system startup issues, again.
hi again everyone, i've got another issue with my box starting up 
last night she just shut down on her own, out of nowhere. it was odd. i wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, just playing EQ2 as usual. not a complete shutoff, the mobo was still getting power, as the light was on, as were the lights on my ram sticks. anyway, she would not start up again. i attempted a cold boot, removing power completely.
i plugged her back in, and the fans would start up for just a sec and then shut off immediately. i attempted this a number of times, with the same result. my gut feeling was a failing power supply, as i had P/S issues before. so i retired for the night and this afternoon i went and purchased a new PSU (this time 400w, my previous one was 350w). i got everything hooked up again and... she started! well, kind of.
the bios required me to reset my cpu speed config, so i went to set it back to 166Mhz x11.5 (see specs at bottom of post) and, when i went to save my settings and exit, she shut off again, just like last night. i attempted starting her up again, and the same thing happened. i tried again, and again, and again. every time i attempted to get my bios in order, she would do that. in fact, every attempt led to a shorter "on" time. i gave up after a while.
and now, on a whim, i tried it out again, just to see how long she'd stay on. i underclocked her at 100MHz x11.5 to see if that would make a difference. well, the first couple of times she did the same thing... so i let her rest. and now, i tried again and she's running. but who knows for how long. hopefully long enough for me to finish this post.
so right now the computer's running.... at 1150Mhz (as opposed to the 1.91GHz she's supposed to be at)... but she runs. at least for now. i'm not sure what's going on, nor what the cause is. this whole afternoon i've been afraid my BIOS got burnt and i needed to purchase a new motherboard. maybe i still do, or maybe not.... i'm not sure, so i'm posting here for you kind expert people. i'm gonna let her run at this speed for an hour or so, to see if she lasts. then i'll try to set it back to 166 x11.5 again...
i noticed, while in the BIOS, that the FSB spread spectrum was previously on 0.50%, and is now disabled. not sure if this does anything, i'm not knowledgable at all about FSB spreadspectrum. maybe you guys could enlighten me.
right now, i'm just glad she runs so i can post about it here. not really sure what is going on, but hopefully you guys can figure it out. money is tight, so if i can avoid having to buy a new mobo, it'd be good. i do realize i'm running somewhat outdated stuff, but at the time (jan 2004) i wasn't able to afford 64-bit.
anyway, i'm gonna post this now. hopefully things will work out fine. please let me know your thoughts and recommendations regarding this, as well as maybe a link or description for FSB spread spectrum.
thank you all very very much for being here
relevant specs
asus a7n8x-e deluxe
athlon xp 2600+ barton (cooled w/ zalman)
2x 512mb geil golden dragon ddr (pc3200)
ati 9800pro (256 ddr-ii)
last night she just shut down on her own, out of nowhere. it was odd. i wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, just playing EQ2 as usual. not a complete shutoff, the mobo was still getting power, as the light was on, as were the lights on my ram sticks. anyway, she would not start up again. i attempted a cold boot, removing power completely.
i plugged her back in, and the fans would start up for just a sec and then shut off immediately. i attempted this a number of times, with the same result. my gut feeling was a failing power supply, as i had P/S issues before. so i retired for the night and this afternoon i went and purchased a new PSU (this time 400w, my previous one was 350w). i got everything hooked up again and... she started! well, kind of.
the bios required me to reset my cpu speed config, so i went to set it back to 166Mhz x11.5 (see specs at bottom of post) and, when i went to save my settings and exit, she shut off again, just like last night. i attempted starting her up again, and the same thing happened. i tried again, and again, and again. every time i attempted to get my bios in order, she would do that. in fact, every attempt led to a shorter "on" time. i gave up after a while.
and now, on a whim, i tried it out again, just to see how long she'd stay on. i underclocked her at 100MHz x11.5 to see if that would make a difference. well, the first couple of times she did the same thing... so i let her rest. and now, i tried again and she's running. but who knows for how long. hopefully long enough for me to finish this post.
so right now the computer's running.... at 1150Mhz (as opposed to the 1.91GHz she's supposed to be at)... but she runs. at least for now. i'm not sure what's going on, nor what the cause is. this whole afternoon i've been afraid my BIOS got burnt and i needed to purchase a new motherboard. maybe i still do, or maybe not.... i'm not sure, so i'm posting here for you kind expert people. i'm gonna let her run at this speed for an hour or so, to see if she lasts. then i'll try to set it back to 166 x11.5 again...
