PC Won't Stop Shutting Down

[Searcher7]

My latest PC when down and I dug through my PC graveyard to try and
get together another PC that had also gone down years before and put
away after I couldn't figure out the problem.

This system keeps shutting off when I attempt to boot. The system
doesn't detect the three SCSI hard drives on start-up, but I can't get
far enough to try and solve that problem.

The PC will not power on after it cuts off until I actually unplug the
AC cord from the back for about 20 seconds. But then I still have the
shut down problem when I try again to boot up.

I have been able to get to the set-up screen and each time I'm
prompted to enter a speed for the processor.

I know the problem is not the power supply because I still have the
problem when attempting to boot with two of the three SCSI hard drives
disconnected, with an IDE drive, and even just the CD-Rom drive
connected. I've also tried with two different working power supplies.

The motherboard is an ASUS CUV4X with a 1Ghz processor, and since I
keep getting the prompt to set the processor's speed in set-up that
may be the problem.

I'll try to find another processor, but in the meantime I'd appreciate
thoughts on my problem and possible solution, since I may just have to
get a whole new motherboard.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

 

[Paul]

My latest PC when down and I dug through my PC graveyard to try and
get together another PC that had also gone down years before and put
away after I couldn't figure out the problem.

This system keeps shutting off when I attempt to boot. The system
doesn't detect the three SCSI hard drives on start-up, but I can't get
far enough to try and solve that problem.

The PC will not power on after it cuts off until I actually unplug the
AC cord from the back for about 20 seconds. But then I still have the
shut down problem when I try again to boot up.

I have been able to get to the set-up screen and each time I'm
prompted to enter a speed for the processor.

I know the problem is not the power supply because I still have the
problem when attempting to boot with two of the three SCSI hard drives
disconnected, with an IDE drive, and even just the CD-Rom drive
connected. I've also tried with two different working power supplies.

The motherboard is an ASUS CUV4X with a 1Ghz processor, and since I
keep getting the prompt to set the processor's speed in set-up that
may be the problem.

I'll try to find another processor, but in the meantime I'd appreciate
thoughts on my problem and possible solution, since I may just have to
get a whole new motherboard.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

How long does it go before shutdown ?

Does there seem to be a particular thing that triggers shutdown ?
For example, if you just let it sit in the BIOS, can it
sit there forever without crashing or shutting down ?

Is it only an attempted access to the storage device used
to boot, that causes a problem ?

On systems that old, you could have a flat CMOS battery, or
you could even have "bit rot" in the BIOS EEPROM chip. They
store data for ten years, ideally. But they can fail earlier,
and also are sensitive to the number of times they've been
written. Parts of the BIOS chip, hold DMI/ESCD, and the
system hardware inventory is written into the BIOS chip
during POST (if something changed). So there is more
going on with the BIOS chip, than you might suspect.

Paul

 

[~misfit~]

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Paul wrote:
[snip]

On systems that old, you could have a flat CMOS battery, or
you could even have "bit rot" in the BIOS EEPROM chip. They
store data for ten years, ideally. But they can fail earlier,
and also are sensitive to the number of times they've been
written.

Well you learn something new every day! I didn't know that, when I got my
P5KE-WiFi/AP new there was a BIOS release (every two months or less for a
year) and, as each BIOS release was giving different readings for temps and
allowing vdroop (and it took ages to get it right) I kept upgrading.

I built that system with the intention of it lasting me a lot longer than
previous systems (all solid caps on the motherboard etc.) as I feel that,
with the Core2Duo range of CPUs (and to a certain extent the 'green'
movement), having to upgrade systems due to lack of power is pretty much a
thing of the past. I can do all I want with a fast C2D and XP and I'm pretty
sure my computing needs aren't going to change radically in the next decade
or two... (At least I hope not, I just forked out what is for me a truckload
of money for an 18 month old very highly specced ThinkPad T60 [4:3
non-glossy 15" 1400 x 1050 IPS screen! Wohoo!!) on the assumption that it'll
still be doing what I want at a reasonable speed for close to the
aforementioned decade.)

I'll not flash the BIOS (or embedded controller chip) of the TP as often as
ThinkVantage System Update suggests then, I'll only do it if I need to...

