PSU kills bios? - Update!

[Michael]

A week ago i wrote about a problem, and I have now tried some of the
suggestions from people in this group. Here's an update:

First my computer stopped working. It would not boot - no video, no beeps
from the speaker. The cpu-fan, the video card fan and the harddrives
started. The first thing I tried was to change video cards (Asus V9280/TD
Ti4200 8X, with an old Nvidea Riva TNT) - no change. Then I took out all
other cards and unplugged the cd-roms and the harddrives. No change.

I then figured that the motherboard was dead (Asus A7V-E KT 133) and bought
a new one (ECS K7S5A Pro). Now the computer started and everything worked
until winXP was supposed to start. A blue screen appeared with some
un-informative error message and the computer restarted (could be because of
different chipset?). After about an hour, where I tried different things
(removed harddrives, resetting the bios with jumper, removing and inserting
bios-battery) the computer suddenly would not boot again. It reacted exactly
as with the asus motherboard. I then thought that something was killing the
bios (maybe the power supply).

I sent the ECS motherboard back to the shop, who tested it (they wrote that
it tested ok with AMD XP2200, 256Mb DDR ram and GF3 TI200 and that they have
reset the bios). I just got it back and it still doesn't work. I have
borrowed a brand new power supply, ATX 300W (brand: Power star). My old
power supply is a ATX 300W Q Technology Silent Systems and have worked fine
for almost 2 years. The only thing connected to the motherboard now is the
power supply, 256 MB sdram, video card (tried both), AMD Thunderbird
1000MHz, CPU cooler, a floppy drive, mouse and keyboard and the
system-speaker.

Right now the only thing I can think of trying, is to get a new block of
sdram or ddr ram (the ESC board can use both) and a new cpu I can try.

If it is the cpu or the ram that is dead, how can it be explained that the
computer worked with the new motherboard for about an hour? Can I have
killed the cpu by taking it out and putting it in several times and maybe
used it without fan connected for a short while?

Hope someone can help me with some ideas to get my computer up and running
again.

 

[~misfit~]

A week ago i wrote about a problem, and I have now tried some of the
suggestions from people in this group. Here's an update:

First my computer stopped working. It would not boot - no video, no beeps
from the speaker. The cpu-fan, the video card fan and the harddrives
started. The first thing I tried was to change video cards (Asus V9280/TD
Ti4200 8X, with an old Nvidea Riva TNT) - no change. Then I took out all
other cards and unplugged the cd-roms and the harddrives. No change.

I then figured that the motherboard was dead (Asus A7V-E KT 133) and bought
a new one (ECS K7S5A Pro). Now the computer started and everything worked
until winXP was supposed to start. A blue screen appeared with some
un-informative error message and the computer restarted (could be because of
different chipset?). After about an hour, where I tried different things
(removed harddrives, resetting the bios with jumper, removing and inserting
bios-battery) the computer suddenly would not boot again. It reacted exactly
as with the asus motherboard. I then thought that something was killing the
bios (maybe the power supply).

I sent the ECS motherboard back to the shop, who tested it (they wrote that
it tested ok with AMD XP2200, 256Mb DDR ram and GF3 TI200 and that they have
reset the bios). I just got it back and it still doesn't work. I have
borrowed a brand new power supply, ATX 300W (brand: Power star). My old
power supply is a ATX 300W Q Technology Silent Systems and have worked fine
for almost 2 years. The only thing connected to the motherboard now is the
power supply, 256 MB sdram, video card (tried both), AMD Thunderbird
1000MHz, CPU cooler, a floppy drive, mouse and keyboard and the
system-speaker.

Right now the only thing I can think of trying, is to get a new block of
sdram or ddr ram (the ESC board can use both) and a new cpu I can try.

If it is the cpu or the ram that is dead, how can it be explained that the
computer worked with the new motherboard for about an hour? Can I have
killed the cpu by taking it out and putting it in several times and maybe
used it without fan connected for a short while?

