System down-- Update (Fixed!!)

[gateT]

Had a the power go out.Went on and off three times quick (tree branch on the line). Now system will not run, everything seems to start,harddrive spins up, lights on the lan card start flashing and all the rest but nothing shows up on the monitor. It just stays in standby. Have changed out the CPU,video card and memory. Could it be anything other than the MB?

I just thought I'd let the guys who were helping know that its back up.

Had to fix windows,just selected Repair windows in the setup menu and now all is well.

Had to be a combination of things I think because I couldn't even get to that point without clearing the CMOS.

Thanks

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

did it beep at you in any way?
didyou try cpu/ram/videocard in another system?
sounds like motherboard got fried maybe....

 

[CraigRT]

try replacing the NIC or just plain pulling it out and then try powering the computer on again.

i have seen TWICE now where a screwed up NIC causes the computer to completely not function at all.. and simply pulling it out, the computer works just as it should.

way strange.

 

[Deskstar]

Also reset CMOS jumper.

 

[gateT]

No beeping.

Everything sounds normal.

Did try cpu in another system(had to use a convertor as my other system is a slot1). It did not work. Kind of thought that would be it but wasn't sure if that would be the only problem so i pick up a celeron 1.1a for 40 odd dollars and tried it today. Have the same problem.

Haven't tried the video or memory in another system but I had spares around that I tried in this one.

Tried pulling everything out but the video card-still the same.

Haven't tried the PS yet,maybe one of the voltages is bad?

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

i would try psu next (power supply)
if not, i think its safe to say its the motherboard

 

[gateT]

Yep will try the PS tomorrow when my other system is free.

Thanks

 

[gateT]

Ok clearing the cmos has at least got me to the point where the system trys to start.Thought I had done that before, but this Asus MB doesn't have a jumper and its hard to see which point to short out.

Now its lucking up before windows can finish loading. If I try an start it in Safe mode it gets to the line that says-

"muti(o)disk(o)rdisk(o)partition(1)\windows\system32\drivers\agp 440.sys This is in XP pro.

I have another HD that I used to mirror onto the one I'm using now and it gets to the same point on that one.

Could the agp slot be shot? Have tried it with two different video cards

 

[Markfw]

Have you tried the video card in another system ? If so and it works, then yup, the slot could be fried. Sounds liek a good time to upgrade. You could pick up a K7S5A for about $50 and use your memory in it (512 is a lot to waste), and then upgrade later. You could get a cheap XP 1600 for $55 (about) or go for a XP2000 for about $100. I don;t know about inexspensive Intel systems, the two terms don't often appear together.

 

[gateT]

Video card is OK. Some how I'm not happy about it.

If I have to up grade don't think saving the memory will be an issue, will use it to upgrade my girl friends system. Besides I think memory speed was the bottle neck in my system.

May just look at getting a cheapo MB to hold me over until some of the new technology (nforce and whatever else is new and great) to get alittle cheaper.

 

[SaveYourself]

What are you doing recommending an ECS K7s5a? I think that's an extremely bad idea! Given its previous track record, the K7s5a is most decidedly a DOWNGRADE. I built a friend's computer and it had nothing but trouble with freezing and crashing and none of the onboard stuff even worked! Then it started losing its BIOS settings nightly. We tried replacing the BIOS battery, which was no help. It even stumped experienced computer technicians many times. Then I go online to find that EVERYONE is having these problems with their K7S5A boards! Every problem vanished after we switched to an Abit board and bought an Antec 300w PSU (old supply was an AGI 300w unit, later tested and found to work perfectly powering the same processor and memory on an ASUS A7V board (my parents' computer.)

I still don't see any reason why the K7S5A boards would be popular among ANY well-informed computer users group, let alone one as highly-educated, highly-informed, and highly-experienced as Anandtech! You really do get what you pay for (the K7S5A being the cheapest socket-A motherboard available at the time), and even the board we upgraded the machine to (after getting rid of that ECS) was an Abit KG7-Raid, not even all that high-end. That still had trouble getting enough power from the AGI supply, so we upgraded it to an Antec 300w supply. But the AGI supply had no trouble powering the A7V board with the same type of processor, the same amount of memory, the same sound card, etc.

 

[gateT]

Ok a couple more questions.

Could flashing the bios help or is that pretty much done once windows starts to load?

