Argh! A boggle. Your thoughts?

T

TheAcorn

Gawd
Joined
Sep 14, 2002
Messages
939
Alright, I have a dilemma. The rig in question:

P2/350 Slot1; Supermicro i440BX chipset mainboard; Voodoo3 3000, 256MB PC100; 20GB WDC HDD.

Yeah, it is long in the tooth these days. It's a friend of mine's rig - All he does is play Diablo II on it. :p

Anyways, he calls me up - He's not booting into Windows. It hangs, dead, right in the middle of the Windows2000 splash screen. Everytime. I stop by, give it a once-over in Advanced Troubleshooter, run basic tests on CPU, MB, RAM, HD, everything passes.

Alright, I figure, something, somehow, borked the OS. No big deal. Reinstall Windows.

PC hangs *right* where it was. I say "huh."

Open 'er up, and sure enough - Both the rear exhaust fan and the CPU fan have seized, and it's been in the 80's up here all week, and that house is warm and dusty. The BIOS reported 69C idle... And the CPU passes every 'test' that the troubleshooter puts it through - But when it gets a load, i.e. loading Windows (after getting through the install process?) it just freezes.

I think the CPU ran too hot, too long, and died, and now it's half working, explaining the strange lockup, and why the RAM all tests fine. I'm trying to find another Slot1 rig to test the CPU in before I replace it.

Anyone have any other ideas on where to look for the problem? Outside of my theory presented above, I'm stumped. I've seen this sort of thing on CPUs before, but not SO half-functional that it'll seemingly install Win2K just fine, and then die on bootup.

I've already got a replacement CPU lined up, that should be on it's way here once the seller recieves payment (thanks FS/FT forum!), but should I be seeking out other parts as well? This is a low-cost system repair.

P.S. On a side note, if anyone has a P3 HSF they'd like to sell for cheap, PM me - I found the perfect CPU without a HSF, and I can't find any Slot1 HSFs around here anymore.
 
TheMostWantedPolishTwin said:
did you try reinstalling it again? if you did try sth different like linux...
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I wouldn't bother with that.

I had the same problem - back in the day :) I ran the same tests and got the same results, my mobo at the time was an emachine (lol, but i found the whole machine in the trash) but used the same chipset. My problem actually turned out to be the mobo itself, so i replaced it with an IBM version. Worked like a champ again. That pc is long gone from me, i gave it away to a friend.

I did do alot of research at the time, you have one or a multitude of 3 problems:
-RAM faulty (albit really fu**ed up ram) not all that likely to be the culprit.
-MB itself
-CPU and seeing as the fans stopped, i would say BINGO.

But if you try a diff proc and have the same problem, its definetly the mobo. Just outa curiosity did you look throughly through the machine for any possible grounding problems, or even behind the mobo itself for any *ahem* dead things?

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers, Random out.
 
Random Digits said:
But if you try a diff proc and have the same problem, its definetly the mobo. Just outa curiosity did you look throughly through the machine for any possible grounding problems, or even behind the mobo itself for any *ahem* dead things?

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers, Random out.
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Ahh, not a bad idea. I'm already planning a dust management plan for the rig in some way. Probably just some filters, maybe something else, I dunno. Good call on looking for stuff behind the mobo, though - You never really know.

I'm still pointing to the CPU, though, we shall find out.
 
If anyone's still following this - The CPU's come back to life... Grr In another board, RAM tested out fine in another board. I wonder if that cooked? Maybe the power supply?

Rotten thing.
 
TheAcorn said:
If anyone's still following this - The CPU's come back to life... Grr In another board, RAM tested out fine in another board. I wonder if that cooked? Maybe the power supply?

Rotten thing.
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I hate to say it, but it still points to the mobo, and as logic tells us thus far. I would assume that is where the problem lies now. Good thing they are hella cheap, IF you can find one. I had a very hard time finding one when mine went out, and that was almost 4 years ago.
 
Random Digits said:
I hate to say it, but it still points to the mobo, and as logic tells us thus far. I would assume that is where the problem lies now. Good thing they are hella cheap, IF you can find one. I had a very hard time finding one when mine went out, and that was almost 4 years ago.
Click to expand...
I'd have to agree, all fingers point to the mobo being the culprit, whether bios, short or whatever.
 
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