Computer won't boot - suggestions? (edit: MB's dead; suggestions for a new one?)

[NTB]

For some strange reason, my computer decided to throw a fit tonight, and I'm having a hard time diagnosing the problem. So I'll turn it over to you:

I came home tonight to find out that my computer would not "wake up" (I've got the monitor set to shut off after x amount of time; moving the mouse or hitting a key usually brings it back up). No big deal; I'll just restart it. Did that, and it worked for a while, then locked again. So again I restarted it. This time it didn't even make it to windows. Restart again, and it didn't get past detecting my Promise Ultra133 card. The computer will even lock up if I'm in the BIOS, so it doesn't look like a windows problem. Letting it sit seems to help, which leads me to believe it's a heat problem somewhere. Fans are all working though, and this set up is the same one I've been using since last christmas. Nothing's changed as far as hardware is concerned.

Nate

EDIT: The computer in question is the BEBOP under the rigs link in my signature

 

[NTB]

Well, I can rule out one thing - it wasn't a bad hdd. I switched my 40GB WD for an old 16GB Maxtor and it froze while formatting the drive prior to installing windows. After talking to one of my friends, I think I've narrowed the suspects down to the mainboard or the powersupply. I'm going to drive out to Compusa and pick up an Antec truepower 330 tommorow and see if that fixes anything. If anyone has any better ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Nate

 

[obenton]

By "locking up" do you mean the monitor display is present but no mouse or keyboard response, or display disappears? If the former, try another input bus (USB, PS2).

 

[NTB]

By "locking up" I mean that any and all response just stops. The thing freezes. It's still running; just won't do anything. And I've tried an both PS2 and USB. No difference. I don't think it would be one of those though, because there would be no response at all if the input bus died, correct? Letting the system sit for a while seems to help; it will boot to windows after sitting for a while, but then will eventually lock again. And it doesn't seem to matter what I'm doing - surfing the internet, transfering files, etc. Still locks up. If it locks in windows, and I re-start, I'll be lucky to get through the boot sequence to the WinXP bootscreen.

On a side note - I've pulled the PS out in preparation for replacing it tommorow when I get home, and I had a thought : can I RMA a power supply that came with a case, without having to send the entire case back? since it's a standard Antec PS (pp-352x, to be exact) I would certainly think so. I'll have to look at antec's website.

Nate

 

[NTB]

Well, it looks like it may be the main board. I replaced the original power supply just now with an antec truepower 330 and it booted to windows - but I had to push the power button three or four times before it would do much. First time or two I got a NO VIDEO message on my monitor, even though the monitor was plugged in and the video card was securely in place. Next time all I got was a black screen. After that, I tried once more and made it to windows; now I'm just playing with it and waiting to see if it locks up.

Nate

 

[Yomama21]

I would venture to say that it is either the processor or the mobo. The easiest thing to check, if you have a spare handy, is the processor. Try taking all unnecessary components out of your machine and try it then. Boot up with just mobo, proc, p/s, v/c, and ram.

Good luck.

 

[NTB]

*Cue Queen* do, do, do...another one bites the dust!

It's toast. Will not boot anymore, period. No video signal, no POST code beep, the hdd access light stays on and the lights on my CD-ROMs flash as if the computer is still looking for them.

Time to hunt for a new mainboard, which means I guess that it's finally time to break down and buy some DDR-SDRAM now, too. nuts...

Nate

 

[DGolem]

It's probably too late anyway but there is one possibility I can think of besides a bad motherboard. When I first got my Athlon 700 I was having very similar problems. The comp would act unstable and freeze without even booting into windows. Sometimes it would turn off by itself or the video would corrupt and sometimes it wouldn't even turn on. I was going nuts because I put all my spare money into it, couldn't possibly afford a new one, and my old one had a bad cpu because the fan stopped working. Eventually I found the problem!