Regards,

 

[Searcher7]

Searcher7wrote:








How long does it go before shutdown ?

Does there seem to be a particular thing that triggers shutdown ?
For example, if you just let it sit in the BIOS, can it
sit there forever without crashing or shutting down ?

Is it only an attempted access to the storage device used
to boot, that causes a problem ?

On systems that old, you could have a flat CMOS battery, or
you could even have "bit rot" in the BIOS EEPROM chip. They
store data for ten years, ideally. But they can fail earlier,
and also are sensitive to the number of times they've been
written. Parts of the BIOS chip, hold DMI/ESCD, and the
system hardware inventory is written into the BIOS chip
during POST (if something changed). So there is more
going on with the BIOS chip, than you might suspect.

    Paul

The time it takes to shutdown is random, and whether I go into set-up
or not it'll shut down anywhere between 10 seconds and a minute or
two.

If I make it to set-up it'll make no difference. It'll still power off
by itself, no matter what drive or boot order I set.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

 

[Paul]

The time it takes to shutdown is random, and whether I go into set-up
or not it'll shut down anywhere between 10 seconds and a minute or
two.

If I make it to set-up it'll make no difference. It'll still power off
by itself, no matter what drive or boot order I set.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Are the capacitors in good shape on the motherboard ? Are
any of them leaking ? Or are the tops bulged ? A bad cap
can upset Vcore, and that powers the processor.

http://web.archive.org/web/20051123021843/www.badcaps.net/images/caps/kt7/image004.png

Is the CPU cooling fan still working ?

Paul

 

[Paul]

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Paul wrote:
[snip]

On systems that old, you could have a flat CMOS battery, or
you could even have "bit rot" in the BIOS EEPROM chip. They
store data for ten years, ideally. But they can fail earlier,
and also are sensitive to the number of times they've been
written.

Well you learn something new every day! I didn't know that, when I got my
P5KE-WiFi/AP new there was a BIOS release (every two months or less for a
year) and, as each BIOS release was giving different readings for temps and
allowing vdroop (and it took ages to get it right) I kept upgrading.

I built that system with the intention of it lasting me a lot longer than
previous systems (all solid caps on the motherboard etc.) as I feel that,
with the Core2Duo range of CPUs (and to a certain extent the 'green'
movement), having to upgrade systems due to lack of power is pretty much a
thing of the past. I can do all I want with a fast C2D and XP and I'm pretty
sure my computing needs aren't going to change radically in the next decade
or two... (At least I hope not, I just forked out what is for me a truckload
of money for an 18 month old very highly specced ThinkPad T60 [4:3
non-glossy 15" 1400 x 1050 IPS screen! Wohoo!!) on the assumption that it'll
still be doing what I want at a reasonable speed for close to the
aforementioned decade.)

I'll not flash the BIOS (or embedded controller chip) of the TP as often as
ThinkVantage System Update suggests then, I'll only do it if I need to...

Regards,

There have been occasional reports in the past, of a few bits going
bad in the EEPROMs of 440BX era motherboards. It may take a while
to show up.

The specs here, suggest the things last forever.

49LF002 - 100000 writes, 100 year endurance.
http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheets/480/236134_DS.pdf

but I seem to remember some other ones that were only
rated for 10 years or so. There are also things
physically, that can accelerate the degradation.

I had some parts in the lab, that internally used EEPROM
technology to store ("burn") info into them. And if the
voltage on certain of the pins, was raised slightly
above the rail, they'd be zapped and erased. Eventually,
the local rep said the factory had noticed the problem,
and the parts in question were early samples. (We didn't
pay for them. And the problem was pretty easy to find
and figure out. Stuff them in the programmer, read
them out, and find the original data was gone.)

Paul

 

[Searcher7]

Are the capacitors in good shape on the motherboard ? Are
any of them leaking ? Or are the tops bulged ? A bad cap
can upset Vcore, and that powers the processor.

http://web.archive.org/web/20051123021843/www.badcaps.net/images/caps...

Is the CPU cooling fan still working ?

    Paul

The CPU fan works and I see nothing unusual as far as the capacitors.

It's probably best to toss the mobo/CPU anyway and build another
system with the drives and power supply.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.