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Technical help please...

adnedarn

I'm growing CPs in the Desert of Tucson, Az
Admin
Hello, a few months ago my mother-in-laws computer crapped out. So my wife and I decided to sell her ours (worked flawlessly) and buy ourselves a faster one. Well, not but a few days later this one started doing what her other one was doing (shutting off for no reason). I decided it was a power problem (her house has crappy power) so I had her buy one of those battery back up things with the surge protecter in it to condition the power going into the computer. I didn't know it, but the problem contenued. Just last night she brought the computer to my house and sure enough this thing is screwed. It will not even boot at this point.
I took out the HD and put it in my computer it seemed to work fine. I went ahead and formated the drive and moved it back to her computer. It still shut off... I dissconnected all accessories, cdroms, flopy drive, ethernet card... EVERYTHIN. and it still won't boot. So, right now I have even the hard drive not plugged in. and when i turn on the computer, the monitor power light stays amber (instead of green) and nothing comes up (not even the compaq logo or errors) but the power light on the computer is on, and the fans inside are running. I plugged the HD back in, and the monitor does the same thing and the HD activity light stays on, although it doesn't sound like the hard drive is actually doing anything...
Any ideas? Power supply?? I did notice that the cooling fan for the CPU speeds up and slows down, nothing major I can just hear the change in tone...
Thanks for any help!
Andrew
 
battery on the mother board perhaps?
 
Nick, I think that only helps hold the time/date when the pc is without power... I did remove the battery, and reset the cmos. Problem is still the same.
Kirkscoastalcarnivores, uhm plenty of ram- I used this pc for about 2 years with absolutly 0 problems. I did change the ram just to make sure that wasn't the problem. (and it wasn't) As far as reformatting... I can't. (Not with the HD in that computer anyway. Like I said, I did format the HD while it was in my pc... But now when I try to reinstall the windows program the monitor turns off with the power button turning amber and the computer needs to be power cycled off. This even happens while i'm trying to change bios settings.
Andrew
 
Andrew, I don't suppose there were any beep codes?  Well, no matter, I think you might be right about it being your power supply - either that or the motherboard is fried - or both.  Any way you could hook up another power supply to the mobo? (You wouldn't have to mount it or anything, merely plug it into the mobo and the HD...) It it doesn't boot then, I'd say its probably the motherboard.  The thing is, there could've been enough house power problems to cause a problem with the PSU and the mobo... I've had a similar problem for the last 3 weeks and I still can't say for sure if it's the PSU or the motherboard, so I finally decided to replace both of 'em. Good luck.

Merlin
 
Merlin sounds like he's on the right track, the only thing that I can think to add (at this moment) is video. Do you use a card, or on board? It sure sounds like a motherboard problem, but I've had a case similar to yours when the problem was just the video card (amber monitor light, no boot beeps, etc.). Since everything else seems to be in order (as far as you can tell), I'd say motherboard as the best guess as to the source of the problem.
 
There is video on the mobo and also a geforce card. Usually the geforce is used. I removed it and went for the onboard one and still have same prob. I think I found a source for a used mobo for 20 bucks and 5 for shipping but it is a monday - friday thing.. So, I guess i'll call them tuesday and check it out. 25 bucks for a mobo and a 90 day warranty. ...can't frown at that!!
Thanks all for your views. Anyone else?
Andrew
 
Hey adnedarn,
I have a Geforce Ti 4400 in mine, I remember that when I patched Windows XP almost a year ago I had pretty much the same symptoms you have. Just random shutting down, no battery problems. They it wouldn't boot windows.

The problem was that the CMOS firmware was outdated (even though it was only 2 years old at the time). I dabble with computers quite a bit, but even I'm too chicken to mess with that. I asked my local network/desktop dude at work to help me out on that one. That fixed the problem lickety-split.
smile.gif
 
wichkedthistle: I would almost think that also, but when I restored the computer to factory settings to hand it over to the mother-in-law, I updated the firmware then. This is running windows ME (eewww!!) I had XP in it... But I had ran the ME for a year or so before going to XP and didn't have any problems either way. It is really odd that the same problem is going on with this computer that happened to her old one... I was never able to figure that one out either. I'm thinking the crap power she has at her house has a hunger for mobos.
mad.gif

Andrew
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (adnedarn @ May 30 2004,1:24)]I think I found a source for a used mobo for 20 bucks and 5 for shipping but it is a monday - friday thing..   So, I guess i'll call them tuesday and check it out.  25 bucks for a mobo and a 90 day warranty.  ...can't frown at that!!
$25 for a mobo is a cheap enough but the word 'used' makes me a little nervous.  I don't want to spend your money for you but have you checked out Newegg and ZipZoomFly?  You can get a brand new mobo (with full waranty) for $45 or so delivered.

