K7S5A cracking me up again

[mbetea]

my sister has had this board (my second k7s5a) with a tb 1.4. now out of the blue she calls me up just a few mins ago telling me the thing restarted and coming up with a blank screen (no video signal). had her make sure the video card was seated, ram, etc. still nothing. had her clear cmos, got it to boot, went into bios and she changed the clock frequency (from 100/100 to 133/133). that's about the only settings she needs changed. well back to the blank screen. had her clear it again and just see if she could boot to windows. it does, but wants to reinstall all hardware. do not know why exactly seeing that bios defaults should set it to acpi enable and pnp os yes. after 3 months now of normal operation it's starts this crap. the ram is from crucial 256mb ddr2100, psu is my old sparkle 400w and i know that thing is fine. so basically the thing won't boot up running 133/133 after it has been. as far as i know and what she told me, the computer hasn't been moved/jolted/no new hardware/etc. it's not that extensive of a system, just basic components: mobo, cpu, hdd, floppy, cdrw, video card and onboard lan/sound. now i get to go and drive for a couple hours out to her and see what's wrong.

Windows XP cd makes a great coaster

 

[mbetea]

well, before i could get over there, she called me up and told me the thing completely crapped out. even running with default bios settings (100/100/etc). said it froze up, then rebooted and was just a blank screen, no post. got over there took out the video card and powered up, nothing, not even any beeps. put that back in, took out the ram, nothing, no beeps. took out the cpu, nothing, no beeps. the cpu looks fine, it's been operating between 49C-52C and there was no burn marks or anything. joy, sounds like another lemon. great board.

Windows XP cd makes a great coaster

 

[Ncogneto]

Funny, the symptons you describe before a complete death point towards something other than the motherboard. Have you checked the power supply and CPU in another system?

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!

 

[mbetea]

everything is running though, hsf, cdrom, hdd, etc. i plugged the psu into my comp, worked fine and that's with a lot more ram/hdds/cdr(w)/pci cards than what she has. so it's not the psu. i didn't try the cpu in my comp, but i did pop my xp1700 in there, which i know works because that's what i'm on right now. that didn't do no good. so between what the cpu temp was always, my xp1700 not going bad then back to working and thinking i don't have that bad of luck. i'm going with another bad mobo. i just always thought it was humorous since i got the second one and it had a nice big "recommended by tom's hardware guide" sticker plastered on the front of it. i don't think i'm going to try my luck again with this board, 2 is enough for me.

Windows XP cd makes a great coaster

 

[Ncogneto]

What you going to do withthat board?

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!

 

[mbetea]

well, i doubt anything will happen, <b>but</b> i'll see what i can do about getting a replacement or refund. it's well past the dealer's warranty so it looks like i'll have to go to ecs. i'm thinking though it's probably more hassle than it's worth. maybe use it as a decorative key rack.

Windows XP cd makes a great coaster

 

[Ncogneto]

Well if your going to make a keychain out of it let me know I would like to buy it off you to play with.

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!

 

[mbetea]

hmm, i'm wondering now if it's the board or what now. i know the board is toast. but what i do not understand is it's happening at her place again. to make a long story short i ended up giving her (for the time being) my ga-7vtx-p with xp1700 and one stick of infineon ram. with my board i tried both cpu's and kept getting errors trying to install windows (me, 2000 and xp) so i took out the ram and popped in a stick of mine, it worked. she got it home and after a few hours said it was giving her the same thing again (not posting, no video-signal error). but i don't know or think it's the psu in there, it worked fine when i took it out and hooked it up to my setup. so i told her to plug it directly into the wall and go and buy a new surge protector. well plugging it into the wall made it post and is working fine. i thought it was strange after a few months of perfect performance it does this. and then to a second comp(luckily the second one isn't fried).

Windows XP cd makes a great coaster

 

[Ncogneto]

Well I would say that sheds a bit of doubt on it being the boards fault....She does,nt need a surge protector she needs a UPS. I've run across something simular in the past with a house that had a low voltage problem, causing sponateous reboots and such, which ultimatly led to one royally screwed up OS. It seemed that everytime the refrigerator kicked in this would happen. You sound like you have something simular but perhaps in the opposite direction, perhaps a high voltage problem?

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!

 

[Ncogneto]

And by the way just how do yo know the board is toast? Any signs of burnt parts? Usally the first item to go is the boards bios chip and it is worth a go to reflash it. Set the computer up with some known good memory,CPU, a vid card and a floppy. Remove the CMOS jumper completly and look for signs of floppy access, If you do you have a heartbeat and theres a good chance it can be saved.

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by ncogneto on 02/26/02 01:34 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[mbetea]

that's the thing, i see no physical damage to any components. the cpu is worked fine with the other mobo, but for some reason, the ram that was in her machine wouldn't work in the other mobo. wasn't able to install windows (any of them) kept getting errors, etc. so i got an exchange from crucial on the ram and now it's fine. there's nothing on the mobo that would indicate anything wrong. but i just tried getting it going earlier. with the jumper set to regular, jumper off, nothing. just with cpu, ram and video card.

Windows XP cd makes a great coaster