Computers - never overlook the not so obvious!

[steve_earwig]

While the discussion rages I thought I'd share this wee gem. I've been given a pc to fix today for a mate's daughter. It's a very old AMD socket A machine. Symptoms: completely dead, no display, fans spin, leds glow but that's the lot. Apparently it's been away to the repairers who diagnosed a "probable" mother board failure and it's come to me 'cos I have one spare (which I just got it in a bare case so I knew nothing about it).

As I really didn't know what was going on I've spent the afternoon swapping components, starting with the video card because the fan on it sounds like a tank crushing a Volkswagen. Then PSU (no POST beep), cpu (was on the motherboard). I can't move about much so it's been a long old process but finally I had nothing left to try but the motherboard, stuck this other one in and off it went, Windows XP with so much garbage you wouldn't believe - yipee.

Once going I thought I better plug all the switches, leds etc back in and... the bloody thing's in a boot cycle I've finally traced it to the reset switch and I reckon it's short circuit. So I'll be sticking the old motherboard back in. Buggrit, it can wait 'til tomorrow.

You live and learn I guess

[lozz]

Mines had the same fault,
reset switch,

started switching its self off and rebooting its self. thought it was a virus at first,
ineed to buy anew case and bin this gaming case there a waste of money,

[steve_earwig]

This case is quite nice, fairly sealed against dust and it wouldn't take much to completely seal it. Shame it's got a stupid window in the side - what is the point?

How long did it take you to find the fault? Hope you didn't take as long as I did

I've got to stick the old motherboard in just so I know, and there's finding all the drivers which'll take a while. And just what are the chances of a pc having two faults at once? It's not a Pug...

[lozz]

Ifound the fault pretty easy,

just disconected all the switches and used the nib of apen on the M/b to turn it on,
reconected everything back one thing at atime, and it was the reset switch,

this daft case has a window at the side too, its just so people can see all the wires etc, and 7 noisey fans, lit up like blackpool iluminations, ihate it, but my dad built it for us so ididnt complain at the time,

theres a fan switch and led temp display thats never worked after a month 2,

it will be going in the wheelie bin very shortly,

[steve_earwig]

And just what are the chances of a pc having two faults at once? It's not a Pug...

And now I'm wondering where to stick the lion This motherboard is deader than a dead thing after all. At least I know now, rather than suspecting I'd done something very silly. And now it's time to play hunt the driver! It's an MSI and they don't seem too helpful with older boards. All they're offering is bios, which I won't touch as it's working ok.

[gumby6371]

Steve, before hunting for drivers have you installed all the updates for windows? I quite often find drivers get picked up in the update process which saves a lot of pissing about during the install process.
For the rest of them there are a few good XP driver discs available on torrent sites (and yes things like drivers are perfectly ok to d'load from torrent sites, just things like music, video and pay to use apps are illegal)
Alternatively throw the hole thing in the bin as most smart phones have more processing power than the early socket A machines (as i recall some of the athlon range had a bit of speed but they'll be rare as rocking horse poop by now

[highlander]

And just what are the chances of a pc having two faults at once? It's not a Pug...

I discovered, to my cost, that one of our computer's cases was to blame for a string of power supply and motherboard failures. Bought a new case for it and it's been solid ever since.

[Welly]

My ancient (but reliable) Medion for work has a dodgy 'On' button which sticks in its surround and thinks you want to reboot all the time - so there's just a 'knack' to switching it on

Simple things eh?........

[sirwiggum]

I once had a PC that had trouble switching on.

Problem turned out to be a dodgy 'kettle lead' - the power cable which had been fashioned out of literally an old kettle's lead and an extension!

[steve_earwig]

That's odd, I once made a computer lead fit a kettle...

