[Talk] Problem system not booting

[Adam Glass]

I'd suggest removing all the peripherals and all but one stick of
memory first.  See if it POSTs that way.

If not, remove that stick of memory and put in another stick and try again, etc.

That way you can at least determine if the problem is bad memory or on
the motherboard.

If the problem is on the motherboard, there is probably not much that
can be done about it.

On the other hand if you can POST this way, then you can start adding
back memory sticks one at a time.  If still successful add one
peripheral at a time until the problem happens again.  The last thing
you added is the culprit.

You mentioned moving the fans.  Some computer cases are designed for a
specific air flow path, and moving the fans or running with the case
open will actually be worse ... might look into that.

--Adam



On 4/12/07, Mike Roach <miker@opensourcemethods.com> wrote:
> I have a machine with a 2 year old MSI MS-6734 M-ATX motherboard with no
> overclocking. Recently it's been having trouble booting and it's getting
> worse. The heads on the 40mb and 80mb drives and cd-rom drive load and
> then nothing happens. I don't know if POST even starts.
>
> The box is an old Powerspec box that survived a lightning strike. The
> original Powerspec motherboard did not, though I was able to recover the
> power supply, RAM, and hard, floppy, and CD-ROM drives. Destruction
> entered the machine through the cable modem connection. The ethernet
> ports on the cable modem and Powerspec supplied network/modem card were
> both taken out. Amazingly, I was able to use the cable modem via its USB
> port until I got a replacement.
>
> I took the system apart a couple weeks ago to try to fix the problem.
> According to my $10 meter the power supply and CMOS battery voltages and
> amp levels are within specs. The fans are turning. I've reseated all the
> power and signal connections and reinserted the RAM. I disconnected the
> floppy drive. I used the jumper to reset the CMOS settings. Before
> reconnecting everything I blew out all the dust I could with compressed air.
>
> A couple times I forgot to turn the machine off after giving up and was
> able to get the machine to boot the next morning in one power cycle. The
> last time it booted I left it running on purpose and when I turned it
> off and back on, it booted but immediately gave the motherboard's high
> temperature siren. I restarted the system without a power cycle and by
> the time shutdown finished and the machine started to come back up, the
> siren went away.
>
> A thermal fault is apparently involved but I haven't been able to
> isolate the problem. Maybe it's a switch somewhere but the power is
> good. It may be a lost cause any way; I started having problems with the
> heat siren going off about a year ago. I changed the CMOS settings to
> fire the heat siren at the second-to-highest temperature setting (148
> degrees, I think.) I've placed a portable fan in the front of the
> cabinet to get enough extra airflow into the space to keep the heat
> siren from firing so often.
>
> Any ideas as to what I can try next?
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