Pre-POST Power Cycling

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Koldvir

Honorable
Nov 23, 2013
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10,510
Hi All,

Last week, my brother's computer started power cycling on boot. No POST, no beeps, no video output, just a few seconds of the fans running before going dark and starting all over again. I've followed the troubleshooting steps from http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/347045-28-power-cycling-seconds-post without any luck. Even after stripping the machine down, cleaning all components, and trying to boot with the board and CPU from two power supplies (no other components), I'm still getting the same result.

I've been out of the hardware game for some time and my usual go-to guy isn't available. I'm running an MSI P35 Platinum board with an Intel Core 2 Quad chip. Can I even get equivalent replacements for these still, or am I looking at getting a whole new rig, less a case and hard drive?

Appreciate any guidance on getting my brother back up and running soon.
 
Solution
T
Google "msi p35 platinum motherboard". They are still available. First take a close look at all of the capacitors on the board. Look for one or more where the top is domed instead of flat. If you see that you might try to replace the capacitor(s) if you are handy with a soldering iron. I did that on an Asus one time when I was unemployed and it worked for a couple of years after that. I'd be leary, however, of connecting either the repaired one or a ndew one to the same power supply. So in any case get a new power supply. You're near to losing the hard drive also since it's probably 6 or 7 years old also. So be aware that it needs to be replaced real soon. Nearly 90% of consumer hard drives fail before 6 years.
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thx1138v2

Splendid
Jun 18, 2011
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Google "msi p35 platinum motherboard". They are still available. First take a close look at all of the capacitors on the board. Look for one or more where the top is domed instead of flat. If you see that you might try to replace the capacitor(s) if you are handy with a soldering iron. I did that on an Asus one time when I was unemployed and it worked for a couple of years after that. I'd be leary, however, of connecting either the repaired one or a ndew one to the same power supply. So in any case get a new power supply. You're near to losing the hard drive also since it's probably 6 or 7 years old also. So be aware that it needs to be replaced real soon. Nearly 90% of consumer hard drives fail before 6 years.
 
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Solution
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Koldvir

Honorable
Nov 23, 2013
4
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10,510
Thanks for the suggestions. My soldering work is sloppy at best and I wouldn't be comfortable performing a capacitor swap with reasonable confidence or accuracy. However, I will check in the morning for damaged capacitors to ensure that's the issue at hand.

Being in Vancouver, Canada, I'm not having much luck finding a local reseller or retailer that still carries this board. A cursory look at ebay doesn't lead me to a Canadian online shop either; I'm rather nervous about purchasing such an integral PC component when it's cross border. I will, however, keep looking.

In the meantime, what's the best way for me to determine what motherboards have similar support for my brother's remaining hardware?

On an aside, the hard drive has already been replaced once, and we'll probably add a second drive with this hardware refresh. I'll start sourcing out a new PS as well. It's unfortunate that I should be replacing it since it was bought with the intention of future capabilities (a 500W supply certainly was not needed back then).

Thanks again.
 
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Koldvir

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Nov 23, 2013
4
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10,510
Okay, so I've had no luck sourcing out a replacement board. I neglected to indicate that my board was an MSI P35 Platinum Combo; ebay didn't even have identical replacements from China. I replaced the board with an MSI G41M-P33 Combo board since it is compatible with most of my hardware. The downside is that I've lost my firewire ports, but I don't think my brother ever used them to begin with.

Bread boarding the setup yielded positive results. Final deployment has left me with Windows XP blue screening on boot and Safe Mode simply restarting. I think the board change is too significant of an update for my Windows XP installation to handle.

I'll be trying to repair with XP install first with reinstalling as a contingency. I'll post results as I get them, but I will be slow as most of my time is taken by work, boxing, or beer.
 
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Koldvir

Honorable
Nov 23, 2013
4
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10,510
Next update. I completed a WinXP Repair install last week. Spent a few days running updates because the disc I had didn't have any service packs applied to it. The machine runs incredibly slow now, and I suspect it's because of it being such a Frankenstein build on both the hardware and software side, plus the application of Service Pack 3, instead of just running Service Pack 2 as earlier (does anyone else feel that each SP applied impacts performance?).

I think my next step will be to wipe the machine once the data has been collected and give my brother a clean WinXP install with SP3 slipstreamed. That should keep him going until he's ready to buy a new rig.
 
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