Computer gurus help...
 

Ok, my system seems to be having some issues. I built it myself about 2 years ago and it has been working without a problem until this week. OS is WinXP. Basically what happened was the system would not boot about 2 days ago. When you pushed the on button it would powerup for about 5 seconds and then power down again. Didn't even get to the boot cycle. I pulled the case out and all the fans were running, etc. Plugged it into a standard socket in my house and tried again and it booted. Plugged it back into the surge protector and it did the same thing again. Turned the surge protector off and then on again and it booted fine. Worked well until today. Came home from dinner and the speakers were saying "System Failed" over and over again. Computer was on, screen was black, couldn't get it to come up again. Shut the system off and then back on. Booted but on the BIOS boot screen it said my settings were invalid and I had to enter setup. I set it back to default settings and it booted ok. Shut it down from within windows and rebooted. This time it had a different BIOS than the one I flashed originally and when windows came up it recognized the RAID controller as new hardware (which it isn't). System seems to be running ok now.

Any ideas what is up? Should I flash the BIOS again? I ran my anti-virus pretty recently and nothing came up. Any other ideas? Thanks.

Bad CMOS battery or bad mobo

I'm guessing battery also.

Ok, so can I just go and buy a CMOS battery for the mobo and install it or do I have to get another mobo? Also if I don't replace the batt, will it damage the system or cause other problems?

Another question: I did some very basic reading on CMOS errors and CMOS batteries on the net just now. How would a bad CMOS battery explain the system "failing" while it was running? Basically I left the computer on while we went to dinner. When I got back it was still running but screen was black and computer was non-responsive (CODE BLUE!! LOL). And what was up with the speakers saying "System Failed" over and over again? I've never seen that before. I thought I had caught some horrible virus at first...

Usually they use a pretty standard size coin battery. Just pop it out and run down to Radio Shack and grab one. Easy couple buck test.

As far as the system failed message and the other weird issues, it sounds like you could be having some funky power supply or possibly ram issues too, so that's probably where I'd go next (of course I have lots of spare stuff so I don't have to go buy all these things) Also, try hooking it up to a UPS if you have one around.

The other issue that could cause all of these things could be a CPU heatsink that isn't seating quite right. It only takes a small air gap as it wiggles just slightly and it could overheat.

Definately sounds more on the hardware side than the software side.

And now that I that I reread the original post... does it only happen with the surge protector? If so, that's the first place to start.

Well, I'm not sure if it only happens with the surge protector because I plugged it back into the same one after cycling it off and on. Guess a simple thing to do would be plug the CPU into the wall socket and see if that makes a difference...

I kindof doubt the heatsink issue, the heatsink was installed once at the original building and hasn't moved since. The CPU has not been dropped or jostled so I can't really see how it would loosen.

RAM is certainly a possibility. I did buy good quality RAM when I built it, but RAM can always fail.

Maybe I will try plugging it into the wall socket first and see what happens, maybe it is something with the surge protector...

Ignore the symptoms until you put in the new CMOS battery. It is the basic heartbeat of the entire system. Without it operating normally, and especially when it is outputting low voltage, strange things will happen.

Thom has it right in my book. Other thing could be a bad CPU fan that lets the chip overheat. Do you have a temp alarm on the MB?

Had this one time but its rare... Try the CMOS/BIOS battery first.

If you want to test memory, go to either of these sites for a good mem tester.

memtest86

memtest86+

Dave

Ok, I'll go grab a new CMOS battery tomorrow and see if that helps too. Thanks for all the help guys!!

I'm liking the CMO theory, but that does not usually cause a failure. A bad battery usually generates a 'CMOS memory checksum error'.

Bad power supply. Seems like classic symptoms. Pick up a Channel Well . Expensive, but excellent power supplys. Antec also make reliable units.

http://www.cwt.com.tw/

I'd like to ask a different question.

My e-mail can only send after I close OE. I uninstalled Norton anti virus and firewall 2005 and no difference. The system is Windows ME.

I crashed the system trying to fix it last month and the computer shop got that fixed.. but still the same prob sending mail without closing down OE.

thx

Ronnin - probably a setting in OE somewhere that is telling to to store until closing

thx for reply.

I didn't add that it'll send 2, maybe 4 e-mails after I restart then stop sending afterwords.

Ron,

First thing is to get rid of that crap OS! ME is not a good one and W2000 is heads and shoulders better. PM me if you need help.

Joe A

Edit, are you sure that Norton is not holding things up? I had Norton on one computer and it spent so much time scanning incoming and outgoing emails that I went to another anti-virus program. Might try turning it off for a bit and see if there is a change.

will do


First I uninstalled Norton and sos. Then I crashed it. After I got the computer back from the shop everything was cleaned up and I had to reload everything again from the beginning except windows ME. I tried sending mail before installing Norton and the sos.