What do you consider a 'short while'? Did you feel it to see how hot it got?
I presume you had a 'sink on it? Those t'birds get hot fast.

 

[philo]

A week ago i wrote about a problem, and I have now tried some of the
suggestions from people in this group. Here's an update:

First my computer stopped working. It would not boot - no video, no beeps
from the speaker. The cpu-fan, the video card fan and the harddrives
started. The first thing I tried was to change video cards (Asus V9280/TD
Ti4200 8X, with an old Nvidea Riva TNT) - no change. Then I took out all
other cards and unplugged the cd-roms and the harddrives. No change.

I then figured that the motherboard was dead (Asus A7V-E KT 133) and bought
a new one (ECS K7S5A Pro). Now the computer started and everything worked
until winXP was supposed to start. A blue screen appeared with some
un-informative error message and the computer restarted (could be because of
different chipset?). After about an hour, where I tried different things
(removed harddrives, resetting the bios with jumper, removing and inserting
bios-battery) the computer suddenly would not boot again. It reacted exactly
as with the asus motherboard. I then thought that something was killing the
bios (maybe the power supply).

I sent the ECS motherboard back to the shop, who tested it (they wrote that
it tested ok with AMD XP2200, 256Mb DDR ram and GF3 TI200 and that they have
reset the bios). I just got it back and it still doesn't work. I have
borrowed a brand new power supply, ATX 300W (brand: Power star). My old
power supply is a ATX 300W Q Technology Silent Systems and have worked fine
for almost 2 years. The only thing connected to the motherboard now is the
power supply, 256 MB sdram, video card (tried both), AMD Thunderbird
1000MHz, CPU cooler, a floppy drive, mouse and keyboard and the
system-speaker.

Right now the only thing I can think of trying, is to get a new block of
sdram or ddr ram (the ESC board can use both) and a new cpu I can try.

If it is the cpu or the ram that is dead, how can it be explained that the
computer worked with the new motherboard for about an hour? Can I have
killed the cpu by taking it out and putting it in several times and maybe
used it without fan connected for a short while?

unless you have a fairly low end cpu such as a p166 or something
you will probably blow your CPU instantly if you run it with no cpu
cooler...
but as long as you had a good heat sink on it...you can run your cpu without
a fan for a short while...
i recently had a fan fail on my amd-1000 and the heat sink got so hot i
could
barely touch it...the cpu is still good...
unfortunately the thermal sensor on the board apparantly failed!

one thing i have noted is that surges can cause the bios to loose it's
settings
usually a jumper reset does the trick

 

[kony]

A week ago i wrote about a problem, and I have now tried some of the
suggestions from people in this group. Here's an update:

First my computer stopped working. It would not boot - no video, no beeps
from the speaker. The cpu-fan, the video card fan and the harddrives
started. The first thing I tried was to change video cards (Asus V9280/TD
Ti4200 8X, with an old Nvidea Riva TNT) - no change. Then I took out all
other cards and unplugged the cd-roms and the harddrives. No change.

I then figured that the motherboard was dead (Asus A7V-E KT 133) and bought
a new one (ECS K7S5A Pro). Now the computer started and everything worked
until winXP was supposed to start. A blue screen appeared with some
un-informative error message and the computer restarted (could be because of
different chipset?).

Yes, the different chipset would easily require a repair install of
XP.

After about an hour, where I tried different things
(removed harddrives, resetting the bios with jumper, removing and inserting
bios-battery) the computer suddenly would not boot again. It reacted exactly
as with the asus motherboard. I then thought that something was killing the
bios (maybe the power supply).

I sent the ECS motherboard back to the shop, who tested it (they wrote that
it tested ok with AMD XP2200, 256Mb DDR ram and GF3 TI200 and that they have
reset the bios). I just got it back and it still doesn't work. I have
borrowed a brand new power supply, ATX 300W (brand: Power star).

