ibuddie XP Post probems

[The_Other_One]

After reading the mixed reviews on this system, I probably wouldn't of gotten it, but i have one so I'll deal with it. All in all, I've been rather pleased with it, but I have been getting some problems when I first try to boot it.

Basically, I get a black screen. The suspend light stays on and I hear the DVD-ROM click every once in a while. I hold the power button down, then reboot it and it works fine. However, the processor speed is off. After going into the bios and just saving the current settings, this problem is fixed.

Now I don't remember what bios this thing is running, but it is a good deal older then what's posted on ECS's site. Could a bios flash correct this?

Some other info, if it means anything. I ALWAYS unplug this thing when I'm not using it. I've heard so many horror stories about the plug melting and such. So far, it's gotten hot, but never so hot that I was afraid something like that would happen.

The Specs... XP 2000, 256M RAM, 20G HD

 

[Techy]

what do you mean the processor speed is off?

"saving current bios settings" are they resetting themselves?

What motherboard?

has it always done this? if not how long?

sorry for all the questions, but need "more input" to be able to give you a useful solution.

Cheers and welcome to pcr

James

 

[The_Other_One]

The processor is an XP, so that's 1600MHz, right? Well when this happenes, it's rated as an Athlon 4 running at 1250MHz. Oh, and 100MHz rather than 133MHz FSB.

Yes, the settings reset after I have this post problem.

It's a Desknote model 929(a notebook)

It's done this most of the time I've had it. I can't remember when it first started, maybe a week or so after I got it. Though this has worked fine since I had the problems for a week, it's not always locking up on the boot.

I got a message from ECS and they said it could be bad RAM. Something about it corrupting the bios. I donno. The ram was cheap ram from Circuit city. I would exchange it, but I've sent off the UPC for a rebate.

 

[Techy]

wrong, xp is the name of the range of AMD processors, within this range there are many different cores and speeds.

a few details on you machine can be found here

does the bios still reset itself it the machine is turned off but the power adapter is left connected?

possibly a CMOS battery failure.

not going to be able to be much help with this as notebooks generally aren't my thing, but if as you say the FSB for CPU is set incorrectly this could well stop the machine from booting.

if nobody has anymore input on here then i would speak to ECS (desknote).

James

 

[The_Other_One]

Uh, I meant to say XP 2000...

I never leave the power connected because so many people have talked about both the computer and the PS getting too hot. I figured it was a battery too, but the clock dosn't get reset.

I have a few other AMD systems, and they will work fine underclocked, which is what happens to this. Basically, it goes to a failsafe setting I guess. The bios is still set to 133, but the computer just runs at 100MHz. Going into the bios and saving(doing NOTHING else) corrects this :-/

I'm talking with ECS now. The last E-Mail I got was stating it's probably bad ram. The first E-Mail, they didn't realize their desknote was not a desktop...

 

[The_Other_One]

Here's an interesting fix... I've been making sure the display is opened when I plug the power in so the suspend button isn't pressed. Since I began doing that, it has not locked up a single time during POST. Perhaps some weird flaw with the suspend function? It works fine when I use it during normal operation.