'Wrong' CPU speed?

[Terry Pinnell]

First, apologies for the cross-posting, but I have no idea at all what
the cause of this might be, so would appreciate as much feedback as
possible please.

When I try to do a cold reboot on my 4 year-old 'Mesh Athlon 1800 PC',
it powers up for only a second or two then closes down. Pressing the
power-on button then has no effect at all! Eventually, after various
arbitrary (desperate) operations like pulling the plug at PC and/or
mains socket, repeatedly pressing Power-On, taking the side off and
peering inside, praying, etc, it *does* restart, but goes straight to
BIOS instead of WinXP Home. There I read a message to the effect that
it is starting in 'Safe Mode' (?) because it detected the wrong CPU
speed. Yet the setting is the usual one, 1533 MHz. There are only two
other options, 1300 MHz (I think), and 'Manual'. After pressing F10 to
'Save and restart' the BIOS, XP loads and all then seems well.

I rarely power off my PC anyway, but now I'm reluctant to do so at
all!

In case it's relevant, I should also mention that the only other time
I ever saw this message was a month ago when my CPU fan failed, and I
got the same symptoms on restarting. But, after repairing the fan, I
installed Motherboard Monitor, and now I can see my fan is running OK.

I'm not sure what other info might be useful, but FWIW here is an
extract from my system spec:
CPU = AMD Athlon XP1800+ with 512MB PC2100 DDR memory, m/b = ASUS
A7A266-E, BIOS = Award Software with ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS v 1009,
System Chipset = M1647 ALiMAGiK 1 AGP System Controller, Buses =
AGP/PCI/USB, L2 On-board Cache = 256kB ECC synchronous write-back.

Any advice greatly appreciated please.

 

[Greysky]

Have you checked the battery on your motherboad? After 4 years, it could be
too low to maintain your BIOS settings.

 

[Sleepy]

First, apologies for the cross-posting, but I have no idea at all what
the cause of this might be, so would appreciate as much feedback as
possible please.

When I try to do a cold reboot on my 4 year-old 'Mesh Athlon 1800 PC',
it powers up for only a second or two then closes down. Pressing the
power-on button then has no effect at all! Eventually, after various
arbitrary (desperate) operations like pulling the plug at PC and/or
mains socket, repeatedly pressing Power-On, taking the side off and
peering inside, praying, etc, it *does* restart, but goes straight to
BIOS instead of WinXP Home. There I read a message to the effect that
it is starting in 'Safe Mode' (?) because it detected the wrong CPU
speed. Yet the setting is the usual one, 1533 MHz. There are only two
other options, 1300 MHz (I think), and 'Manual'. After pressing F10 to
'Save and restart' the BIOS, XP loads and all then seems well.

I rarely power off my PC anyway, but now I'm reluctant to do so at
all!

In case it's relevant, I should also mention that the only other time
I ever saw this message was a month ago when my CPU fan failed, and I
got the same symptoms on restarting. But, after repairing the fan, I
installed Motherboard Monitor, and now I can see my fan is running OK.

I'm not sure what other info might be useful, but FWIW here is an
extract from my system spec:
CPU = AMD Athlon XP1800+ with 512MB PC2100 DDR memory, m/b = ASUS
A7A266-E, BIOS = Award Software with ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS v 1009,
System Chipset = M1647 ALiMAGiK 1 AGP System Controller, Buses =
AGP/PCI/USB, L2 On-board Cache = 256kB ECC synchronous write-back.

Any advice greatly appreciated please.

This model is a shite motherboard quite honestly - I've had one and my Dad
had one and both would throw up the "Wrong CPU Speed" error from time to
time regardless of the battery but yes, you should replace it. I never
overclocked it btw and mine was the standard A7A266 not the -E version.
Another thing to watch for is it always tends to report temperatures that
are rather high no matter what you do. I put a hefty copper heatsink in my
Dads PC rated up to 3.4ghz and still it runs 55c idle.

