Motherboard problem

[Mav]

Hi all,

I have a PC that makes a high pitched whistling tone when it's powered up.
No other output at all - no post beeps, no display no nothing. It is a tone,
i.e. it's coming from the PC speaker, rather than being a whining fan or
drive.

I've stripped the machine down to just the mobo & processor and still get
the noise. I have tried changing the PSU & the BIOS battery - no joy. The
mobo is an Iwill XA100 Plus.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Mav

 

[Ken]

Hi all,

I have a PC that makes a high pitched whistling tone when it's powered up.
No other output at all - no post beeps, no display no nothing. It is a tone,
i.e. it's coming from the PC speaker, rather than being a whining fan or
drive.

I've stripped the machine down to just the mobo & processor and still get
the noise. I have tried changing the PSU & the BIOS battery - no joy. The
mobo is an Iwill XA100 Plus.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Mav

A single beep or high pitched tone is generally a "Fatal error" code.
(Of course you know that by virtue of the failure to boot.) A fatal
error could be a bad processor, bad RAM, lack of power for some critical
area, or just a circuit failure. Start with trying to establish if the
RAM and processor are good on another MB if you can, and I would try to
work with the MB removed from the case until I got it going.

 

[Mav]

Hi Ken,

Thanks very much.

Yes, I have narrowed it down to the processor or motherboard. Everything
else seems okay. It is an old 400Mhz K6 processor, so in terms of cost &
time, I am inclined to replace the mobo & processor in one hit, rather than
mess about trying to remove, test & replace the processor. I'm not the most
experienced person in the world, and figured, if I was lucky enough to get
the processor off without damaging it, I still had to get a new one back
on!!!!

I have heard so many stories of people slipping and wrecking new mobos &
processors while trying to attach the heat sink!!!

I have been looking on ebay & 400MHz systems are going for £20-£30 so
thought it was probably easier to just go that route & stick the old drives
in another machine. What do you think?

 

[Ken]

Hi Ken,

Thanks very much.

Yes, I have narrowed it down to the processor or motherboard. Everything
else seems okay. It is an old 400Mhz K6 processor, so in terms of cost &
time, I am inclined to replace the mobo & processor in one hit, rather than
mess about trying to remove, test & replace the processor. I'm not the most
experienced person in the world, and figured, if I was lucky enough to get
the processor off without damaging it, I still had to get a new one back
on!!!!

I have heard so many stories of people slipping and wrecking new mobos &
processors while trying to attach the heat sink!!!

I have been looking on ebay & 400MHz systems are going for £20-£30 so
thought it was probably easier to just go that route & stick the old drives
in another machine. What do you think?

I would not put too much money into a system such as you describe. By
the way, I have a K6-500 that I use as a spare computer, and it works
quite well for everyday operations and Internet use. If you can cheaply
determine where your problem is through substitution, then do so. If it
will cost you, go for an upgrade.

Of course the operating system you have will to a large part determine
how successful you are in attaching your hard drives to another MB. Win
98 accepts other MBs somewhat easily, but Win XP is much more
complicated in getting it to accept the changed hardware.

As for damaging the MB in removing the heat sink, it is simply a matter
of being careful. Sometimes placing a piece of cardboard or a cloth
around an area you are working to protect the land areas is a good idea
if you slip during such an operation. Needless to say, it is important
to be careful whenever working on the MB.

 

[Mav]

Ken,

Thanks very much for your advice.

Regards
Mav