That's another low-end generic power supply. To isolate this, you
MUST test with known-good parts...not just a power supply that works,
but one that is unquestionably adequate for the system. That ECS
board is also known to be overly picky about power supplies, for
example I recall many people had to replace Enermax 350W PSUs with
something else to get their system working. Maybe that borrowed power
supply IS good enough for the system, but it's adding another variable
unless it's the same exact power supply the shop was having success
with while testing the board.

My old
power supply is a ATX 300W Q Technology Silent Systems and have worked fine
for almost 2 years. The only thing connected to the motherboard now is the
power supply, 256 MB sdram, video card (tried both), AMD Thunderbird
1000MHz, CPU cooler, a floppy drive, mouse and keyboard and the
system-speaker.

Right now the only thing I can think of trying, is to get a new block of
sdram or ddr ram (the ESC board can use both) and a new cpu I can try.

If you can borrow the parts it might be a good test, but buying all
these parts to shotgun seems a lot of expense and risk. Do you know
anyone with the spare parts, ability to test these parts for you? I
would suspect taking it to a shop isn't a cost-effect option, since
their bench-fee alone might instead buy any two major parts.

If it is the cpu or the ram that is dead, how can it be explained that the
computer worked with the new motherboard for about an hour? Can I have
killed the cpu by taking it out and putting it in several times and maybe
used it without fan connected for a short while?

If one of the heatsink installations cracked the CPU core then of
course it could be dead, but the CPU and socket should be good for far
more insertion/removal cycles than you've done. Running without the
fan for several minutes might kill a CPU but presuming that this
(running without the fan) only occured AFTER you'd already ran into
problems, it seems unlikely.

Hope someone can help me with some ideas to get my computer up and running
again.

Rightabout now, I'd be thinking "upgrade time"... Buy fastest CPU the
board will handle, a 512MB DDR PC2700 or PC3200 DIMM, and a new
name-brand >= 350W power supply.


Dave

 

[larrymoencurly]

I have borrowed a brand new power supply, ATX 300W (brand: Power star).
My old power supply is a ATX 300W Q Technology Silent Systems and have
worked fine for almost 2 years.

The only mention I could find of PowerStar is:

www.com-tra.de/shop/de_DE/produkt/id_is_572_and_Modding.html

Its "CWT-NB" model number makes it look like a Deer. Usually, CWT
means Channel Well Technology, a very good brand (they make most
Antecs), but apparently Deer uses this designation as well. Deer is
infamous for many bad supplies, including Codegen, Allied, L&C, Logic,
Mustang, Eagle, Austin, PowerUp, and US-Can.

Q Technology is supposed to be very good, maybe based on a Fortron
design (www.silentpcreview.com has tested it), and if it died only
after a long time, maybe one of its capacitors wore out.

 

[Trent©]

A week ago i wrote about a problem, and I have now tried some of the
suggestions from people in this group. Here's an update:

First my computer stopped working. It would not boot - no video, no beeps
from the speaker. The cpu-fan, the video card fan and the harddrives
started. The first thing I tried was to change video cards (Asus V9280/TD
Ti4200 8X, with an old Nvidea Riva TNT) - no change. Then I took out all
other cards and unplugged the cd-roms and the harddrives. No change.

I then figured that the motherboard was dead (Asus A7V-E KT 133) and bought
a new one (ECS K7S5A Pro).

At this point, I'd say the problem was with that mainboard. It
finally gave up the ghost. As you say below, the problem was solved
with the new board. So lets not go backward again with trying to
solve your problem. The first problem was solved with the purchase of
the new board below.

Now the computer started and everything worked
until winXP was supposed to start. A blue screen appeared with some
un-informative error message and the computer restarted (could be because of
different chipset?).

Exactly. You'll need to do a repair install of xp to get it running
again.

But this IS an arbiter that some parts of your new system are working
properly. The machine has gone thru POST...and has accessed the hard
drive. So that part is good.

After about an hour, where I tried different things
(removed harddrives, resetting the bios with jumper, removing and inserting
bios-battery) the computer suddenly would not boot again.

