Help!!!! These symptoms originated Thursday of last week, any insight is GREATLY appreciated: My computer: CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ Motherboard: Gigabyte GA7VXP RAM: PC700 (333mHz) Two IDE/PATA harddrives (one 40 gigg with OS, one 130gigg with media/documents) Radeon 7200 graphics card (it sucks, but I'm not a gamer) 300 watt power supply OS: Windows XP Pro SP2 Starting last week, my computer began locking up randomly. It seemed as though there was a power problem because the monitor would flash, and then I would hear a click noise, and the mouse would be slow to respond for about 10 seconds, and then the PC would lock up. The harddrive access light would be constantly lit. I simply hit the reset button to reboot, and it at first rebooted fine. I ran check disk on both harddrives with no errors, and used SpeedFan to check temps and S.M.A.R.T harddrives, all looked normal. I ran System Restore to make sure it wasn't any changed settings. On monday, the lockups began occuring more often. Today, I cannot get past the login screen (sometimes it locks up before Windows loads correctly). I initially assumed the problem was the power supply (only 300 watts, and kind of old) so I took it out and brought it into Best Buy and had their service techs hook it up to a similar machine. The machine booted fine, and did not lock up or anything. I also borrowed another, more powerful power supply and tried that, but the machine wouldn't get past the "Detecting IDE device" boot up screen (it always detects IDE drives on boot) I brought the power supply back here, only to still have the same problems. I tried removing all unneccessary hardware (USB devices, my TV tuner card) and booting, with no luck, then I tried removing one piece of RAM and then the other, still with no luck. I tried booting Knoppix, and could only get maybe 1/4 way through the boot process before it returned a million errors and locked up... This leads me to believe that it is not either of the harddrives nor the power supply. Are these all symptoms of a failing motherboard? I never received any errors or anything, other than when Knoppix was booting. I haven't added or removed any hardware lately nor have I installed any software lately. Are there any other tests I could try to see what the problem is and if its fixable?
It sounds to me like you've done all the "at home" troubleshooting you can do. It could be the motherboard or the cpu. I suggest you take it in for some advanced diagonistics. Be sure to tell them what you have done.
@slotdawg: If you are familar with capacytance meter and soldering iron: Just change ALL the capaciters near CPU.
Correct. During the boot process (right before I see the Windows logo with the blue status bar) the system resets, with no error or anything on the monitor. I checked and made sure that my video card is seated correctly, and it is... What are the chances that the problem is the processor and not the motherboard? The processor is new (about a year old) and has not been overclocked. I check the temperature often, and it usually runs at about 57C (a little hot, but nothing out of the ordinary). Would the system boot at all without the processor?
temp is a bit high as should be in the 40's range when not doing intensive stuff. computer won't boot without cpu as same as taking your brain out of your head, you are dead!! reseat the ram also use a pencil eraser on the gold contacts of the ram before reseating as it removes oxidation off the gold. if have more than 1 stick of ram, try 1 stick of ram at a time to see if have a bad stick or not.
I have two sticks of RAM. I tried booting with each stick individually, with no luck with either stick. I did not try the eraser trick, but what is the probability that both sticks have dirty contacts? I have another socket A processor at home, is it worth it to try that other processor, or should I not even bother?
depends on whether that board can handle that cpu. take a look at current motherboard at the can shaped objects that are capacitors, they should be flat topped not domed or leaking brown stuff.
there are no leaking caps, but the large caps around the processor are slightly domed (all of them are, the center of the heads of each cap are protruding out a little bit), whereas some of the smaller caps not near the processor are flat... Is this for sure a sign of a dead motherboard? If these caps are bad, is it likely that the processor is now bad too? Thanks again for everyone's help, I really appreciate it.
get a new motherboard unless you know how to solder electrical components. cpu should be alright as the doming is caused by hydrogen gas build up as in the 3 mile island reactor accident in the late 70's.
Alright, I opted for the new system: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Clawhammer core Abit UL8 chipset socket 939 motherboard 1Gb Dual Channel DDR400 PC3200 Apollo Video Card Geforce FX5500 256MB DDR NVIDIA Aspire case 420watt powersupply Windows XP 64 Everyone approve???
Stay away from the X64 edition,I have heard nothing good about it,driver problems,programs not compatable etc... If you must go with a 64 bit O.S.wait until Vista comes out but I know a lot of people including myself who won't be jumping on that bandwagon any time soon. My advise (for what it's worth) go with XP-Pro 32 bit. Just my 2 cents... Oh yes,everything else looks ok...well maybe a better video card,but you did say your not a gamer so go for it!
