Power supply problem?? Need input, bad!

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

This is about the Old Homebuild that boots and runs normally -- but you
have to wait 8 - 10 MINUTES first.

First of all, thanks to Ginchy, Jaster, David, & Michael for your
trouble and advice. I've tried everything you recommended, but the
problem remains.

The thing is, NOTHING happens with this Celeron 400 homebuild for many
minutes. The fans run, but the FDD, HDD, and keyboard show no life or
activity and are silent. Then there's a beep, the hard drive spins up,
etc. and *voilà* it's running like it didn't know anything was wrong.
The DOS routine on the monitor stops to tell me the CPU "is corrupted or
has been changed," meaning the BIOS went to its default settings
(300MHz; A,C,SCSI sequence). But it runs.

I thought maybe I corrupted the BIOS in an aborted visit to a site that
had an updated version. But if that were true, the PC wouldn't boot *at
all* right?

Well, boot times grew longer until it really looked done for. I tore
everything down to the bare case, put back the minimum for booting.
Nothing. Found that I'd inverted the floppy connector and fixed it.
Still wouldn't get past the fans-whirring stage. The monitor (back to
the old Hitachi CRT) just blinked at me.

The system's plugged directly to a different wall socket now, and I'm
able to post this because it finally decided to boot. I just dared it to
live and went to get dinner so I don't know *when* it booted, but after
I powered down and re-assembled, it took a good THIRTY minutes.

So -- if you're still reading, bless you -- while I can still get
online, does this look like a problem with the power supply? Scott
Mueller's book speaks of a Power_Good signal that the PS sends to the
motherboard, meaning that the power supply can "maintain outputs
within regulation tolerance...The system will not restart until the
Power_Good signal returns."

Sound likely?? Or bad BIOS? I'm grateful for your ideas, whenever I can
get them.

JM

 

[jad]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

>>>I thought maybe I corrupted the BIOS in an aborted visit to a site that
>>>had an updated version. But if that were true, the PC wouldn't boot *at
>>>all* right?


aborted? in the middle of a flash? Have you reset the cmos yet?


"DemoDisk" <packrat@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:113akaj1pkj6kf2@corp.supernews.com...
> This is about the Old Homebuild that boots and runs normally -- but you
> have to wait 8 - 10 MINUTES first.
>
> First of all, thanks to Ginchy, Jaster, David, & Michael for your
> trouble and advice. I've tried everything you recommended, but the
> problem remains.
>
> The thing is, NOTHING happens with this Celeron 400 homebuild for many
> minutes. The fans run, but the FDD, HDD, and keyboard show no life or
> activity and are silent. Then there's a beep, the hard drive spins up,
> etc. and *voilà* it's running like it didn't know anything was wrong.
> The DOS routine on the monitor stops to tell me the CPU "is corrupted or
> has been changed," meaning the BIOS went to its default settings
> (300MHz; A,C,SCSI sequence). But it runs.
>
> I thought maybe I corrupted the BIOS in an aborted visit to a site that
> had an updated version. But if that were true, the PC wouldn't boot *at
> all* right?
>
> Well, boot times grew longer until it really looked done for. I tore
> everything down to the bare case, put back the minimum for booting.
> Nothing. Found that I'd inverted the floppy connector and fixed it.
> Still wouldn't get past the fans-whirring stage. The monitor (back to
> the old Hitachi CRT) just blinked at me.
>
> The system's plugged directly to a different wall socket now, and I'm
> able to post this because it finally decided to boot. I just dared it to
> live and went to get dinner so I don't know *when* it booted, but after
> I powered down and re-assembled, it took a good THIRTY minutes.
>
> So -- if you're still reading, bless you -- while I can still get
> online, does this look like a problem with the power supply? Scott
> Mueller's book speaks of a Power_Good signal that the PS sends to the
> motherboard, meaning that the power supply can "maintain outputs
> within regulation tolerance...The system will not restart until the
> Power_Good signal returns."
>
> Sound likely?? Or bad BIOS? I'm grateful for your ideas, whenever I can
> get them.
>
> JM
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"JAD" <kapasitor@earthcharter.net> wrote in message
news:vGiZd.1841$eW6.1132@fe02.lga...
> >>>I thought maybe I corrupted the BIOS in an aborted visit to a site
that
> >>>had an updated version. But if that were true, the PC wouldn't boot
*at
> >>>all* right?
>
>
> aborted? in the middle of a flash? Have you reset the cmos yet?

