Possible Mother Board Problems

[Sparky654]

Sorry for the long post.

I have built a few custom comp's and worked on several for friends (upgrades and virus/spyware removal). Currently working on a custom machine that won't boot. It seems to go thru post, but so fast I cant see if it found all the hardware. towards the end of the boot it's searching for IDE-0, then goes to a blank screen with curser blinking in top left corner. During this process the CD Rom & HD light briefly come on then go out. I also know it has xp installed on it. Not sure if It's home or pro.

The Mother Board is a PC Chips M935DLU (unknown version). Socket 478 supports the
-Intel® Pentium® 4 processor, 533/400 MHz FSB. 2 DDR DIMM Sockets supports -Two 184-pin 2.5V DDR (DDR200/266/333) -Maximum: 2GB

List of tried solutions-
Instert XP disk and a copy of ultimate boot CD. CD Rom briefly comes on then goes out. Then drive quits turning.
Installed HD in external enclosure. Seems to work perfectly. Can read all files.
Swapped out power supply with known good power supply.

From everything I can tell, It seems that the motherboard is not reading from PATA ports. I believe the MB is dead.

If that's the case my question is can I install a different MB with a 478 Socket and use same chip. I cant seem to locate a MB with same front side buss. This is the one I was thinking about replacing it with. I know I will also have to replace the ram. http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813138079.

And lastly if I change out the mother board and ram will I have to reinstall XP because too many key components were replaced?

Thanks for your speedy response

 

[octopus41092]

When switching out the motherboard you usually have to reinstall XP. If not reinstall at least do a repair.

 

[techmanc]

Can you access the BIOS? If so there should be a option to display more info to see hardware during boot. Make sure you OS hard drive is the first hard drive in boot order. You can tap the pause key at bootup to pause the screen to read it. Use the esc key to resume from pause. You will need to do a repair install to get OS working in new computer. If you need to call MS to reactivate system and its say a OEM key your using tell them that your old motherboard died and you installed a replacement. Dont tel them you want to use the key for a new system your building as key is only licensed for one system but they will allow you to replace a broken motherboard to fix your system.

 

[Sparky654]

Thanks for the help. The bios seems to recognize the HD and CDR, but thats as far as it gets. From what I am reading both of you think the MB is dead also. Now the question remains, can I use the old cpu even though the front side bus is different on the new MB? I'm trying to save a non-profit org some money.

 

[techmanc]

The searching for IDE-0 if thats your OS hard drive is not fouund and your seeing it in BIOS then it probably causing the no boot problem.

Make sure you boot order has your CD listed before IDE-0 then try these.

1.Try to boot the Windows CD to to repair mode and use fixmbr and fixboot commands to see if that works.
2. Try a repair install of Windows and then if that works install all your MS update and drivers.

 

[Sparky654]

I change boot order in bios when trying something new. When I insert xp disk upon start up I get a breif green light on CDR, then everything stops. I also tried Ultimate Boot CD (had very good luck fixing several problems with this CD), it goes to screen that says booting and thats it. The drive isn't turning in either case.

 

[techmanc]

Check your drive power and cable for good connection. If you use IDE make sure master/slave is being correctly used.

 

[Sparky654]

HD is run on IDE 1 and CDR is IDE 2. I have swapped where both cables plug into MB, thinking it would be unlikely both cables would go bad at the same time.

Also installed a known good power supply. It seems like the mother board can read some pins on IDE 1 & 2, but not all of them. I don't know if thats possible or not.

 

[Sparky654]

I wanted to thank you for all your help so far. have to leave for a while. I will check back as soon as I get back. Again thanks for the help.

 

[techmanc]

How are the drives setup for master/slave cs?

 

[Sparky654]

Sorry for getting back so late.

Both drives are set to master, each on a their own ribbon at the end connector. HD is on IDE 1 & CDR on IDE 2.

 

[techmanc]

Is doing a fresh install a option and would you still need the data on drive? If not that will probably be your easiest option by deleting the partition from the installation setup.

 

[Sparky654]

I thank you for all your help.

