Think it's the mother board?

[hychka]

My main computer (AMD 1 gig on a MSIK7T Turbo with 512 SDRAM) choked yesterday. The monitor just clicked itself off.

Tried rebooting and got the system up for about as far as she'd go in about 30 seconds an dthen it stopped again and the monitor went out. Did this several times with the same result. Tried starting in "safe mode" and the same thing.

Openned up the case and the cpu and case fans are running, even after the monitor turns off.

Tried reflashing the BIOS ... same thing.

So, I hooked up another monitor and got the same thing.

Traded video cards and got the same thing.

So, I'm down to finicky power supply, blown mother board or hard drive corruption.

Because the shut down is constantly about 30 seconds into a start-up, that it's not the hard drive.

I'm thinking the MB is the likely problem.

Any suggestions before I buy a new one and go to all the work of replacing the darn thing?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Boonesmi]

have you verified that its not overheating and automatically shutting down? what are the temps showing in bios?

 

[hychka]

Will do so right after lunch. Thanks for the lead.

 

[hychka]

Boonesmi suggested that I look at my cpu and system temps ... did so and they are starting at 71F (room temp today) and the machine cuts out when the CPU temp is at 75 F. According to the manual and what I could find in BIOS before it cuts out, there are no "shut down" controls for this model board.

Any other ideas out there?

 

[Boonesmi]

you said your cpu is starting out at 71f.. are you sure its not 71c?

the reason i ask is the temp is almost always shown in celcius

 

[hychka]

New developments this AM.

Fired the system up and read the temperature ... it reads in both C and F degrees ... and with no beeps, after the keyboard check, went to 77 F and just clicked off .... fans still going, but no signal to the monitor and the monitor clicked into rest.

Waited a few minutes and fired it up again and heard four beeps (BEEEEEEEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP) and got no signal to the monitor whatsoever.

Waited a while and fired up again with the same result.

The PSU fan IS going.

I think that whatever was burning out at high temeperature is now completely gone. And it seems to me that that board has a three light system that tells you what the beeps mean and I'm going to read up on that in the MB manual.

Any ideas out there?

 

[hychka]

OOOPPPPS!!!

Pushing on all the connections resulted in a return to what I had before ....system fires, twemp rises to 77 F and signal to monitor fails.

Starting without going to BIOS, just a regular boot up, the diagnostic LEDS go to all green when the system hangs, which the manual says is "OS loading."

That's where I'm at.

 

[Iron Woode]

Actually, there are shut down controls. And by default Turbo board displays temp in C. My board is set to shutdown at 70C. I want verification that the temp is 77F and not C.

Did you try the cpu on another system?

The board could be failing. Take it to someone to test it out. What does the LED diagnostic show?

Let us know asap.

 

[hychka]

Latest developments are:

I switched out first the CPU and then the PSU and had no change .... still boots up and the monitor shuts off when the CPU temp raises to 77F. And, yes, my BIOS shows temp in BOTH C and F degrees and the C was I believe 23 at the monitor shut off. That's as definite as I can be that I'm reading 77 in F, not in C.

If there is a temp shut down control, please share with me where I might access it as I have not seen it going thru the BIOS or in the manual.

One interesting development was that the CPU from the questionable machine would not work in this system I'm using to write this post with (AMD 1000 MSI KT7 TURBO RAID dual 40 gig Maxtor 512meg SDRAM, DVD-ROM, Burner, I-Zip). The start-up process read it as a 1333 AMD CPU whereas the questionable machine read it as a 1000, which it is according to the retail box it came in.

The Diagnostic LEDs read differently depending on how long it runs 'til the monitor shuts off. With a decent rest (cooling) it shuts off with 1111 or "OS booting," but this last time it shut off at 0111 or "assign IRQs to PCI devices."

Except for that CPU thing and the notion that one can control the TEMP shut down level, I'm thinking new motherboard.

Any advice?

 

[RDMustang1]

Same exact problem happens with one of my computers.. I've switched out EVERY component except the motherboard and the problem still happens... I'm looking to find a new inexpensive motherboard right now and I'm pretty sure that will fix my problem...

 

[Unicron80]

Installed an ECS k7s5a on my roommate's computer a few months back, ran into the same problem. Same symptoms as you describe, I thought it might have been either the HD or PS. Didn't think it was the mobo since it was brand new, but after a few days I began thinking about it.

