Southern Electric man ruins psd99's COMPUTER

[psd99]

it wont matter which way the wires go?

mmm

 

[psd99]

mmm the noise is getting to me so I tried to disable the cpu smart fan control...restarting the computer and BANG
it's back... it hangs just after reading my cpu.

I cleared CMOS again it seems this does the job, but I am thinking of reflashing the bios

it's a gigabyte pro2 7400 any ideas how to flash it again?

I remember using a floppy disk and sweating last time. I also remember being told if I get it wrong I am sure to be a dead man living.

 

[psd99]

updated bios same problem

whenever I restart I keep having to clear CMOS! mmmmmmmm
otherwise it would hang.

 

[psd99]

wghile trying to sort out the cpu fan mate and make it go slower

I had to take out the cpu fan which is a SWINE TO fit back in it took ages


after I put the fan back in I get a siren like sound
or an alarm like sound coming from the speaker

it then shuts my pc down

any one know what this is? really worying me....

 

[Ian]

Is the fan spinning up, as your PC would do that if it overheats or if the fan is detected as not working.

If you keep having to clear the CMOS after a re-flash, try checking the onboard battery and see if it's ok.

 

[floppybootstomp]

It sounds as if you have't fitted the cooler on properly. Or you may dislodged the CPU though that's unlikely.

You may also have knocked the memory or video card out of their slots, maybe only partially, whilst working in there.

Or if your video card has a power connector you may have kocked it off or loosened it.

All of those things could cause the alrm warning.

All you need for the fan controller is a new potientometer (or 'pot' for short). Also known as a variable resistor. You can get them from Maplins and RS and a small one will fit the hole in the Gigabyte front panel. The knob may not fit though so you may have to buy one to suit the new pot, which should be available from where you buy it.

Hold that snapped piece of pot pcb up to the old pot and note where the wires go.

Then cut the wires back and make bare ends of each wire.

Make a note of the value of that pot, I'd guess it will be 5k to 10k, then go and buy your new one. The new one will probably have little metal eyelets rather than a PCB, solder the wires to those the same way round they were on the old, broken, pot.

As for the BIOS put a new motherboard battery in. If you don't have a spare Maplins should sell them, as well as the pot and knob.

If a new battery doesn't sort the problem, the board's probably knackered.

 

[psd99]

thanks for the head up about the battery guys.

The pc is sitting there on it's side right now. I will look into reseating memory, gfx.

I took out the cpu and cpu fan and nothing happened. It powered on but NO BEEPS. I got another CPU fan here I will try that.

I do worry if the CPU has somehow burnt don't rule it out yet.

Going to get a battery today or tomorrow. Hopefully it'll solve the bios problem otherwise I am buggered.

I want to upgrade good and proper in June, not right now.


The alarm sounds like the old 36 k dial up modem days....

 

[psd99]

Think it was the CMOS battery.


Initially I took out the Gigabyte pro rocket then replaced it with this Thermaltake Silent Boost CPU fan I got here.
On full blast it's not that loud but I have added a Zalman fan mate which can turn down the RPM of the fan. I got a case fan running as well very close to this CPU fan. CPU temperature so far is around 52/52C this is less than the gigabyte and perhaps less noisy!




I took out the battery WITHOUT a battery in the motherboard it appeared to boot the bios didn't hang either. Confused me somewhat... So I have just taken out a nice Sony battery from my other machine and replaced with with the ****ty KTS I knew this bird called Katie. Maybe it's got something to do with her?



I have tried restarting a few times seems good to go right now. Although I don't like the idea of putting in "Katie" into my other working system...........

Overall I must say I feel like I have been mugged. I've spent 3 of my days off worrying about all of this and on my hands and knees trying to work on the inside of this computer and all I needed was to take "Katie" out of my machine and replace her with Sony....


I'll leave the puns to you all and many thanks.

PSD99.

Any ideas how a bios can boot up WITHOUT a battery like Katie?

 

[psd99]

p.s you nan ever told you there's always a use for something in your garage? This time the use was a Thermal Boost CPU fan...........

 

[floppybootstomp]

You call your battery Katie?

You're a loony

Well I'm glad you've resolved your problem and I must confess I've never booted a machine without a CMOS backup battery.

I suspect each time you boot it will just revert to default settings. The battery, after all, is there to backup the stored settings in the CMOS.

It would appear that your battery had died rather nastily, having an adverse effect on your CMOs, hence your problems.

Now get yourself another battery.

And if you must give it a name might I suggest 'Elsie' as a contender?

 

[psd99]

Elsie? Why Elsie? Just sounds barbaric!


mmm I called it "Katie" because it's a battery made my ITX.

Totally bizzare my well recognised world known Gigabyte board has a "Katie" whereas my cheap £9.99 board has got a SONY battery in there.

