Very odd problem, for savy pc owners only

[mudz]

This is a copy and paste of an email I sent to ATI (which has gotten no
response so far, big surprise there), NOT!!

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? thanks
======================================================

Albatron K8T800ProII, ADATA PC4000 1 gig, athlon64 3200+, nothing
overclocked

The absolute worst MBs I have come across are Albatrons...to the extent I am
amazed they are still in business.....based on that experience (and I
cheerfully admit this is not scientific at all) I'd bet the MB is doing it
to ya...

good luck

M

 

[rstlne]

I think he did, in the first post? I haven't re-read it. Having other

systems to swap parts around in to prove the items out was good. For
me to do the same, it meant taking it to a computer shop and swapping
lots of things around on 3 mobos, all different.

To be honest, even with 25 years solid experience troubleshooting as a
maintenance electrician in the steel industry with beginning background
in instrumentation and building my own systems since '85; I still get
surprises with PC's just about every day! It's what makes it both
hair-pulling frustrating and fun.

heh, I dont think that 25 years of fixing Pneumatic relays and solid state
Air Amplifiers helps much with computers ..

Granted if you were into ind instrumentation then you will have a verry
solid grasp of electricity and probably electronics (not to mention logic)..

I did skim his first post and I didnt see where he said he took it back down
to "bare parts" just that he had been exchanging..

I look'd back over it now and yea I do see it so I am stuck.. I would still
be tempted to shove a much stronger supply in there just to check.

 

[rstlne]

The absolute worst MBs I have come across are Albatrons...to the extent I
am

amazed they are still in business.....based on that experience (and I
cheerfully admit this is not scientific at all) I'd bet the MB is doing it
to ya...

good luck

M

It's cheap..

 

[mudz]

It's cheap..

Ha Ha...you hit *that* nail square on the head!

M

 

[McGrandpa]

heh, I dont think that 25 years of fixing Pneumatic relays and solid
state Air Amplifiers helps much with computers ..

Using PC's to run roll forming lines, couple dozen PCs in the plant for
various use, fiber optics networking, etc. I get to do it all.
Yeah, we still have two pneumatic relays left, 1 each on a label
printer, LOL! It's a small shop and things are not what they used to
be, that's for sure. Troubleshooting is the game. Industrial
instrumentation today is even more wildly varied than consumer PC's will
ever be.

 

[XS11E]

The absolute worst MBs I have come across are Albatrons.

Obviously written by someone with absolutely NO experience with ECS
motherboards.

I was foolish enough to buy one when Fry's had a package deal on chip
and board, it didn't power up. When I returned it, I stood in a line
of people, all holding ECS motherboard boxes, many of which wouldn't
power up...... <sigh>

If your Albatron will power up, it's a better MB than ECS! ;-)

 

[Bx.Cornwell]

YET..... he swaps in the 9800 Pro and it all works. he swaps the X800
back in and it fails. X800 still works in two other systems. Suggests
to me the X800 draws on something that the 9800 Pro does not. So I'm
looking back to the motherboard.
McG.

exactly.... it can't be limited to the power supply unit.... you have to
look at the voltage regulators as part of "power supply" since they regulate
the supply...

look at it as a complete "power supply SYSTEM".... the PSU is mainly just
your AC to DC converter,.... you still need to regulate the flow to all the
circuits...

 

[Bx.Cornwell]

This is a copy and paste of an email I sent to ATI (which has gotten no
response so far, big surprise there), NOT!!

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? thanks
======================================================

Hi,
Last week or so I was having to turn the computer off then back on again
2 times for the machine to get into bios, post and boot. Now this
morning I go to turn my computer on and it beeps a cpu error everytime I
try to to turn it on. Can't get it to post no matter what I do.
Disconnected everything but vid and memory but still my computer just
sits there fans going, harddrives going(when connected) but no video, no
post and beep msg saying there is a cpu problem.

I'm posting this with my old 9800pro which I had to stick back in and
works fine so obviously there is no cpu problem. I can swap my X800XT
and 9800pro all day and 9800pro allows my machine to post and boot
properly with no problems while my X800XT hangs my system before bios.

I'm wondering if its a power supply problem? I have a decent 400watt PS
though. And I don't have another laying around to test with, arg.

Bios reads: 1.53,3.26,4.94,11.85,12.36,2.91,5.56 for the various voltages.
SandraSoft reads: 1.53,3.25,4.95,11.92,-12.53,-5.15,5.02,2.91 voltages.
(These are with my 9800pro however. Can't read my X800 voltages cause I
cant even get to bios.)

Well I went a bought a quality Antec power supply to try - still doesn't
work, can't post, same cpu beep code.

Put 9800pro back in and going to drop vid card off at friends house for
them to put in their system to test card.

Seems I may have a card gone bad but won't know for sure.
The odd thing is, my computer was working perfectly fine for a week
with my new X800XT. After a week my machine started acting odd: on cold
boot I would for some reason have to turn my machine on then off then on
again to get it to boot into bios and continue normally. If I didn't do
this my computer would sit there beeping the cpu error never getting
into bios.

Well just got a call from my friend who's testing out my X800XT for me
in his(2 month old) athlon64 3200+ rig and it booted and worked fine in
his computer. I'm having him do some a few cold boots before giving me
the card back. (It booted and worked fine each time.)

It's almost as though my computer slowly degraded over a week and a half
from perfect to funky cold booting error to can't boot at all. I changed
nothing on my system during this time besides perhaps a few demo or
program installs within winXP. I just don't get it.

Its just so odd that all works great with my 9800pro and I simply put in
the X800XT and blam, computer won't post.

Any suggestions would be helpful, thank you.
Btw, I consider myself VERY computer hardware and software savy so any
tech speak is fine.
Regards, Derek
========================================================

Edit: Since this email, I've borrowed my card to another different
friend to test the video card in his system (very new Prescott system)
and it works perfectly fine for him also.

I'm guessing I have a motherboard problem. It's as though some component
on my motherboard slowly burned up with the X800XT in my system and then
degraded far enough that it prevents my system from booting up. However,
at the same time something different about the 9800pro design doesn't
require as much 'draw' from this degraded MB component and allows my
system to work seemingly normally. This sound possible?


Albatron K8T800ProII, ADATA PC4000 1 gig, athlon64 3200+, nothing
overclocked

did you remember to grease the clutch and put oil in the engine before
powering it up?

(oops.. wait... that's my go-kart troubleshooting checklist)

seriously though... i'd actually suspect the motherboard... the voltage
regulators, as a few others are saying, seem to be likely suspects.... the
power supply unit is not the only component of the power supply
circuitry....