Rus said:
Rod Speed <
[email protected]> wrote
Geesh. I'm just trying to help and you're slammin' me!
No I'm not. Just pointing out some potential problem
areas which wont produce the symptoms he is seeing.
Your post says it might be the MB or the PS. Well,
in a "barebones" system, there's not much besides
a case, memory, motherboard and a power supply.
Its not a barebones system NOW, he's added what else
is needed to produce a usable system and the problem
he is seeing could just as easily be in what he has added.
If we replace the motherboard and/or the power supply,
I wasnt suggesting both be changed, I clearly said that its
cheaper to try a different power supply and its may well be
possible to try a different power supply without buying one.
isn't that tantamount to "tossing" a system?
Nope, most obviously if he tries a power supply out of the system
he is posting from etc to see if that makes any difference.
I mean, the MB and PS covers two of the most expensive components.
No it doesnt with the total of components he has in that system NOW.
And I told him how to check the motherboard visually for the most
common way motherboards fail. If it has got bad caps, it may well
be that the original barebones system wasnt of much value, but now
that he has added 1G of memory and a 300G hard drive and a video
card, if he's bought those, it may be worth getting another motherboard
now and write it off to experience, that it would have been better to
test the barebones system before spending on the extra hardware.
Unless that barebones system has a really good looking
"tricked out" case, I think I'd "toss" the system for sure
after cannibalizing the memory and CPU for another project.
Really depends on whether that extra hardware was purchased
for that new system based on the discarded barebones.
It looks like, in other words, you are saying that if I get a car for
free from someone and it has a good radio, then I shouldn't "toss"
the car just because the engine and transmission are bad.
I said NOTHING like that. I JUST pointed out that it wont be
lack of 48bit LBA support in the bios, because that produces
quite different symptoms to the ones he is seeing.
According to your logic, I'm "tossing" a perfectly good
car because I lack the knowledge and/or diagnostic
capability to fix the less than obvious problems which
require replacement of the engine and transmission.
PCs are much less obvious for many users than cars.
You cant even manage to work out that the lack of 48 bit LBA
support in the bios wont produce the symptoms he is seeing.
Nope. I'll save the radio and scrap the car unless the
car is some rare classic that deserves to be restored.
And if the problem with the barebone system is JUST the
power supply, a new one will cost a small part of what he
has already spent on 1G of ram, 300G hard drive and a
video card if he has purchased those to add to the barebone.
In his case, if the MB and/or the PS are bad, I'd take the CPU
and memory and scrap the "barebones" unless that "barebones"
is some rare antique that's worth a complete restoration.
That would be silly if he has has already spent on 1G of ram,
300G hard drive and a video card if he has purchased those
to add to the barebone and it just needs a new power supply.
It may well make sense to replace the motherboard if it
has got bad caps and he has already bought the 1G of
ram, 300G hard drive and a video card for the barebone.
Don't you mean 48-bit LBA instead of 40-bit?
Yep, just a typo.
And ... by the way ... What's a "ute."
You worked that out for yourself.
Are you Joe Pesci?
Nope.
Or are you referring to a utility?
Yep, it aint anything like rocket science.
What's a utility got to do with a crash while in XP?
The need for 48bit LBA support in the bios is because
some drive utes use the data from the bios with drives.
Are you referring to drive overlay software or something of the sort?
Nope.
I know that doesnt produce the symptoms he is seeing.
And that KBA says it doesnt. It sees the drive used in PIO mode.
Wouldn't take but a couple of registry entries to try.
Pointless, he isnt seeing the drive in PIO mode.
Or, perhaps, we should not waste time trying a few hacks and
just go ahead and plunk down the cash for a new MB and PS?
No point in trying stuff that doesnt produce the symptoms he is seeing.
And suppose it is capacitors on the board that are at fault?
It's not easy to find properly spec'd caps to replace them.
And even harder to replace them. The only viable
approach is to replace the motherboard or scrap it.
Total the time it takes to find replacement caps, repair the
copper traces that might have lifted from the board and it
gets to be a time consuming job without adequate return
on investment. If it takes more than an hour to do the
whole job, I'd have to say it's not worth it since a
new MB can be had for around $35.
Duh. I never ever suggested replacing the caps.