Really weird.

 

[psd99]

"Don't put your eggs into the basket too soon psd99."

Same problem again I had to restart the pc and it's not working anymore. It'll hang just after CPU, won't read the memory.

Even my clearing cmos trick with the new battery don't seem to work. Oh dear oh dear!!!!!!!!!11


Going to let this little biatch cool off for a bit and try it before I sleep. I need to sort out my ipod with tunes lucky I got a backup pc.

 

[psd99]

the next question is
say the problem is the motherboard,

and
if by chance I was to find the exact same motherboard and swapped it for the one I got in my case right now
leave all devices in the same configuration...

would it mean I won't need to resintall my OS?

 

[floppybootstomp]

No you wouldn't need to reinstall your OS.

But you'll be extremely lucky to find an identical motherboard.

 

[psd99]

No you wouldn't need to reinstall your OS.

But you'll be extremely lucky to find an identical motherboard.

I would be indeed. I've seen one on fleebay. It's got writen rev2 though.. Worth a shot I think.

But it'll cost a fair bit, but it will save me hassle. Plus it's a great board!


It'll be good to grab this to sort of protect myself for the next 2-3 months. I aim to upgrade around June. Don't feel like doing it just yet in March.

 

[psd99]

Hi all,

Well I came back here because I am a bit upset tonight.

This problem never really got sorted. I must have had had my pc on 24/7 since I last posted on this part of the forum.
Few days ago I had a problem with a hard drive so I had to restart and then BANG I had the exact same problem again.

The bios was hanging it wouldn't read the memory, if that is bad enough the keyboard wouldn't work
PLUS if I did get past the BIOS I would still get an error preventing me from getting into XP. I ended up installed GRUB on my MBR by mistake and it never recovered.

So what I did is take out the board I got from ebay (as mentioned before) and put this into my tower.
I didn't get NO POST nothing at all. I tried lots of things, reseated the memory it didn't even beep or nothing. I reverted back to the old board and it somehow started to work again like normal.

Now this is about the new replacement board I got.
I remember testing this board at work and it worked FINE no problems. So I took it back to work to try it out and it works fine. I didn't see no problems I got a POST and all.

So at this point I made the biggest mistake. I thought I might as well nip it in the bud. I powered down my PC and then took out the board put in the replacement board and yes you guessed it NO POST! Just like before even with the EXACT same memory and CPU I used at work I was getting nowt at all. It really mesmerised me a lot.

So I had to go back to my original board. I got it working and then it got into Windows great I thought.
The problem now was that my mouse or my keyboard wasn't working. I played around with them both and took out cables put them back in NO LUCK. I had to then power her down.

Since I powered her down I get no post anymore. I still get a LED light on the board which indicated the RAM is fine but I don't hear no beep. In fact all I hear is a beep that is trying to beep but will not. I've just tried to take out cables, reseat the memory.

I am really confused about all of this and I have had a very bad and distressing day. Probably the worse day of my month for sure.

I would love to get the board I got from ebay working but I don't get why it won't work at home. The PSU is the ONLY difference in hardware between work and home.

I have narrowed it down to the PSU could the PSU be preventing my board (from ebay) from posting?

 

[psd99]

Can the PSU cause problems when trying to read my memory, using a keyboard on bios/pre Windows screen or MBR errors?

It all seems to be powering up the board, the fans all spin I hear the drives spin too.

I can't use another PSU because I don't have one with an additional 12V connector.

 

[Waynos_Face]

The only time i ever had a repeating CMOS problem was that in the BIOS it made up its own timings for the RAM, so when i entered the correct ones it worked fine.

Are you sure it isn't shorting out somewhere?

And is this the same PSU from the very beginning of the thread? The one that the electric man broke?

I have a 350W ATX psu, its a bit crap and came free with an equally crappy case but it works, have also got onto my mate as he has lots of old motherboards and i remember he was trying to off load some Socket A's.

Will ask and get back to you.

You are welcome to the PSU if you want it.

 

[psd99]

Hi mate it is the EXACT same PSU as when the Southern Electric man came that is why I think it might be that. I hope it is that.

I've reset the BIOS but to no avail.
If it was shorting out would I see a power loss?

The PSU you got there does it have an additional 12V connector? It is the type of connector that the P4 boards used to take.

I think I might need another PSU to test out and if that works i'll invest in a decent PSU safe guarding me for future upgrades. If the test PSU doesn't work I got a LOT of thinking to do.

 

[psd99]

p.s if I do need a new PSU which one shall I get? This is for a socket A motherboard that needs an additional 12v connector.

What is this ATX business all about would a new PSU fit my motherboard ATX?

I wonder if the latest PSU's do work or not on my old board.