Merlin
 
  • #11
HI

Go to Tigerdirect.com What you have going on is either Over heating of the processor and it is shutting down or the power supply is going bad. Or maybe a short in the Mother board.

1. If your getting a Bios and you have reformatted the drive and still shutting down that it sounds like eith a power suppy or bad motherboard. or processor.

At Tiger they have combows of mother board and processors or Kits with almost everything in it. Here is phily A local place I just got an asus board and Amd 3000 processor and fan for around 200 and i just replaced the old board and placed all the cards back in . Installed Xp on it and it worked fine.

Good Luck with YOUR Mother inlaw

I think it is your mother Inlaw

anyways Good Luck

Jim
 
  • #12
Yeah, I have used tiger direct alot... but, I'm trying to stick to factory stuff on this one since "she" is using it and tends to break everything. The 20 buck mobo I found comes with a 90 day warranty. The same board as a factory refurb I see going for 450+ bucks... i'll try the 20 dollar one first thank you very much! LOl, thing is it has everthing thing built into it.. Video, audio etc etc...
Thanks Andrew
 
  • #13
Good luck, then, Andrew.  I hope the mobo solves all the problems  
smile.gif


As far as TigerDirect, I've never been happy with their prices.  I just did some sampling between Tiger and Newegg to see if anything has changed.  These are some random delivered prices:

Asus P4P800E Deluxe Mobo - Tiger $152.55, NewEgg $109
DFI AZ03-TL Mobo - Tiger $58.55, NewEgg $48.00
LG GCE8525B CD/RW (white box) - Tiger $56.07, NewEgg $32.00

I'm sure if I keep sampling, Tiger will eventually have a lower price, but for now I'll stick with NewEgg.
smile_m_32.gif


Merlin
 
  • #14
Merlin, thanks for pointing that out... I'll definatly price them both when I am next looking for something!
Andrew
 
  • #15
I can not stand Tiger Direct. Everytime I call I am on hold for 45 minutes then get someone that does not speak english. I guessing your powersupply is bad. I would not get a new mother board they are a big pain in the @!!. O' btw ME sucks! I would always get errors.
mad.gif
I suppose you have already tried a Windows Startup floppy *although XP does not come with one*. Good Luck.
 
  • #16
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]...I would not get a new mother board they are a big pain in the @!!...
Not as bad as in the past thought. Windows still kills me every time... Have to restart some 4 times just to get a couple of drivers working. Oy.
mad.gif
And then there's the fun of Windows making up/not using/replacing/using the incorrect (etc) drivers. Anyhoo- I hope that a new mobo solves the problem
smile_m_32.gif
.
 
  • #17
Sounds like a PS problem.
 
  • #18
First of all, DO NOT buy a darn thing from Tigerdirect. There customer support and returns are un-humanely horrible. The best piece of advice I can ever give you, is to buy all of your computer hardware from Newegg, even if it costs a buck or two more, the service is well worth it (and the prices are rarely beat, and if so by a very small margin)

Secondly, since your cpu fan is spinning I would be drawn away from a cpu overheat problem. Since this is a boxed system, I am going to assume its an older P3 or P4 which didn't have huge overheating problems anyway (not enough to where a dirty heatsink/fan could burn up your proc) and secondly I doubt your mobo has overheat protection that would be shutting down the system.

So, with that said, I would have to think it was the powersupply. Try pulling it out of the case and cracking it open. It will probably have more dust in it than my attic does. Get a can or two of air (that air duster stuff, you can get it from radio shack, wally world etc..) and clean it up real good. Don't touch anything on the inside though, just use the canned air. There are some capicitors in there, although very week (read: not very harmfull) but its still not good to touch em.

Other than that, I would suggest getting a new cmos battery. Couple of bucks from Rat shack. Those things do not last forever. They are designed to give a constant trickle charge to keep the info in the bios in-tact. My cordless phones battery doesnt even last 3 years.

Those would be my first steps, especially if your not getting any beep codes from the bios.
 
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