I have an 8 year-old locally assembled computer, described below, which failed seemingly with a motherboard problem. It was brought back to life, but only partially, by a local technician, who did not however succeed in making it usable.
Running Windows XP Pro, I can use Safe mode and access every file and programme, but Normal mode fails to load. The process stops, without any error message. The blue dots of the splash screen are displayed for a few cycles and then the screen goes black.
In an XP forum I was told that either the PSU or the mother board is inadequate and I was advised to throw it away. There is no hope of getting a replacement motherboard, and I do not have a PSU lying around with which to experiment. However, I would like to reclaim it for limited use (e.g. checking my email if my main computer should fail) if possible. I don't know enough about computer hardware to determine whether a "weak" mother board could explain the above symptoms, and if some expert can defintely pin it down to the PSU, I would be glad to buy a replacement.
Specs (found with Belarc advisor):
Processor: 1.1 GHz Pentium III
Main Board: i810-ITE, bus clock 100 MHz
BIOS: Award Software 6.00 PD 03/01/2001
Memory: only 128 MB currently (I had 256MB but one stick has failed). The remaining stick has been tested thorougly with MEMTEST, and as far as I know XP should at least load with 128 MB.
I should mention that I had two hard disks with XP Pro that used to work on this computer. On one of them I tried a "Repair Install" on the supposedly repaired computer when XP failed to load in Normal mode. All the files loaded but the process stalled at the point where the computer needs to be restarted to complete the Setup. Safe mode works fine on the other hard disk.
I will be grateful if some expert could give me an opinion.
raminder singh
Running Windows XP Pro, I can use Safe mode and access every file and programme, but Normal mode fails to load. The process stops, without any error message. The blue dots of the splash screen are displayed for a few cycles and then the screen goes black.
In an XP forum I was told that either the PSU or the mother board is inadequate and I was advised to throw it away. There is no hope of getting a replacement motherboard, and I do not have a PSU lying around with which to experiment. However, I would like to reclaim it for limited use (e.g. checking my email if my main computer should fail) if possible. I don't know enough about computer hardware to determine whether a "weak" mother board could explain the above symptoms, and if some expert can defintely pin it down to the PSU, I would be glad to buy a replacement.
Specs (found with Belarc advisor):
Processor: 1.1 GHz Pentium III
Main Board: i810-ITE, bus clock 100 MHz
BIOS: Award Software 6.00 PD 03/01/2001
Memory: only 128 MB currently (I had 256MB but one stick has failed). The remaining stick has been tested thorougly with MEMTEST, and as far as I know XP should at least load with 128 MB.
I should mention that I had two hard disks with XP Pro that used to work on this computer. On one of them I tried a "Repair Install" on the supposedly repaired computer when XP failed to load in Normal mode. All the files loaded but the process stalled at the point where the computer needs to be restarted to complete the Setup. Safe mode works fine on the other hard disk.
I will be grateful if some expert could give me an opinion.
raminder singh