Steve, before hunting for drivers have you installed all the updates for windows? I quite often find drivers get picked up in the update process which saves a lot of pissing about during the install process.
For the rest of them there are a few good XP driver discs available on torrent sites (and yes things like drivers are perfectly ok to d'load from torrent sites, just things like music, video and pay to use apps are illegal)
Alternatively throw the hole thing in the bin as most smart phones have more processing power than the early socket A machines (as i recall some of the athlon range had a bit of speed but they'll be rare as rocking horse poop by now

Nah, I reckon it's good enough for a little girl to do her homework on so it's not going in the bin. She has some Windows updates waiting to be installed, I was hoping to leave them to her but as it's going on my network for the drivers I'll let them install. I don't think Windows update is going to have an audio driver but I'll keep an eye out. I've already run a cleaner over it and it's 2.3Gigs lighter already I've also got a driver updater to try on it, I've used it before and I know it can be a bit buggy sometimes but it might save me a lot of work. Apparently it gets them from a cloud

AMD Socket A 1.1 gig, 512 megs of memory and it's got Google Earth on it The rattly tank video cooler fan seems to quieten down after a while, it's putting out a lot of heat though - is this ok for an ATI? I'm an Nvidia man myself.

While I'm thinking about it, how do I ensure that when I'm done I don't leave the WEP key on it somewhere?

[lozz]

Steve, have you not tried going on the site that made the motherboard for the drivers ?

ifind them driver update sites a waste of space, best off with the proper drivers if you can get them,

[steve_earwig]

I've been to MSI.com, all there is are loads of BIOS downloads. This is rather crap IMHFO.

[lozz]

Ah rite.
another one of them pcs its hard to get drivers for then,

iwas messin with a pc a few weeks ago, couidnt find drivers for the sound for it,
and windows vista wouidnt find drivers for it either, ilost paitience with it and flung it in the shed,
it will find its way to the wheelie bin,

the old stuff seems abit crypton factor with uptodate o/s

[steve_earwig]

All drivers up to date I used Slim Drivers - it's a bit buggy as I said, that's the 2nd machine it's knocked the USB drivers out while it's updating them (it'll restore them but it's hard to work if everything you have is USB but once restored they're miraculously up to date ) and it likes to install programs you don't need (because they have the right drivers in them - uninstall the program and the drivers stay) It saved me a heap of farting about anyway.

I think I need to increase the clock speed as apparently this cpu only goes down to 1333. I've just stuffed MSE on it and it's already found 3 viruses (so much for Avira...).

Oh, and you know when you install a program and it tries to trick you into installing some useless toolbar? I've always thought there must be some idiot somewhere that just lets them install and ends up with browsers that are all toolbar. Well, I found her

[406loon]

Before removing a mainboard from a system you unplug all ancilleries; Ide cables, molex connectors, berg connectors, hardrives, ROM drives, floppy drives, Remove all LEDs, USB fly leads. Basically everything apart from power to the mainboard. Sometimes the mainboard can short itself out in the case and just by removing it and running it outside the case can make it POST again - only problem is finding where its shorting on the case when refitting -sometimes it can be down to the I/O shield other times I have had to build systems into a replacement case.

If you have a problem finding/loading drivers search for Driverloader 2012 - its a russian website but it basically runs off a dvd and it finds all the drivers you are missing, installs them and it also updates existing ones. Plus it gives you the current temp of your laptop and lets you know if its overheating.

System shutting down - this can be due to faulty mainboard/cpu/psu. Just because the system turns on doesnt mean the psu works - you can get a psu tester for under £10. If you have a system which switches itself on as soon as mains plugged in before using the power button it can be down to mainboard failure. If a system spins its cpu fan once then switches off when you turn it on try removing the cpu from the mainboard then switch system on, it wont post obviously but if the fan spins normally you know your CPU is goosed. Overheating can cause shut down also - remove the cpu fan and inspect it, if its clogged up with dust clean it out. remove the thermal compound paste from both the cpu and heatsink and apply a fresh layer to the cpu - this is a common problem on laptops which are a few years old - the heatsink gets clogged up with thick dust and the thermal paste goes brittle and flakes off.

If you get 3 continous beeps on a system it can be down to faulty ram or faulty ram slot. 1 continuous beep normally Graphics card failure.

Sometimes your system might restart when you have told it to shut down, just as system switches off it suddenly reboots and loads windows again - short the bios on your mainboard out by moving the jumper across - cures it.

Inspect USB ports, front ports can get damaged, the 4 pins can get bent and cross and cause the system to reboot, shut down, not post etc. Find where they are connected to the mainboard and disconnect.

A good utility disc which is essential in diagnosing system is Hirens Boot CD - it has everything you need on it.