 

[PC]

First, apologies for the cross-posting, but I have no idea at all what
the cause of this might be, so would appreciate as much feedback as
possible please.

When I try to do a cold reboot on my 4 year-old 'Mesh Athlon 1800 PC',
it powers up for only a second or two then closes down. Pressing the
power-on button then has no effect at all! Eventually, after various
arbitrary (desperate) operations like pulling the plug at PC and/or
mains socket, repeatedly pressing Power-On, taking the side off and
peering inside, praying, etc, it *does* restart, but goes straight to
BIOS instead of WinXP Home. There I read a message to the effect that
it is starting in 'Safe Mode' (?) because it detected the wrong CPU
speed. Yet the setting is the usual one, 1533 MHz. There are only two
other options, 1300 MHz (I think), and 'Manual'. After pressing F10 to
'Save and restart' the BIOS, XP loads and all then seems well.

I rarely power off my PC anyway, but now I'm reluctant to do so at
all!

In case it's relevant, I should also mention that the only other time
I ever saw this message was a month ago when my CPU fan failed, and I
got the same symptoms on restarting. But, after repairing the fan, I
installed Motherboard Monitor, and now I can see my fan is running OK.

I'm not sure what other info might be useful, but FWIW here is an
extract from my system spec:
CPU = AMD Athlon XP1800+ with 512MB PC2100 DDR memory, m/b = ASUS
A7A266-E, BIOS = Award Software with ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS v 1009,
System Chipset = M1647 ALiMAGiK 1 AGP System Controller, Buses =
AGP/PCI/USB, L2 On-board Cache = 256kB ECC synchronous write-back.

Any advice greatly appreciated please.

Terry
1 Check your CMOS battery, may be flat.
2 I have seen weird symptoms before on PC's that run 24/7 when they have
been eventually shut down.

One see's recommendations for leaving PC's permanently on, however
experience has taught me a PC that has been running 24/7 for 3/4 years or
more will most likely fail the next time it is turned off for more than a
brief period.

Personal examples that come to mind are 3 Point of Sale PC's that 'died' 3
days after being pulled out, and two Gas station PC's that died within ten
days of being turned off for the first time in 3 years.

Another example I can think of is the Flourescent light life that caught
several American skyscraper owners out.
Some bright spark worked out that a Flourescent lamp gave (about 20% if
memory serves) longer life if you left them running 24/7.
Great so they wired all the lights to one switch so they reduced the number
of times they were turned on and off (on the basis that as long as one
employee was at work ....)
Trouble was they got their 20% extra life alright but it was 20% of
'quarter' of the lights life because one quarter of their life was used
lighting up empty unused workspace at night and another half was used during
the day when sunlight did the same job anyway. (they got 30% of the normal
'evening use only' life for lamps )

I would seriously suggest you get into the habit of turning the PC
completely off each night unless you have a specific requirement for running
it for such long periods.
You may experience a period of flakeyness as the PC settles back into the
new work cycle, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Cheers
Paul.

 

[kony]

First, apologies for the cross-posting, but I have no idea at all what
the cause of this might be, so would appreciate as much feedback as
possible please.

When I try to do a cold reboot on my 4 year-old 'Mesh Athlon 1800 PC',
it powers up for only a second or two then closes down.

Ok, then looking at the list of cross-posted groups, we can
immediately knock some off.

alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus,alt.comp.hardware,

Above two groups are on-topic

We know it is not the operating system already, it has not
even begun to load yet. The only relevant groups will be
hardware specific.

Pressing the
power-on button then has no effect at all! Eventually, after various
arbitrary (desperate) operations like pulling the plug at PC and/or
mains socket, repeatedly pressing Power-On, taking the side off and
peering inside, praying, etc, it *does* restart, but goes straight to
BIOS instead of WinXP Home.

