update - shuts down in 60 seconds! ... cruncher is down! Won't post.

[Wiz]

First there was garbled video on startup, then after pushing reset no POST.
I pulled a card from another pc & swapped it in & the system boots (almost). Put the Leadtek back in - no POST.
I put the Leadtek in the other system & it booted right up & looked great.
So it is not the vid card after all.
Now I have to take the system apart & see why it wont post. ARGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Insidious]

sounds like it's narrowed down to PSU or MoBo.

Try swapping the PSUs (since it's easy)

-Sid

(sorry for the casualty....... hope it's easy to fix! )

 

[Wiz]

I just connected it with minimum stuff & hooked up the pc speaker.
When I pwr up I get one beep then about 7 seconds later - one beep.

Going to try a bios reset & see what happens.

 

[Insidious]

look around in the support section of the mfgr. for your motherboard. It will have (somewhere burried usually) the meaning of your beep code. (one long beep....)

-Sid

that's a RAM or Video card warning I believe. Since you know you have a good video card, you might try a RAM swap or run memtest86+.

 

[Freewolf]

IF changing out the ram fails to solve the problem try an old pci video card if you have one laying around. It's possible your agp slot is the problem.

 

[Wiz]

I no longer have any pci video cards.

I have tried other ram & other PSU.
Pulled & reseated the cpu & HSF.
Now I get one beep, like you get when you power up your system then I get a longer beep.
I suppose I will try the ram in my other system & make sure it is good.

 

[Smoke]

What board are we talking about?

 

[Wiz]

ASus p5p800 3ghz cpu 2 megs cache
At this point I have tested the ram, psu, video in another system & they all work.
I do not have another p4 in the house so I can not test that.
It has to be the cpu or the mobo.

I am getting bios beeps - one short when it pwrs on, then it sounds like 4 really fast beeps (or one longer beep)

Thoughts?

 

[The Reaper]

Have you looked for bad caps? Have you checked voltages with a DMM?

 

[Smoke]

Check your PM.

Do you know someone that will allow you to try your cpu in their system?

 

[Wiz]

looked all over the mobo with a magnifying glass & a bright light - no obvious damage

What all has to be good to get bios beeps?

Nobody I know has a new enough system that this cpu will fit - at work I have a P4 3.8ghz, I believe it has the same socket.

I don't thing Dell would cover the costs if something goes wrong though.
Like, I pop this cpu in & the box blows up.

Me: Hello Dell support, My computer doesn't boot anymore.
Dell support: What did you do to it?
Me: Well you see, I was testing out a possibly bad cpu from home. and ...

 

[Smoke]

Test the Dell's CPU on your home system. :evil:

 

[Wiz]

hmmm - tempting...

It's a very good position that I am grateful to have, I think I would be safer testing my cpu there than bringing their cpu home. I'll have to think about this.

 

[Wiz]

It turns out I didn't have to think about it after all.

I've been asked by my supervisor to work from home today & tomorrow due to colds & flu that are running rampant through the office - & I have something like that so if I go in there's a good chance I'll be a part of the problem. I can totally do my job remotely so thia works out well for all of us.

I'm thinking the problem is the mobo, would I even get bios beeps at all if it were a bad cpu?
My experience tells me it would just sit there dead if the cpu were bad.

One other thing that happened while I was testing is that for a while when I turned the thing on there would be a high pitch squeal from somewhere on the mobo.
I disconnected the pc speaker to be sure it was not coming from there.
What could do that?

 

[rise]

well, here are some common beep codes. theres another somewhere in my mess of bookmarks that i can find if you need but its pretty much the same iirc.

the high pitched squeal source kind of depends on the volume of it. i mean is it a shreaking high pitched squeal or a faint squeal? could be caps giving away, could be your psu fan, chipset fan, etc. if its definitely from the mobo and faint rather than large its probably a cap or two failing.

 

[Wiz]

It was faint enough to not be able to tell where it was coming from.
The only fans were the PSU, CPU & Vid & it wasn't from them.

Thanks for the link!

 

[Assimilator1]

Any of the main caps around the CPU socket getting hot?

Btw if a CPU fails it doesn't necessarily die completey (as I found out when I o/ced my dads old Cyrix lol)

 

[Wiz]

no hot caps

got an rma number from asus - but I am going to try powering it up one more time before I send it out - just to see...

 

[Wiz]

-Ok, here's a new twist.

When I powered up this is iwhat happens:

All fans started (cpu & video)
3 keyboard lights flash
one beep
HDD spins up
maybe 3 or 4 quick beeps or one longer, can't tell it's very fast

60 seconds from start it powers itself down

I've tried this about 5 times now, timing it, - same thing every time.
No video ever comes up - but I am sure the monitor is OK (verified)

 

[Insidious]

Wiz,

It seems like your symptoms just keep getting more and more severe (less and less works)

I think you are watching your motherboard belly up. (it is not unusual to watch electronic components fail partially (intermittant) and the failure progress with each new thermal (power) cycle.

I suggest taking ASUS up on that RMA soon because you don't know how this failure is going to progress and you don't want it to take your other components with it.

-Sid

 

[Wiz]

I packed it up and sent it out to ASUS today.
Sounds like they will keep it for two weeks

 

[Silverthorne]

Asus is very good with there rma's, never questioned me whatsoever. I do prefer their boards. :thumbsup: Got mine back in 10 days.

 

[Assimilator1]

Cool!,good to hear

I've got a new Asus K8N4-E in the RMA process:frown:
Couldn't return it to seller because 28days had passed before I could use it,because they'd sold me 1 wrong & then 2 duff PSUs!:|