Thanks for responding, jad. Yes, I reset the CMOS.

When I clicked on what I *thought* was the page for the revised BIOS, I
was expecting at least a dialog box, but nothing happened. Now I realize
it wasn't a page link but the link to begin the d/l.

This morning there was an angry buzzing when I tried to power up, so I
removed the PS and opened it up to try and find anything fried inside.
Nothing, except for two small "wafer-ish" bits that may have had some
scorching. Very small, very hard to tell. Not that I could have done
anything about it.

Everything went together again fine and it finished booting after 28
minutes wait. As a result, I can post back to you.

JM (system specs below, HTH)

ABIT BM6 motherboard
256MB ram
20GB IBM HDD
3DFX 3500 AGP TV/FM video card
TB Quadzilla 2 soundcard
ASUS 40X CDROM
Windows 98SE

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

DemoDisk wrote:

> This is about the Old Homebuild that boots and runs normally -- but you
> have to wait 8 - 10 MINUTES first.
>
> First of all, thanks to Ginchy, Jaster, David, & Michael for your
> trouble and advice. I've tried everything you recommended, but the
> problem remains.
>
> The thing is, NOTHING happens with this Celeron 400 homebuild for many
> minutes. The fans run, but the FDD, HDD, and keyboard show no life or
> activity and are silent. Then there's a beep, the hard drive spins up,
> etc. and *voilà* it's running like it didn't know anything was wrong.
> The DOS routine on the monitor stops to tell me the CPU "is corrupted or
> has been changed," meaning the BIOS went to its default settings
> (300MHz; A,C,SCSI sequence). But it runs.

I'd bet it's an Abit motherboard and that's what you get when you overclock
but leave the stop on CPU error box checked. It's an error because that
ain't the right speed for the processor. Uncheck it.


> I thought maybe I corrupted the BIOS in an aborted visit to a site that
> had an updated version. But if that were true, the PC wouldn't boot *at
> all* right?

Not necessarily. It depends on where it aborted. And it could run, but not
properly, with the *wrong* BIOS installed, such as one for the same base
chipset but additional, missing, on board peripherals.

What does "an aborted visit to a site" mean?
^^^^

> Well, boot times grew longer until it really looked done for. I tore
> everything down to the bare case, put back the minimum for booting.
> Nothing. Found that I'd inverted the floppy connector and fixed it.
> Still wouldn't get past the fans-whirring stage. The monitor (back to
> the old Hitachi CRT) just blinked at me.
>
> The system's plugged directly to a different wall socket now, and I'm
> able to post this because it finally decided to boot. I just dared it to
> live and went to get dinner so I don't know *when* it booted, but after
> I powered down and re-assembled, it took a good THIRTY minutes.
>
> So -- if you're still reading, bless you -- while I can still get
> online, does this look like a problem with the power supply? Scott
> Mueller's book speaks of a Power_Good signal that the PS sends to the
> motherboard, meaning that the power supply can "maintain outputs
> within regulation tolerance...The system will not restart until the
> Power_Good signal returns."

A multimeter would answer that question in short order.

> Sound likely?? Or bad BIOS? I'm grateful for your ideas, whenever I can
> get them.
>
> JM

To being with, forget overclocking for the moment. All that's doing is
adding a whole host of other potential problems. Set it up 'stock'.

Then verify that the PSU is operating properly. I've never seen one behave
like that but that doesn't mean it can't happen.