First, try to be less desperate next time. The goal being
to isolate which of the above actually makes a difference.
I suspect the difference is unplugging the AC power for at
least (roughly) a dozen seconds or longer. Next time, do
nothing except unplugging AC for (give it some margin, 60
seconds) then plug it back in and press power button firmly,
once. Note the feel of the power button when you press it,
whether it feels like it springs back out. If the system is
filthy (not trying to be offensive but I've seen a few loo
loos) you may need to clean it, around the power switch
button it may be getting stuck.

If pulling ac power along does not solve it, unplug ac, open
the case and locate the power switch pins on the
motherboard. The motherboard manual should show these, or
if not some research (or maybe a strong flashlight) should
find these pins, or you can trace them back from the
physical switch itself. You'll be wanting to unplug these
two switch pins (will be either a single plug holding just
those two, or possibly a larger plug holding several
wires/functions. Next plug the AC back in and try to turn
on the system by shorting the two power-on switch pins on
the board with a metallic object, like a paperclip or
screwdriver tip.

The goal of above is to see if the intermittent contact of
the pins turns on system (which we know it should) but
further whether after the momentary contact, if the system
keeps running or turns off again. If it keeps running it
would tend to implicate the front switch itself or the
button and/or spring-plastic-whatever button mechanism is
keeping the switch on after you'd let your finger off of it.

There I read a message to the effect that
it is starting in 'Safe Mode' (?) because it detected the wrong CPU
speed.

That is probably just a side-effect of it turning off a few
times in a row, the bios then has been programming to use
default values to get the system running at lower speed so
user can enter bios and make changes IF necessary. If it
continues to do this without resolution, try clearing the
CMOS (pull battery for 10 minutes while ac power is
disconnected, or use the clear CMOS jumper) then for the
time being, do not change any bios settings even if it's
running at the wrong (too slow) speed, leave it alone till
you've established whether it'll keep running for longer
than a few seconds.

If you have a multimeter, check your battery voltage. If
none of the above has helped you might consider buying a new
battery - typically it's a coin cell, CR2032 available at
most drugstores that carry coin cells.

Yet the setting is the usual one, 1533 MHz. There are only two
other options, 1300 MHz (I think), and 'Manual'. After pressing F10 to
'Save and restart' the BIOS, XP loads and all then seems well.

While some sytems may start at low chipset default values
after failed attemps to POST, they don't necessarily erase
all the previously configured settings, they only ignore
them temporarily. This is what seems to be happening in
your case. The curious part is that this is happening in
conjunction with the complete shutoff, i mean that it then
works fine to run XP... but it doesn't then include XP as
the potential problem.

I rarely power off my PC anyway, but now I'm reluctant to do so at
all!

Presuming you had made NO system hardware changes at all
just preceeding the onset of the problem, not even moving
the system at all, I would suspect a gradual power supply
failure, that it will slowly get worse. Might be the
motherboard instead or a loose card or cable but these
latter two seem least likely, you should inspect the system
just to make sure nothing looks out of place and that there
are no failing capacitors (vented, domed/swollen tops or
leaky residue around the tops or bottoms).

If you have a multimeter you might measure voltages during
the initial turn-on-failure sequence. I suspect the power
supply most, and if you had a spare lying about, it would be
good to try it.

In case it's relevant, I should also mention that the only other time
I ever saw this message was a month ago when my CPU fan failed, and I
got the same symptoms on restarting. But, after repairing the fan, I
installed Motherboard Monitor, and now I can see my fan is running OK.

I'm not sure what other info might be useful, but FWIW here is an
extract from my system spec:
CPU = AMD Athlon XP1800+ with 512MB PC2100 DDR memory, m/b = ASUS
A7A266-E, BIOS = Award Software with ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS v 1009,
System Chipset = M1647 ALiMAGiK 1 AGP System Controller, Buses =
AGP/PCI/USB, L2 On-board Cache = 256kB ECC synchronous write-back.

Now it is clear, you have no power supply.
Do you have a 9V battery handy? Just kidding.
What make and model and ratings for the PSU?