Will a "A" class celeron (ya know the 256k cashe/.013 micro) run in any 370 MB or does it have to be tuly class?

 

[Insidious]

Did I miss it? Have you verified your monitor is working?

Sounds to me (no beeps, OK lights, etc.) that your monitor would be most likely suspect.

 

[gateT]

Monitor is ok hooked it up to another system just to make sure.

Like I said it gets through the initial start up but it appears it can't get passed loading the agp drivers.

Still trying to figure out if it is a burn agp slot or something else.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: SaveYourself
What are you doing recommending an ECS K7s5a? I think that's an extremely bad idea! Given its previous track record, the K7s5a is most decidedly a DOWNGRADE. I built a friend's computer and it had nothing but trouble with freezing and crashing and none of the onboard stuff even worked! Then it started losing its BIOS settings nightly. We tried replacing the BIOS battery, which was no help. It even stumped experienced computer technicians many times. Then I go online to find that EVERYONE is having these problems with their K7S5A boards! Every problem vanished after we switched to an Abit board and bought an Antec 300w PSU (old supply was an AGI 300w unit, later tested and found to work perfectly powering the same processor and memory on an ASUS A7V board (my parents' computer.)

I still don't see any reason why the K7S5A boards would be popular among ANY well-informed computer users group, let alone one as highly-educated, highly-informed, and highly-experienced as Anandtech! You really do get what you pay for (the K7S5A being the cheapest socket-A motherboard available at the time), and even the board we upgraded the machine to (after getting rid of that ECS) was an Abit KG7-Raid, not even all that high-end. That still had trouble getting enough power from the AGI supply, so we upgraded it to an Antec 300w supply. But the AGI supply had no trouble powering the A7V board with the same type of processor, the same amount of memory, the same sound card, etc.

WTG, just because you had these problems with one board doesn't mean every board is like it. All the reputable review sites I could find on google had positive reviews of it. In terms of stability, "...the K7S5A comes with both excellent performance and stability..." (Tom's Hardware), "The K7S5A was very stable during our tests..." (Firing Squad), and "The stability of the board was impressive, as I never had a problem with it" (AMDMB.com). In fact, I burned out one of the large capacitors on my K7S5A (yes fire did come out of it) when I plugged in the front usb cables backwards (damn manual didn't say which way) and the mobo still runs fine and stable.

I think this quote best fits your situation, "...we'd like to stress that our ECS K7S5A 'guinea pig' revealed outstanding stability. Yet it proved to be extremely sensitive to the quality of the power supply unit. As our tests showed, nearly all the stability problems of K7S5A could be easily settled by replacing the power supply unit with another one of higher quality." (X-Bit Labs). Nice of you to replace you PSU after getting another mobo.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: gateT
Monitor is ok hooked it up to another system just to make sure.

Like I said it gets through the initial start up but it appears it can't get passed loading the agp drivers.

Still trying to figure out if it is a burn agp slot or something else.

Since you seem like you have multiple comps available, why don't try rebuilding your comp (except the parts you suspect is bad). This way, you can narrow it down. If something doesn't fit, like your cpu on an old board, just use your old cpu. Just to narrow it down

 

[gateT]

Everything seems to work ok outside this MB.

Right now its stripped down to the mininum.

I know it sounds like the MB is shot but I did bring it back from nothing to atleast trying to post.

I would like to save it if at all possible-it's probably the best MB for the P3. Can't see putting that kinda money into a old platform,but if I can get it going I know it'll serve me well until I can figure out what I'm gonna build next.

Would like to know if the celeron A's will run in a standard stocket 370 MB. If this one turns out to be dead I would put most of it back together on a cheap MB and pass it down to one of my buddies.

 

[gateT]

Just flashed to latest bios-windows still will not load.

I guess my sweet TUSL2-C is gonna end up in the trash unless somebody has any ideas??

 

[gateT]

"bump"

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: SaveYourself
What are you doing recommending an ECS K7s5a? I think that's an extremely bad idea! Given its previous track record, the K7s5a is most decidedly a DOWNGRADE.

Actually, if you look around the web, there are far more praises for this board than anything else. Most people rave about how rock solid theirs is. That group would include me, by the way. It had everything I wanted and nothing I didn't. I'm extremely happy with it, especially for that ridiculously low price.