i noticed, while in the BIOS, that the FSB spread spectrum was previously on 0.50%, and is now disabled. not sure if this does anything, i'm not knowledgable at all about FSB spreadspectrum. maybe you guys could enlighten me.
right now, i'm just glad she runs so i can post about it here. not really sure what is going on, but hopefully you guys can figure it out. money is tight, so if i can avoid having to buy a new mobo, it'd be good. i do realize i'm running somewhat outdated stuff, but at the time (jan 2004) i wasn't able to afford 64-bit.
anyway, i'm gonna post this now. hopefully things will work out fine. please let me know your thoughts and recommendations regarding this, as well as maybe a link or description for FSB spread spectrum.
thank you all very very much for being here
relevant specs
asus a7n8x-e deluxe
athlon xp 2600+ barton (cooled w/ zalman)
2x 512mb geil golden dragon ddr (pc3200)
ati 9800pro (256 ddr-ii)
0
Comments
when i typed the post above, cpu temperature has stayed in the low 50s (or so said the BIOS at startup and MBM when XP was up).... she shut down about 30 minutes after i posted this thread... and now she won't start up again any more. i'm posting this from a friend's computer right now.
And what cpu do you have
my CPU is in the relevant specs at the bottom of post #1: athlon xp 2600+ barton
now, if someoen could answer this, i'd be grateful: is 15A on the 12+ for my 350W power supply good enough? or do i need to get a PSU with 18A or higher? the only peripherals attached are:
2 HDDs
1 Optical drive
ati radeon 9800pro
2 case fans
I am running an Athlon64 3500+ w/ two optical drives, three HD's, a 9600pro, and a booty-load of fans on a similar PSU. I'll admit that if I were having trouble, the PSU would be one of the first things I'd look at, though. The fact that replacing yours didn't help leads me to believe that the PSU is probably not the problem. If you have a friend with a heftier unit who would loan it to you temporarily you could probably find out for sure one way or the other.
It is a way of varying the frequency of a device slightly to eliminate interference. That also is not likely the source of your troubles.
The fact that an extreme underclock will (sometimes) allow you to barely get by sounds like either a bad CPU, MB, or memory. Checking the first two can be tough - swapping out the parts is the only simple way to do it. If I were you I would try Memtest86. When you underclocked the MB you underclocked the memory, too. See what the test tells you and we'll take it from there.
Good luck, man.
maybe my attempts have stressed out the motherboard?
Several years back when they started building CPU overheat protection into the BIOS they added a feature to detect whether the CPU Fan is spinning or not. Obviously, at startup the fan isn't spinning at all. The clever companies added a time delay before the system would automatically shut down, but I still see this glitch once in a while. You start the computer, the BIOS sees that the CPU Fan isn't spinning fast enough, and shuts you right back down.
If you can get the thing going at all, go straight into the BIOS and see if "Shutdown on loss of CPU Fan" is enabled. (The phrasing will probably be different, but you get the idea.) Disable it if you can.
Then, immediately continue booting and back up all your data. Don't shutdown until you have everything you care about safe. (Yeah, I know you could always plug the drive into another computer, but this is the safest way to go.)
Then shutdown, wait two minutes, and try it again.
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If that doesn't do the trick, try removing and/or unplugging everything except the CPU, one stick of RAM, and the Video card. I know you won't be able to boot without a HD, but we're just trying to see if the thing will actually POST. If you're still good, add in the other devices one at a time. If it's an add-on card (like a NIC or Sound Card) you'll know it when things go bonkers right after adding that particular device. Finally, add your drives one at a time, beginning with the HD. If that works, add in your other devices.
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If none of the above works, take everything (MB included) out of the case, lay the MB on some non-conductive material, and repeat the last part.
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Sorry if this is a stupid question, but you do have the four-pin power connector to the MB attached, right? It's an easy thing to overlook.
as to the 4-pin connector, i haven't seen one on my board. i dind't think socket a boards had one, only those for 64bit and p4s.... please let me know if otherwise, because i simply don't see one on the board.