 

[Michael C]

One see's recommendations for leaving PC's permanently on, however
experience has taught me a PC that has been running 24/7 for 3/4 years or
more will most likely fail the next time it is turned off for more than a
brief period.

Personal examples that come to mind are 3 Point of Sale PC's that 'died' 3
days after being pulled out, and two Gas station PC's that died within ten
days of being turned off for the first time in 3 years.

I would imagine it would more be the case that the PC had developed a fault
and restarting it found the fault, rather than caused it.

You may experience a period of flakeyness as the PC settles back into the
new work cycle, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Sounds unlikely to me.

Michael

 

[Michael C]

In case it's relevant, I should also mention that the only other time
I ever saw this message was a month ago when my CPU fan failed, and I
got the same symptoms on restarting. But, after repairing the fan, I
installed Motherboard Monitor, and now I can see my fan is running OK.

It's quite possible that damaged the AMD fireball CPU.

Michael

 

[Kadaitcha Man]

"PC" <[email protected]>, the farting wastrel and deranged ass-boy who
likes feral blow jobs with anteaters, and whose partner is a
Sidewalk-Suzie with a ghoulish silk funnel, wrote in

I would seriously suggest you get into the habit of turning the PC
completely off each night unless you have a specific requirement for
running it for such long periods.
You may experience a period of flakeyness as the PC settles back into
the new work cycle, but it will be worth it in the long run.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You utterly ****headed nincompoop. "Your
PC is not used to being turned off. Turn it off. It will be flaky until it
settles back into the new work cycle."

LMFARO - of all the bullshit ever posted in 24hourfuckwit.idiotshop, that's
got to be on a par with gregh telling some poor **** to bounce spams to
127.0.0.1 because doing so will cause the spam to stuff itself right back on
the spammer's hard disk.

<shakes head>
**** me dead <snort>

 

[Plato]

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootlist/246.htm#3

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Ok, then looking at the list of cross-posted groups, we can
immediately knock some off.

alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus,alt.comp.hardware,

Above two groups are on-topic

We know it is not the operating system already, it has not
even begun to load yet. The only relevant groups will be
hardware specific.


First, try to be less desperate next time. The goal being
to isolate which of the above actually makes a difference.
I suspect the difference is unplugging the AC power for at
least (roughly) a dozen seconds or longer. Next time, do
nothing except unplugging AC for (give it some margin, 60
seconds) then plug it back in and press power button firmly,
once. Note the feel of the power button when you press it,
whether it feels like it springs back out. If the system is
filthy (not trying to be offensive but I've seen a few loo
loos) you may need to clean it, around the power switch
button it may be getting stuck.

If pulling ac power along does not solve it, unplug ac, open
the case and locate the power switch pins on the
motherboard. The motherboard manual should show these, or
if not some research (or maybe a strong flashlight) should
find these pins, or you can trace them back from the
physical switch itself. You'll be wanting to unplug these
two switch pins (will be either a single plug holding just
those two, or possibly a larger plug holding several
wires/functions. Next plug the AC back in and try to turn
on the system by shorting the two power-on switch pins on
the board with a metallic object, like a paperclip or
screwdriver tip.

The goal of above is to see if the intermittent contact of
the pins turns on system (which we know it should) but
further whether after the momentary contact, if the system
keeps running or turns off again. If it keeps running it
would tend to implicate the front switch itself or the
button and/or spring-plastic-whatever button mechanism is
keeping the switch on after you'd let your finger off of it.


That is probably just a side-effect of it turning off a few
times in a row, the bios then has been programming to use
default values to get the system running at lower speed so
user can enter bios and make changes IF necessary. If it
continues to do this without resolution, try clearing the
CMOS (pull battery for 10 minutes while ac power is
disconnected, or use the clear CMOS jumper) then for the
time being, do not change any bios settings even if it's
running at the wrong (too slow) speed, leave it alone till
you've established whether it'll keep running for longer
than a few seconds.

If you have a multimeter, check your battery voltage. If
none of the above has helped you might consider buying a new
battery - typically it's a coin cell, CR2032 available at
most drugstores that carry coin cells.