Then, someone recomended trying the ram. I took out the oldest stick (64mb pc133) and it's worked like a charm ever since.

Might not be the solution to your problem, but it was for mine. Good luck, it's a frustrating problem.

 

[Iron Woode]

the shutdown controls are in the Power Management section I believe.

Could be the motherboard. What cpu did you try? Was the FSB set at the right speed? Maybe the cpu is not set correctly in the BIOS?

Are both cpu thunderbirds with 133FSB? Or is one a Duron or even an older 100FSB Tbird?

 

[hychka]

Unicron80, and others offering help and sympathy,

Thanks for your ideas. I did take out the older of the two SDRAMS and that didn't help. I then took out the newer, relying on th eolder and no help.

I think it's the MB.

I can not find temp settings on Power Mgr or any place else. MSI made many variations on the KT7 and we must just have different boards. Mine reads in BOTH C and F degrees, for example.

I'm going to order a new MB tonight and feel grateful that it is not the hard drive, which costs more and is infinitely harder to reinstall, given the condition of my system. (I did buy that Seagate 80 gig Dell is selling for $90 delivered, however, should it turn iout to be the hard drive.)

 

[Iron Woode]

I just wish I could locate my manual. K7T Turbo V3.0 6330 is very common.

The proper settings could be in the CPU setup section.

I will check and see.

edit: I found it under PC Health Status. It is the first option. System Shutdown. I set mine at 70C.

 

[LastRide]

I have this Mobo MSI K7T Turbo Raid (MS-6330) REV.3.0 and its been a great Mobo for me.Anyways,in the bios first one on the second row its called PC Health Status.It says Optional on top of my manual for this selection,weird.It does read in both C and F.Mine is at 61C right now.I could roast some marshmellows on that sucker right now..LOL.Usually I am in the mid fifties.If I take the side panel off I drop 3-4C.At the very top inside the PC Health Status option it says "temperature Shutdown".If your mobo doesn't have that I can't understand why.The optional thing has me scratching my head.Same place as where all your temperature's are.I have flashed my bios a few times.One time it did add a couple options in the bios but can't remeber what it was.I have the latest 3.4 bios flash.One time I had the temperature shutdown set lower at 60C.The CPU hit 60C and sounded like a home fire alarm went off and scared the sh!t out of me it was so loud.I am assuming if your CPU temperature hit the shutdown range you would probably here a warning noise like I did.You may very well have a problem with your mobo.

 

[hychka]

The temp settings are just NOT there on this MB. Anyhow, i did buy another, MSI K7T Turbo Raid this time, so now I'll have two raid systems. Guess I'll need another Seagate 80 gig hd.

Thanks for all your help. I'm pretty well convinced at this point that it's the MB.

In a week or so I'll write back and tell you if the MB exchange worked or if I also had to upgrade the CPU.

 

[Unicron80]

Good luck.

 

[Iron Woode]

Good luck from me too.

Strange that shutdown temp thingy couldn't be found.

Lastride:

That's an awfully high temp. You may need more HSF. Either that or better case cooling. My friend's XP1800+ idles at 43-45C. Load temp rarely ever goes above 50C.

 

[hychka]

Sorry for the delay.

The new MSI K7T pro RU board came, needed DDR memeory, which I got two sticks of on the BB deal for 256 megs for $30 each, which indicated a new DDR video card was also needed.

So, who knows what was wrong!! A new board, new DDR RAM and Video card fixed and I'm running as I write this.

Thanks for your ideas and support!

 

[Unicron80]

Sometimes you just gotta throw in the towl and upgrade. Isn't always a bad thing. Sounds like you got a good board, hope everything goes well with the instillation. I gotta go back to fixing my roomie's comp, which looks like it's on its last leg.

 

[Cerb]

The MSI K7T Turbo boards...let's see...
Using AMD approved PSU's...
Mine died.
My dad's died.
A friend's more recently died.
I know one person still who is running one flawlessly (when they were new, they were nice boards).
Given I live in an area where T-storms occur all too commonly, and in such, power quickly cycling off and on several times in a row, and often going to lower voltage similarly, my dad and I figure that the K7T Turbo boards may be really picky about such things (and needless to say, we're running el cheapo UPSes now).
Upgrade...if you get a KT266a, KT333, or SiS (whatever their numbers are, can't think of them right now ), you'll be happy.