Need help! My PC just dropped dead

[Guest]

I have a BF6 ABIT mobo, PIII550, 128RAM, it has been 2 years and everything was fine, last week there was a 2 tone siren noise coming from the internal speaker when I power on, the BIOS didn't even kick in, I had to power on and off once, then it was ok. It kept happening for a few days, then the power on and off has to be done twice before it could come up, but now I did it many times it still won't come up all, the monitor and BIOS don't even kick in. I tried to remove all PCI cards except the VGA card, memory and C drive, and it still won't start. Can someone give me some idea?

 

[stable]

Replace the battery on your motherboard.

Steve Benoit

Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'

 

[Guest]

I tried a new battery, same problem, the 2 tone siren just keep going on and on and on... Any more ideas?

 

[stable]

How many beeps does the system make when turning on.
Here are the error codes from ABIT.
# of Beeps: Meaning of Error
1 = DRAM refresh is not working.
2 = Parity circuit is not working or parity status bits are not cleared when parity is disabled.
3 = First 64k memory test failure. Address line test (A0..A15) failure.
4 = System timer is not counting properly.
5 = Processor register/flag test failure.
6 = 8042 keyboard controller gate-A20 error.
7 = Processor exception error encountered.
8 = Display memory R/W test failure (NON-FATAL)
9 = ROM-BIOS checksum error.
10 = CMOS Shutdown Register R/W error.


I'm checking with abit on the siren thing.

Steve Benoit

Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'

 

[Guest]

Thanks for helping out Steve! The noise I hear after I power on is just like the siren, eh-wo,eh-wo,eh-wo....it's 2 different distinct tone(or beep), if this is a problem with the parity circuit or status bits not cleared, I'll look up the mobo manual again to see what I can do, but I don't think I'll find the answer there. When you say you're checking with abit, do you mean their web site? I called them multiple them and no one ever answered the phone.

 

[stable]

Heads up Update from Abit:

Look at the capacitors around the cpu slot. inspect closely with a light and look for any swelling or barrel shape to the caps or a fluid discharge.

These caps have been known to fail causing an alarm for a voltage out of spec. They should be perfectly cylindrical and not puffed out.

If they are in bad shape, the caps could be at fault from using cheap or underrated caps or the power supply could have been the cause from a poor filter circuit or an out of spec voltage. The caps can be replaced easily so if they are bad, the board is not trash.

Steve Benoit


Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'

 

[Guest]

I have the same board with exactly the same symtoms. Tried all of the suggestions listed. Did you get yours fixed or like me, looking for a new Mobo?

 

[Guest]

I bought a ABIT BE6 V2 now and everything is fine. I didn't know how to fix the mobo and it's going to cost too much to ask any shops to fix it. Good luck on yours.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, that's what I thought, maybe a SOYO SBA +100 though. That RAID sounds interesting. It'll give me something to play with.

 

[Guest]

RIGHT YOU ARE STEVE.
I have the same problems as Boma. Dumb me, I missed seeing that the tops of the Caps are bulging. I guess that's what the score lines are for. There are 3 1500uf n a row above the bank of 1000uf caps. All 3 are bulging.

Question is, where can I get replacements? My old eyes are bugging out searching the WEB in vain.

Cap body;
Green
TAYEH
1500uf
6.3v

 

[Guest]

Thanks for putting out this thread. I am facing the exact same problem. At first I thought it was the memory (as the
award BIOS says that if the beeps are continuous it could be
either the system memory or the video card).
After going through this thread (thanks Steve) I looked around the processor and sure enough the three 1500pf caps are bulging.
Now the question is whether it is the caps which are bad or
is there something wrong wiht my power supply? How can I tell that the power supply is fine and the voltage is with in Spec.
I am getting a new Mobo, ABIT BE6-II, how can I make sure that this doesn't happens again? I noticed some more messages on some other news groups talking about the exact same issue with BE6-II (unfortunately after I orderded the board).

 

[NickM]

Not only the voltage is important, but amps and other things in a power supply. And if you want to have it within Spec, you have to simulate different AC voltage CONDITIONS at the WALL SOCKET to observe how the PSU reacts on voltage drop, and how much "reserve" is in power supply, and how the inverter produces a true sine wave output, and how is good in reality the Power_Good signal. And you have to be sure that all the capacitors work without failure in several day run and stop. All these tests are a must in repare depots. The best way to test is using a variable voltage transformer. But simplier: just try any proved working OK unit.

I've already posted in one recent thread: be careful with used power supply when buying a GOOD new motherboard.
Some power supplies do not have proper <b>Power_Good</b> circuity (0.1-0.5 sec timing). Some motherboards are more sensitive to an improperly designed or improperly functioning Power_Good signal than others. Startup problems are often the result of improper Power_Good signal timing. This happens sometimes when a motherboard replaced in a system and the system intermittently failed to start properly after the power turned on.
This could be very difficult to diagnose, because the problem appeared to be caused by the new motherboard. In this case replacing the power supply with a high-quality one, is the proper solution. Be careful: improper Power_Good timing also causes CMOS memory corruption in some systems.