While some sytems may start at low chipset default values
after failed attemps to POST, they don't necessarily erase
all the previously configured settings, they only ignore
them temporarily. This is what seems to be happening in
your case. The curious part is that this is happening in
conjunction with the complete shutoff, i mean that it then
works fine to run XP... but it doesn't then include XP as
the potential problem.



Presuming you had made NO system hardware changes at all
just preceeding the onset of the problem, not even moving
the system at all, I would suspect a gradual power supply
failure, that it will slowly get worse. Might be the
motherboard instead or a loose card or cable but these
latter two seem least likely, you should inspect the system
just to make sure nothing looks out of place and that there
are no failing capacitors (vented, domed/swollen tops or
leaky residue around the tops or bottoms).

If you have a multimeter you might measure voltages during
the initial turn-on-failure sequence. I suspect the power
supply most, and if you had a spare lying about, it would be
good to try it.




Now it is clear, you have no power supply.
Do you have a 9V battery handy? Just kidding.
What make and model and ratings for the PSU?

Many thanks for all the helpful replies. Particularly to you for the
above structured list of suggestions, which I'll follow up.

PSU is a 300W, 'HPC-300-202'.

Never thought about the battery as a possible culprit. Just located
it, a CR2032 as you expected. I assume its -ve terminal is connected
to the case? Testing it in situ (with PC running) my DMM shows it as
apparently healthy at 3.17 V. Presumably it would be the same with
power off? Does that eliminate the battery as a cause?

 

[kony]

Many thanks for all the helpful replies. Particularly to you for the
above structured list of suggestions, which I'll follow up.

PSU is a 300W, 'HPC-300-202'.

I'd suspect it, not a very beefy unit for the described
load. Ideally you'd want one with at least 200W combined
3V+5V rating. You might check the voltages with a
multimeter but at this point it may well be failing rather
than just an insufficient capacity.

I didn't use the ALI chipsets in that era so I had no
exposure to any bugs... sometimes bios will cause this but
it tends to be a new config not a static system.

Never thought about the battery as a possible culprit. Just located
it, a CR2032 as you expected. I assume its -ve terminal is connected
to the case? Testing it in situ (with PC running) my DMM shows it as
apparently healthy at 3.17 V. Presumably it would be the same with
power off? Does that eliminate the battery as a cause?

Pulling the battery was also meant to clear the CMOS, but
3.17V is fine. The voltage at the battery contacts should be
right, the system does not try to recharge the battery. It
is actually going to be a marginally more accurate reading
since the battery is still under the very slight load, but
not enough that it wouldn't be sufficient to measure it
outside of the board too.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

I'd suspect it, not a very beefy unit for the described
load. Ideally you'd want one with at least 200W combined
3V+5V rating. You might check the voltages with a
multimeter but at this point it may well be failing rather
than just an insufficient capacity.

I didn't use the ALI chipsets in that era so I had no
exposure to any bugs... sometimes bios will cause this but
it tends to be a new config not a static system.




Pulling the battery was also meant to clear the CMOS, but
3.17V is fine. The voltage at the battery contacts should be
right, the system does not try to recharge the battery. It
is actually going to be a marginally more accurate reading
since the battery is still under the very slight load, but
not enough that it wouldn't be sufficient to measure it
outside of the board too.

Thanks for the follow-up.

I'll add 'Get new power supply' to my To Do list!

Or accelerate purchase of my next PC - if I can bring myself to face
the anguish of reinstalling/reconfiguring/re-tweaking/etc.

 

[kony]

Thanks for the follow-up.

I'll add 'Get new power supply' to my To Do list!

Or accelerate purchase of my next PC - if I can bring myself to face
the anguish of reinstalling/reconfiguring/re-tweaking/etc.

If you were going to build your own next system, just buy a
power supply you feel will be sufficient for that as well- a
larger supply that you can use now then reuse later too if
you wanted to.