But why did you DO all that? You HAD a working system already! lol

It reacted exactly
as with the asus motherboard. I then thought that something was killing the
bios (maybe the power supply).

Something you did screwed things up. If you accessed the hard drive,
you had a working system. That's all the mainboard, BIOS, etc. is
supposed to do...access the hard drive and load your operating system.

Somehow, you screwed things up. We need to discover what you did to
foul things up.

I sent the ECS motherboard back to the shop, who tested it (they wrote that
it tested ok with AMD XP2200, 256Mb DDR ram and GF3 TI200 and that they have
reset the bios).

So we know the board is good at this point. The problem is with the
new operator! lol

I just got it back and it still doesn't work. I have
borrowed a brand new power supply, ATX 300W (brand: Power star). My old
power supply is a ATX 300W Q Technology Silent Systems and have worked fine
for almost 2 years.

I'd rule out the power supply as the problem.

The only thing connected to the motherboard now is the
power supply, 256 MB sdram, video card (tried both), AMD Thunderbird
1000MHz, CPU cooler, a floppy drive, mouse and keyboard and the
system-speaker.

Put the mainboard on the desk...out of the case. Make sure you
connect the power/start lead to it.

Install only the necessary parts...cpu w/fan, 1 stick of RAM,
keyboard, video card. Boot up the machine into the BIOS...to the
error screen you should get...for not having a floppy drive installed.
If that works okay, reboot...then go into the CMOS screen and make
sure all the settings apply to the hardware configurations that you
want.

Pay particular attention to the RAM settings if you have the option to
change them. If you have any hard jumpers on the board, make sure
they're set correctly...especially for that RAM. And make sure you
have the BIOS reset jumper set properly.

Right now the only thing I can think of trying, is to get a new block of
sdram or ddr ram (the ESC board can use both) and a new cpu I can try.

My advice to all my customers...NEVER buy/install a single stick of
RAM. Always get 2. If one goes bad...or you think its gone bad...you
can always experiment with the other stick.

Bad RAM could definitely be your problem. Swap different sticks if
you can.

Remember...yer board tested out okay. So then...what are you putting
onto your board now that the mfg. would have done differently? Video,
RAM. And they would have tested in on the bench...not in a case.

If it is the cpu or the ram that is dead, how can it be explained that the
computer worked with the new motherboard for about an hour?

I don't remember all the details...but I think you changed a lot of
things. One of the changes you made caused the problem.

Again, remember...you SAID that it booted into the hard drive at one
point. The blue screen you got is normal...so everything was working
FINE. You simply ****ed it up! lol

Can I have
killed the cpu by taking it out and putting it in several times and maybe
used it without fan connected for a short while?

Possible...but highly unlikely.

One more thing...

The BIOS is NOT your problem. But it could certainly be the way that
the BIOS is configured that could be the problem. Make sure that yer
usin' the proper video port, etc.

And make sure that NO drives of any kind are connected to the
machine...until you get it POSTing properly.

Good luck...let us know.


Have a nice week...

Trent

Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity!

 

[~misfit~]

At this point, I'd say the problem was with that mainboard. It
finally gave up the ghost. As you say below, the problem was solved
with the new board. So lets not go backward again with trying to
solve your problem. The first problem was solved with the purchase of
the new board below.
Agreed.


Exactly. You'll need to do a repair install of xp to get it running
again.

But this IS an arbiter that some parts of your new system are working
properly. The machine has gone thru POST...and has accessed the hard
drive. So that part is good.



But why did you DO all that? You HAD a working system already! lol

Probably re-set the BIOS jumper with the PSU still plugged in or without
discharging the caps first.

Something you did screwed things up. If you accessed the hard drive,
you had a working system. That's all the mainboard, BIOS, etc. is
supposed to do...access the hard drive and load your operating system.

Somehow, you screwed things up. We need to discover what you did to
foul things up.

See above.