What is this problem and why is it happening to ME??? (Maybe power related)

[purplehayes]

I was sitting in front of my computer yesterday reading a book when all of a sudden the computer sort of shut itself off. The video went dead (amber light on monitor) and both case lights stayed on (hard drive and power). When I shut it off and turn it back on, it whirs back to life, but doesn't post or initialize any sort of video. I swapped out a power supply and the MOBO battery tests at +3.x Volts.

The only way I can get it to come on now is to remove the battery and unplug the power supply for a few minutes and then turn it on (sometimes without the battery). I obviously get BIOS errors and if I go into BIOS to update them, I can't reboot. If I use the default values, Win2K Pro says my BIOS isn't APCI compliant and won't let me boot. If I use default settings and go into Win 98, the machine will stay on for about 5 or 6 minutes before doing this "instant power off" trick it started yesterday and then I have to start over with the unplug and remove battery scenario.

What do I need to do to get back up and running? I've got some AutoCAD drawings on an NTSF partition that I really need to get back to work on.

Sys. Specs:

MSI K7 Pro mobo
Athlon 600 MHz
128 Megs of PC100 RAM
Three 20 Gig hard drives
1 CD-RW Drive
Diamond Viper V770 Video card
On Board Creative sound
Netgear FA310TX NIC
New Antec 250W Power supply (this is the one I put in yesterday)


Let me know if you need more information

Thanks!

PH

 

[BadThad]

Doesn't sound good. Why did you put only a 250w PS in there? You really should try a NEW 300+ w before you trouble-shoot anymore.

 

[purplehayes]

I only put a 250W power supply in because that's all that was available via brick and mortar stores yesterday. I was smart enough to only hook up the one HDD that I needed to boot to troubleshoot, though.

Any more suggestions?

PH

 

[NelsonMuntz]

Do you have another processor available at all that you can test it out with?

 

[purplehayes]

Nope, no extra processor to swap out.

Any more suggestions?

PH

 

[Bglad]

I just put together a Duron 750 system and had similar problems with a 250 watt power supply. I didn't get all the errors you are but I had the same boot problems. A 350 fixed everything. You've got too many problems and aren't getting far enough into the boot to trouble shoot much more. I'd try a bigger power supply next to rule that out.

 

[purplehayes]

It's run for the longest time with only a 250W PS, why would it need a bigger one now? Like I said, I've only for one of the hard drives hooked up right now and the CD-RW isn't plugged in either. Oh, BTW, I'm not overclocking either.

PH

 

[Bglad]

Don't know but you have to start trying things one at a time to rule things out.

 

[purplehayes]

How risky is it to try flashing the BIOS? Could a corrupt BIOS be the source of my problems? I've never had a bad BIOS before, so I'm not sure what one looks like. I don't have another Athlon processor or another Slot A mobo to swap out so I'm kind of limited on just swapping pieces until I figure out which one works.

PH

 

[Bglad]

Well, its got to be either power or motherboard (which includes bios). In order to flash the bios you have to be able to get it running stable in dos. Looke like you can't get through the bios post so we are back to trying things one at a time in order to rule things out and first thing is to swap out that power supply with a new 350 or something you absolutely know will do the job. If that doesn't work, then it is obvious it is the motherboard. If it is software, you can try flashing the bios if you can get into it. If it is hardware, the board is shot and flashing will be of no consequence.

We can't sit here and talk about what if over and over if you aren't going to try things in order and come back for more information.