Ok, You know those screws that go into the motherboard tray that you place your motherboard on top of? They're called stand-offs I think. When I installed my new motherboard I accidently left in an extra stand-off. Normally you only put in stand-offs where there is going to be a screw hole in the motherboard. But since I left in an extra one in it was shorting out the motherboard because it was metallic and was touching a circuit on the back of the board. I took it out and booted up and everything was fine. Afterwards I reflashed the bios and restored the default settings just to be safe.

So I guess check to see if you've got your stand-offs in the right places. Who knows, if stand-offs is the problem maybe your board will come back on or maybe it's too late and it's completely dead. If it isn't stand-offs I guess it was just a bad board.

Still it's strange that if stand-offs were the problem it would start acting up now and not right after it was first installed.

 

[NTB]

Thanks for the suggestion, DGolem but I doubt that's it. This computer has been running for 9 months without a problem; if I had a standoff out of place shorting something out, it probably would have started happening right after I built the system. The computer hasn't been moved much either, especially any time recently. So nothing should have been knocked loose, either.

Nate

 

[DGolem]

That's kind of what I thought. It's still very strange that your motherboard would just start going bad. But now that I think about it I have heard of specific motherboard models from companies running fine for about a year or two then mysteriously dieing like it's a defect specific to that model not just a random factory defect. I was on the MSI forums a while ago looking for video card support (never got any) and a some guy who was a reseller or something was there complaining to the tech guys that after selling all his clients a certain MSI model 2 years ago ago they were all calling him up at about the same time complaining that their boards were going bad and he was going nuts sending them back to MSI for replacements.

Just did a google search with your board (ECS K7S5A) and I found this:

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/1097/

It sounds like at least a few other people are having very similar problems so it might be a model specific defect in which case you'd probably be able to get a replacement for free.

(You're not Robert are you?)

LOL I think I just found something else:

http://pub65.ezboard.com/fk7s5amotherboardforumfrm10

There are a LOT of posts with people who's ECS K7S5As died. Now I'm really beginning to wonder. I mean it's not uncommon for any given mobo model to die on someone somewhere but there seem to be way more than average here. About 3 on the first page alone! And that's not counting people in the early stages of going bad (like what you had before) / other bizarre problems.

 

[mrman3k]

Get an Epox mobo. Very good and OCs like a wonder!

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: mrman3k
Get an Epox mobo. Very good and OCs like a wonder!

Should've done that in the first place The board that I used to use - with an old Duron 750 - was an epox EP-8kta3 and it took everything I could throw at it. My little brother uses it now and it's running good as ever. I don't particularly care about OCing ability; I just want it to be fast & stable.

I was just looking at NewEgg for some new parts, and I noticed that they have a "no refund" policy on most of the Epox boards. What's up with that?

Nate

 

[DGolem]

I recommend Epox too. The one I had was cheap and ran great. It's only problem was it kept pausing and I'd have to reboot but I did some searching and found out that all via motherboards made during a certain month did that due to some bad chipsets being released by accident. I replaced the Epox with an Abit before I knew that and the Abit had the same problem. So it went away when I got a mobo with a new socket A chipset.

 

[NTB]

OK, just ordered the new parts. Here's what I ended up with:

Epox EP8-kt5a2+
256MB Crucial PC2100 DDR
Thermalright AX7 heatsink
Panaflo 24CFM 80MM fan
antec truepower330 PS

I'm returning the antec PS I bought yesterday - ordering it with my new mainboard saved me like 15 or 20 bucks.

Nate

 

[teqwiz]

Hey Bro,

Sorry to here of your bad luck. Make sure that you ground your self when replacing your board. A static discharge could wipe out the new one too.
It is possible to put off a charge so small that you cannot even feel it, or see it with your eyes, and yet it will damage the components internally. Especially the chipset or CPU. Alot of the time, it will Degrade quickly over time rather than all at once. (Quickly being 6 monthes compared too 7 years, which is the average life expectancy for a CPU/Chipset combo.)
This can cause the strange behavior that you are referring too in you last MOBO. If you have ever serviced your rig with out being grounded, that may be your problem now. I've done this myself, being in a hurry to install some new gadget,and paid for it later.

LOL