Same computer...3 diff mobo's....same prob........

[redgtxdi]

OK.........I have a thought, but only 'cuz I think I've eliminated everything else.........

Same computer and I've put the 3rd mobo in this thing in the last 2 years.

It's an AMD XP2000 system and originally ran great on an ECS K7S5A. That lasted about a year, then died. Then about 6 mos ago, I put in another mobo......(PCChips something or other). Worked fine for 6 mos, then died. Now, last night I put in an N2U400-A Nforce board.

Worked great all last night.......yada, yada. Took it to work to give it back to the guy & it does the same thing it's always had a tendency to do...........

Push power button.........HD light flashes on, CD drive blinks a few times.......then nothing. No video, no beeps, no nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Grrrrrrrrrrr!!) :|

Then, I switch the main power cutoff switch off and then on, on the back of the PSU and push the power button again and this time it comes on & all's well. CMOS reset, but it's an Nforce board so 2nd boot, it gets back to 133mhz fsb so the CPU's runnin' true again so I ain't worried about that, but WTH is going on with this thing???

Could it be the PSU??? 3 different boards can't all have a bad CMOS battery and/or all have this same power-up problem!!!

:|:|:| TIA for any suggestions!

 

[pcman83]

I would try a different psu. Also ECS and PCchips arnt that good of board manufactures. Try an asus board or something.

 

[MX2]

Sounds like you light want to switch out the PSU first.

 

[redgtxdi]

Well, I don't subscribe a whole lot to the board mfgr thing as I've had problems w/ every brand of board except Gigabyte.......(and you'll find plenty of people who don't like Gigabyte as well).........and seeing as the # of boards I've tried share the same trait and all 3 are based on totally different chipsets, I'd presume that there's something else going on.

I'm thinking PSU, too.

I just can't make sense of it with anything else. CPU's fine. RAM's fine. HD's fine!

It's a ghost in the machine.........that's it.........a ghost!!!

 

[MX2]

PM me R, I have an extra testing PSU I can send you for free if you like

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: redgtxdi
Well, I don't subscribe a whole lot to the board mfgr thing as I've had problems w/ every brand of board except Gigabyte.......(and you'll find plenty of people who don't like Gigabyte as well).........and seeing as the # of boards I've tried share the same trait and all 3 are based on totally different chipsets, I'd presume that there's something else going on.

I'm thinking PSU, too.

I just can't make sense of it with anything else. CPU's fine. RAM's fine. HD's fine!

It's a ghost in the machine.........that's it.........a ghost!!!

My guess would be PSU, or possibly a grounding issue. Does it work properly if you set up the MB outside of the case (sitting on a nonconductive surface)?

Also, while differences in quality between motherboard brands may be somewhat overrated, PC Chips and ECS are pretty much bottom-of-the-barrel from what I've seen reported. Of course, that's not totally conclusive, plus ECS sold a *ton* of those super-cheap SocketA boards, so they may have more problems reported around here just because there are more of them in the market than anything else. Still, I've heard enough problems about their parts to make me hesitant about using them.

But that said, the odds of you getting 3 bad motherboards are very low.

 

[Luckyboy1]

Read the psychotic diatribe at the end of Luckyboy's Guide For Complete Users. It covers power and cooling issues that relate back to power and will answer this for you once and for all.

 

[3chordcharlie]

PSU seems most likely - my brother had the same issue with destroying motherboards, and we finally swapped the psu and solved everything (it was a good psu, so it took a while to 'suspect' that it might be defective).

 

[redgtxdi]

Matthias,

Thanks. I agree. I'm gonna just try another PSU & see what happens.



Luckyboy,

I read most of the end concerning power, but it doesn't really address why the computer's detachment from power automatically causes CMOS reset when I know the battery's probably good and this computer's had this particular attribute in the cases of all 3 motherboard.


I'll advise back once I've played w/ a new PSU. Current PSU seems to be working fine now except for the whole scenario of when I disconnect it or throw the main power cutoff in the back, it resets the CMOS. 3 boards & 3 bad CMOS batteries would really surprise me.

 

[jdkick]

Well, since it's power related, my next thought would be PSU. Do you have a spare you can swap it out with?

 

[ForumMaster]

probablly PSU. try another one. while ECS and PCChips are considered pretty low quality, they shouldn't both die in 6 months. everything was good except the PSU. try a different one.

 

[Luckyboy1]

Polarity of the power supply might be the issue on CMOS... but somehow, I doubt that due to diodes not caring which way you hook up the waveform to them makes it so that's not an issue. It could be the design of the motherboard, but that issue would be a problem you'd find others were siffering from too, is that the case here?

If not, then it probably is a ground fault issie. Check all the wiring for breaks and frays. Check to see that the grounding circuit is complete in the wall outlet and surge protector.

I hate to bring it back to basics, but that's why I sent you to the Guide in the first place; to get you thinking basics again.