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So you think you're good at Troubleshooting?

V

VTrider

Golden Member
Okay here we go:

Biostar IDEQ 210VB (m7vba motherboard)
AMD XP 2100+
GeForce 5200 AGP
1 Gig DDR (PC2700 / Crucial)
WD 36.7 Raptor
NEC 16x DVD-RW
Win XP Pro (SP2)

Ran fine for about a year, then performance dropped significantly (stuttering video performance, hourglass, ect). According to Sandra, the CPU is performing at less than half of rating, more like a Duron 800. Previously the CPU fan failed and sent the CPU temp soaring before I could shut her down - Okay I fried/damaged the CPU, so I tossed in a Barton 2500+.....no improvement in system performance.

Other things I have tried:

Different RAM
Different Video card
Onboard GPU
Different Power Supply (All rails in spec)
Different Hard Drive (serial and IDE)
Changed CMOS Battery
Cleared CMOS
ReFlashed BIOS
New OS install
Every BIOS setting known to man


I'll add some insult to injury:

I ran this crippled system for about a year until I decided to re-install the OS/drivers. Some components were moved around, cables, floppy installed for serial drivers, ect. Performance still benching at 40%, up until a few days ago. System was idling, then raptor starting making funny sounds like power was being turned on/off to it, also a system fan started turning on/off. Then much to my surprise, i'm back in action! Everything is running 100%.....for about 2 days, then back to hell 🙁

My guess is that the motherboard is somehow damaged/unstable - possibly due to the frying incident?
 
With all the changes you made, I was going to suggest the motherboard too. I think it's the only variable you haven't changed yet. Don't know how easy/hard it is to get a replacement motherboard for those sff cases. Good luck.
 
The Biostar motherboards for these SFF machines are proprietary, I can purchase a new board from Biostar for about $80.00 - it's the only place I can get one. Don't know if I want to dish out that kind of cash for an outdated socket-A board, especially if I don't know for sure if it is the board, guess i'm just trying to get a conscensus.
 
yep, my money would be on the mainboard

if you have a standard socketa mainboard available, just compile a system with that on a bench to see how everything else works

good luck
 
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that - I've run all the components on another Socket-A system and they all are fine.

Guess I'll just have to eat the $80.00 and buy another mainboard, sigh.
 
Biostar has put out some flakey boards, their quality control doesn't seem like quite up to par with the other manufacturers. I've bought my share of Biostar boards because they're cheap, and I've just had to stop buying them because they are almost hit or miss.
 
My feelings exactly about Biostar, I usually shy away from that end of mobo manufacturers, but its not like its a PC Chips board or anything. I originally bought the system for it's size (SFF) and basic use, no choice on motherboard unfortunately.
 
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