 

[viper2211]

the reason is cause you have a pentium get AMD

I am too lazy to type a signature

 

[NickM]

<b>Not again!</b>
I think somebody (probably me) doesn't understand something, starting it again...
Would you suggest, dear viper2211, me also an AMD computer/motherboard as a replacement? At my work?
At work we can leave our Pentium server and Pentium Internet server, workstations idling or working days and nights, long weekends, holidays and more than 2-weeks vacations, and we never even think about such word combination as "thermal death"...
And several of our machines are on a dual-processor motherboard. Do you really have a replacement for them? Tell me, what's your suggestion then?
No compatability complains at all for us with ATA/100, installation of system and and other software on our Intel machines (as I remember, in Win2000 or NT4.0 Setup Disk text file noted: "should be Intel processor on Intel chipset motherboard"...and almost all the graphics software that we use are about the same).
Cooling solution and a case along with a proper power supply are expencive for Athlons. But PIII-1000 lives healthy with a cheap case c/w 250W power supply and a cheap conventional intelligent ball bearing processor cooler. Sometimes computers are ordered and supplyed for desert and other hot conditions.
Now I have to say some more. Motherboards for SlotA are more expensive. Not the cheapest anymore. AMD becomes more and more popular, and with its improved and proven power, stability, and reliability they are spreading on business solutions and server market. But we have to see the difference, still existing.
Aniway, I like Athlons and I have one at home. I like it for its overclocking capability, advanced technology with copper connector and other solutions solved. And it isn't something cheap now, but the best sports machine for men. A winner!

 

[Guest]

Steve had said that he talked to ABIT and they said that a poorly regulated supply would cause this.

While I was waiting for the Caps to arrive I hooked up the supply to another MoBo that I had. I had Motherboard Monitor so I was able to see the voltages jumping around. The 3.3V was moving from 3.4 to 3.7.

This 300 Watt'r was indeed a piece of crap. I had a older 235 W supply that was replaced by the 300. The 3.3 was steady at 3.52. (The final setting is determined by the MoBo and this SOYO was not adjustable)

The largest voltage swing was .06V and I think it was on the -12V. All I had done was replace Great 235 with a Bum 300.

There must be plenty of good supplies around that won't bust the budget. It ain't that hard to make good one. It just takes quality components. I'm sure you can find someone who knows, (Like Steve frinstance) to recommend one.

I hope you didn't throw your board away. Mine now is running a P3500 at 620, Rock solid. Young'ns using it online to play UT. Hours and hours and hours.

Note: Looks like 1 stick of memory was damaged by it also. Fortunatly one of the other PC's got new 133's so the 100's got swapped into this one.


"I THINK I USED TO KNOW THAT"

 

[Guest]

Sorry, I'm so long winded I forgot to answer your question.

Bad PSU killed the Caps and Mem stick. Replaced Caps,Supply and memory.

If you are interested this is what must have happened.
The 3 1500uf Caps are in parallel for a total of 4500uf.
A poorly regulated supply is feeding the circuit with a high ripple, stressing the Caps to the point that one fails. Now there are only two Caps left (3000uf) to handle the ripple.
Now PC has trouble booting up. Evetually the next weakest Cap fails. In my case this is when it wouldn't boot at all.
2 of the 3 were NG. I replaced all 3. The 3rd one must be ready to fail.

There I go again...

Nite.

"I THINK I USED TO KNOW THAT"

 

[Guest]

Lol they all look to far, PSU.

 

[NickM]

Yeah. Also a PSU that runs for any length of time with faulty fan may have done a lot of heat damage to its filtering capacitors and soldering on the circuit board may be weakened.
There's no way of knowing if the fan meets the CFM requirements of the CPU.
When I repair a "sealed" unit that has had CSA/ULC approval for how it was manufactured, I can be letting myself in for legal liability. A fire traced backed to a faulty repair job is not good for anybody.
The PSU has safety issues that must be respected. That's part of the reason why the PSU is always replaced as a unit.

 

[Guest]

GOD! this is exactly the same thing that is going on with my brand new ASUS A7V133 IT HAS NEVER EVEN BOOTED UP TO THE BIOS. Things click and whir for about 4 seconds and then the alternating high/low frequency sound through the case speaker. similar to an emergency vehicle's siren. never got a blink to the monitor,keyboard or anything. if you resolve the problem let me know & i'll do likewise. good luck,,,
visalian@hotmail.com

 

[NickM]

Just checked this thread for a positive conclusion and found some more about power supply tests. I wouldn't trust the Motherboard Monitor much (especially as an indicator to ditch the power supply). Of course, I stand firm on replacing any suspicious power supply.
There're some interesting facts related to checking the voltage on a power supply and the importance of the negative voltage.
Although AT and ATX power supplies generate –12V signals and provide them via connectors, the motherboard logic doesn’t use either +12V and –12V signals.
(Except Pentium-4, were a new kind of 10-12Amp from +12V line is delivered. And also newer AGP-Pro bus).
The –12V is routed to the pin B7 of the ISA bus (if there is one) and to the serial port driver/receiver circuit. Most serial port circuits no longer use 12V and run on +3.3 and +5V only. Anyway, the load on +12V and –12V signals by serial ports is very low (0.03-.04 Amps).
The –5V signal is routed on the pin B5 of the ISA bus (if any exists) as part of ISA standard for backward compatibility with old floppy controllers. Modern controllers do not need –5V. The motherboard doesn’t use it.
So far, it looks like only the positive signals are used in our computers.