS using the jumper and resetting it?

3. If your power supply is four years old, it could be beginning to fail.

I hope that helps. Good luck.

 

[Shargrath]

Thanks for the help,

How do the power capacitors look? (n00b to stuff like this)

How do I clear my CMOS? My motherboard manual does not explain this (I dug it out and looked, but no dice). Will taking out my battery and putting it back in (after waiting a few minutes) work?

 

[mechBgon]

Here's a picture showing some capacitors: http://www.mechbgon.com/build/motherboardglossary.gif They're cylindrical with flat ends. If they're bulging and/or leaking, they're bad.

To clear the CMOS, follow this routine from your manual: http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/m...ch_VNF4_clear_CMOS.PNG

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: Shargrath
Thanks for the help,

How do the power capacitors look? (n00b to stuff like this)

Here's a pic of one version of the board. The caps are the tall cylindrical parts, usually with a X or line groove across the metal top. The caps in this pic have a bluish purple plastic sleeve, but they could be any color.

How do I clear my CMOS? My motherboard manual does not explain this (I dug it out and looked, but no dice). Will taking out my battery and putting it back in (after waiting a few minutes) work?

The jumper shorts the battery backed up values stored in the CMOS memory. Clearing it resets everything to the factory default. If your CMOS became corrupted, resetting it is the way to get it back to where it was.

Look for a header with a jumper close to the battery. If it's a two pin header, the jumper should be dangling off to one side so it doesn't complete the circuit that clears it. If it's a three pin jumper, they just provided an off position to store the jumper when not in use.

In either case, move the jumper so it connects the normally unconnected pair of pins for about 15 - 20 seconds. Then, move it back to its previous position, boot up, and as soon as you see the initial screen, hit the <Del> key several times to enter the CMOS setup. You'll have to set everything, including the date and time.

< edit >

Looks like mech beat me to it with some other links. All's good. :beer: :thumbsup:

 

[Shargrath]

Reset CMOS as per instruction (found it in my manual, I was looking in CMOS section not in jumpers section). Same thing still occurs. I examined the capacitors and they seem to look normal to me...

 

[jackschmittusa]

My guess is the psu fading with age. Takes 2 tries to get the hd spooled up. HD draws the most power overcoming the inertia of the platters when they are at rest. If the psu is only providing marginal current, there may be insufficient juice for other components during boot while the psu is sucking hard on the psu. Once the platters are no longer at rest, they draw less power simply adding speed. Fans have motors that also have the similar startup characteristics; which just adds to the problem.

 

[Shargrath]

Thank You for the suggestion.

Is there any way to more definetely check the PSU to pinpoint it to that?

I don't have another PSU to check...

Thanks again.

 

[Shargrath]

Just turned off the computer, opened case to try and see what I can disconnect to start with minimum power consumption, and now the system SUDDENLY starts up as normal for the first time in several days.

I am extremely confused, but I guess it kind of adds more evidence to the iffy Power Supply possibility. Any ideas?

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: Shargrath
Just turned off the computer, opened case to try and see what I can disconnect to start with minimum power consumption, and now the system SUDDENLY starts up as normal for the first time in several days.

I am extremely confused, but I guess it kind of adds more evidence to the iffy Power Supply possibility. Any ideas?

Opening the case may have reduced the temp. Maybe you scared away some dust bunnies or otherwise displaceed something that was restricting the airflow.

It may or may not help, but it doesn't hurt to blow out the case with an air can. Be sure to blow out accumulated dust on the fan and between the fins of your heatsink. Check that they're all spinning freely when you power up the system. Do the same for any case fans and any heatsinks on other chips or fans, for example on your vid card.

If you hear any excess noise or if a fan shows any kind of stalling, you may be able to fix it by removing the fan and shooting a little WD-40 into the bearings. That won't work if the fan is failing, but it will if all it needs is cleaning and a little lubrication.

 

[Shargrath]

Came home today, same thing again.

As far as dust goes, I'm pretty meticulous in keeping my system dust free so I'm pretty sure thats not it. I regularly open the case up and remove dust using a can of air, so my PC is almost always clean on the inside.

Anyway, had a BIOS checksum error today followed by the same old, hit reset to boot problem. I guess the motherboard might be going bonkers and I probably need to think about building a new system. My built in networking card on my motherboard already stopped working, so maybe the motherboard is going out...

Thanks for the suggestions, i really appreciate it.

 

[lenjack]

WD 40 is not a lubricant. It is a cleaner and water displacer. If you go the lube route, use some real oil.

 

[jackschmittusa]

"BIOS checksum error" often means a dying mb battery.

 

[Shargrath]

Hm, more confusion,

I just figure out that if I unplug my mouse, the computer will start as normal on first try. Reason why I thought about this was because the problem started after I installed a new mouse (Razer instead of the usual MS wheel mouse). So I unpligged it and tried to restart...restarts with no problem.

It seems to be a mouse issue, something tied to the BIOS but I cant update the bios since Chaintech no longer supports their motherboards. Im downloading a newer bios version from a 3rd party site but I am not sure I want to install something that didn't officially come from the company.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Shargrath
Hm, more confusion,

I just figure out that if I unplug my mouse, the computer will start as normal on first try. Reason why I thought about this was because the problem started after I installed a new mouse (Razer instead of the usual MS wheel mouse). So I unpligged it and tried to restart...restarts with no problem.

It seems to be a mouse issue, something tied to the BIOS but I cant update the bios since Chaintech no longer supports their motherboards. Im downloading a newer bios version from a 3rd party site but I am not sure I want to install something that didn't officially come from the company.

If you happen to be using the mouse on a PS/2 port (round port), make sure it's plugged into the mouse port, not the keyboard port, since they're function-specific. If you're running it USB, then disregard that.

 

[Shargrath]

Using it in the USB port, thanks for the suggestion.
Ive replaced my CMOS battery since I was getting those errors (checksum) as well, but it doesnt appear to help since I had to hit reset to start again yesterday.

Thanks,