I had mentioned before that neither the HD or CDR are getting data to the MB. I cant do a reinstall or repair with XP disk.

The non-profit was given this comp with no disks. I have convinced the owner to purchase a new MB (seems like that is the problem), AMD chip, ram, XP home for $230. I can reuse all the rest of the parts. I do have an external HD enclosure to get the data off prior to reinstalling operating system.

I have been working on comps for 5 years (self taught), recently got A+ cert. This is the first real stumper I've had. I joined anandtech for this problem, but I will definately be back. Can anyone post replies and possible solutions?

 

[techmanc]

So you say you tried Ultimate Boot CD did it see the hard drive with its utilities?

 

[Sparky654]

It would say press any key to boot, then say Booting and stay there. Nothing happens after that. Normally it loads up and I can get to all the software. But after pressing a key it would say booting and light for the CDR would go off.

 

[techmanc]

So your hard drive seem to be the problem device with install.The CD seem to be working fine. I could be a bad hard drive or motherboard. You should try different hard drive if avail or try hard drive on secondary IDE connector to see if works there.

Also try with just the hard drive installed and us cable select to see if drive prefers it.

 

[Sparky654]

Then comp used to work in current configuration.

I installed the HD in a enclosure and seem to be able to see all files. Vista shows it's a healthy drive. I also swapped the IDE connectors so IDE 1 was CDR and IDE 2 was HD. Same result, while booting both lights come on briefly then go out and the last thing post says is searching for IDE-0, then blank screen with blinking curser at top left.

 

[techmanc]

Ok in my mind I was think you were running XP. But main problem still seem to be hard drive or motherboard So you cant try a different hard drive to see if it will start a install?

 

[Sparky654]

Unfortunately I don't have a spare IDE HD. I aslo couldn't do an install because the CDR don't read. I'm down to bad mother board. Then only Socket 478 MB I found has a higher front side bus than the original mother board. I was wondering if I can install the original CPU (unknown what the cpu is at this point) in the new mother board.

 

[techmanc]

Originally posted by: Sparky654
It would say press any key to boot, then say Booting and stay there. Nothing happens after that. Normally it loads up and I can get to all the software. But after pressing a key it would say booting and light for the CDR would go off.

Well this seem to indicate that the CD is working and when it starts looking for your devices which I am assuming is just the solo hard drive it stops working. Same as when you use the Windows install CD I believe it reads the CD into memory and after it a starting to check your hardware it cant find your hard drive.

Just to be sure I understand which OS is on the drive now and what are you installing?

What are the 2 motherboards you looking to swap and cpu your using?

 

[Sparky654]

Only 1 HD - Maxter 40 Gig.
CPU is unknown at this point. Haven't uninstalled heat sink yet.
Not sure which version of XP is currently installed, but I'm going to install XP Home.
Current Mother Board - PC Chips M935DLU - 533/400 MHz FSB
Proposed new Mother Board - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813138079 - 800/533MHz FSB

 

[techmanc]

Reading some of the reviews at newegg it seems that this motherboard will work but it not supported. Heres one post... Go there and read through the comments I used firefox find word feature searching for 400. set the number of posts you can see to 100 as there 350+ reviews there.

If you've got a Socket 478 CPU sitting around and want to use it, this motherboard gives you the ability to do so with modern expansion buses (like PCI Express) and peripherals. The 800, 533 and unofficial 400MHz FSB support is also nice. For the price, this board seems very well made. Driver setup is quick and easy. I bought two of these, both work great and were easy to set up. Biostar's manual is of decent quality.

 

[Sparky654]

One other quick thought - Is it possible the CPU isn't working, and thus not reading HD and CDR?

 

[Sparky654]

I think I'm going to replace both mother board and CPU & RAM, that way I know I will have a good working combo. There is only about $44 difference anyway. I was going to add more ram anyway. I already have 2 gig of GSkill DDR2 800 laying around.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103255

 

[techmanc]

Ya then you could go for a much better updated motherboard and cpu too. I f the cpu was not working I dont think you get a boot screen.