Possiable motherboard problem

[tcman41]

I am trying to fix a friend's computer, i believe it has a jetway b88 motherboard in it. Just recently i installed some new memory, a new graphics card and reformatted the hard drive and loading on a corporate edition of windows xp. I then loaded on all the drives, updates and software and tested it a number of times, everything worked perfect.

It then was stored in my girlfriends spare bedroom which was about 60 degrees for a month until the friend could come and pick it up. He set it up in his new house and turned it on it was completely dead. I immediately replaced the power supply and now it comes on and loads windows xp but after about two minutes it turns itself off. It usually takes about 3 or 4 tries to get it to turn back on and then it does the same thing again.

Any suggestions as to what is going on, right before it turns off it sounds like it is trying to access the hard drive , i hear the disc bounce a bit and then the computer turns off. My guess is that iit's either a bad hard drive or there is a component on the motherboard that is failing, any help would be greatly appreciated.

TC

 

[nzxtlexa]

Hi tcman41,

This sounds like an overheating problem to me, most likely the CPU. It's obviously booting and then reaching the max temperature that is set in the bios and shutting down automatically as a safety precaution.

Check to make sure the CPU is seated properly and that the heatsink is properly installed.
Another possibility is that the graphics card overheating, although this is less likely.

In the past I've heard this problem being solved by simply reapplying thermal paste on the CPU or reseating the heatsink to make sure its secure.

hope this helps

 

[tcman41]

Thanks NZX,

It does seem like something is overheating, my guess was maybe a component on the motherboard but i think your suggestion of the cpu is much more likely. Its just an old p4 2.8gz chip with the standard intel heatsink, I will take it apart tonight, clean the fan, reapply paste and then try it. The computer is pretty old so it is possiable that the paste has just dryed out or something, perhaps the somewhat cold room has something to do with it.

 

[nzxtlexa]

ok sounds like a good plan. let me know what happens.

 

[tcman41]

Well, i cleaned the heatsink and fan, applied new paste (the old paste was pretty dry and crusty) but the computer still turns off when trying to boot into windows.

If i boot the computer and go into the bios screen or boot into safe mode then the computer stays on, its only when i go to boot into normal windows xp does the computer turn off or not even get into windows.

I tried to do xp recover/repair with the os disk but it couldn't get back into windows to finish the repair, also now i can't boot into safe mode.

It's looking like the hard drive may have a boot sector error, perhaps when the power supply went. So i am going to buy a new hard drive reload windows, the drivers and software onto it and hope that fixes the problem. The only thing is that i went through all this about a month ago and the computer was working perfect, now after setting around not being used for a month and then turned on once with an apparent power supply failure now it doesn't boot into windows, very strange.

 

[rockstone1]

Go to the bios and check the maximum temperature before thermal shutdown?

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Try popping open the case and seeing if the heatsink is clogged with any dust or anything. I once had a pc that would overheat b/c it was really dusty beside the pc, so the fins of the heatsink would get dust clogged in them.