Plaese Help!

I have a very confusing technical problem that I am hoping someone could shed some light on.
I’m running a clone system using a Tyan Trinity and an AMD T-bird 1.2GHz CPU. Everything has been running fine for several months until I attempted to upgrade my 2 old 128MB PC100 DIMMs to a single 512MB PC133 DIMM.

When the new DIMM was installed the system would automatically reboot once it reached the Windows 2000 login screen. I removed the new RAM and re-installed the old RAM, which allowed me to boot the system. Everything was working ok for about 24 hours then the problems started. The CPU fan stopped running, which caused the system to re-boot and the freeze in BIOS. The fan was ok, but the power connector (on the motherboard) for the fan had failed. I connected the fan to a different connector and the system came back up. It then automatically rebooted while in use. I heard the primary hard drive spin down while in use right before the reboot. After the re-boot, the system's BIOS would no longer detect any of the IDE devices connected to it. I replaced the motherboard with an ABIT KT7 RAID, and still it would not detect the IDE devices. I also upgraded the power supply to 400W to make sure I had enough power for what I was running and replaced the CPU to be sure that it did not over heat. Still no luck, partial boot, then restart, then BIOS looses all IDE devices.

When I change the IDE configuration by moving a drive, changing a cable, or clearing the BIOS the hard drive is detected, then fails. Sometimes it gets to Windows then re-boots, some times it fails while loading, other times the BIOS wont detect the Hard drive at all. After any one of these failures the IDE devices absent from the BIOS. I have also tried running just the primary hard drive and a CD-ROM, booting from CD-ROM and reinstall re-installing Win2k, but with no luck.

If anyone has experienced anything like this, please help. I’m at a loss for ideas and out of $.

Thanks a lot,

Chris

Wow! That is quite a story.

Whatever you (or anyone else) changed since the system was working properly, is probably the problem.

Check to see if you did anything else to the system while installing the RAM (was there anything you had to move to install the RAM?). Like changing any cables, knocking anything loose, unhooking and rehooking the wrong way or not fully inserted. Make sure everything is connected right and firmly.

It could be more complex too. Like did you knock a power cable loose that went to the fan, which then in turn caused the system to lose it's cooling, which in turn caused permanent damage?

Sounds like the BIOS, mobo, or HD may be damaged. Did you use static electricity protection when you were working inside it?

Rack your brain to think of anything you might have changed or damaged.

90% of the time, you can figure out the problem by figuring out what changed since the system was working. But if not, it sounds like something fried itself, and you need a repair tech. Is it under warranty? Were you overclocking?

My best guess is that it is your hard drive. What is wrong with your HD I can't say. Try a different one. After that, try a different motherboard.


<b><font color=green> Have a day </font color=green></b> <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Fa1c0n on 05/01/01 03:19 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

After I checked all cables and connectors I did begin to replace things. The motherboard, CPU, and power supply have all been replaced! I am so confused! In my 8 years of building systems, I have never been so dumbfounded!

In all honesty, no, I did not use ESD protection, I usually just touch something grounded before working on the system.

The weird thing is that with all of the replacement parts I’ve used the problem has not changed. Neither of the two IDE hard drives are detected and the CD-R is not detected.

I am so very lost.
Thanks for the help though!

I’m currently running TWO 400W power supplies!
The 5 large case fans and four IDE hard drives (plugged to a PCI add on card) are running off of one 400W AT power supply. Two hard drives, a SCSI DVD-RAM, a CD-R, and the motherboard are plugged into the second 400W ATX power supply.

When the system was originally running it only had one 400W PS. I guess that the original failure was caused by a lack of power that’s why I replaced the MB.

Power shouldn’t be a problem how though.

Like I said before. Did you try a different hard drive?

You need to switch out EVERY last piece that hasn't been switched, in order to rule out what it isn't.


<b><font color=green> Have a day </font color=green></b>