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Thread ID: 64809	2005-12-29 03:57:00	Turning off and crashing problem.	Mantis (3703)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
416386	2005-12-29 07:39:00	PC Company? Hate to say it, but could be the Motherboard. Have had to replace quite a few of them from that era. (in PC Company systems that is) ditto, done 1/2 a dozen this year Do you knwo what the symptons were before you replaced the mobo? Is there a defiante way to find out if the mobo is in fact the problem? Thanks alot. M.	Mantis (3703)
416387	2005-12-29 08:03:00	A definite way to pinpoint the mobo as the problem? Sort of, run through every other bit of hardware untill only the mobo/cpu are left ,Pretty simple for a shop/repair person who can bung in new ram,PSU,video, whatever. A big ask for someone without those resources.	Metla (12)
416388	2005-12-29 09:01:00	PC Company? Hate to say it, but could be the Motherboard. Have had to replace quite a few of them from that era. (in PC Company systems that is) I can identify with that one - and I don't think I've fully got over my experience. They even identified a faulty motherboard when my USB ports stopped working and said they would replace it. Looks like all they did was shuffle the PCI cards around in the same motherboard - a clear violation of the CGA. If they were still around I would have been inclined to throw the book at them, so to speak. (Skeleton returns to closet, having enjoyed his day out) As for your problem, it might be the installation of the OS & software image - PC Co. did funny things with their branding within Windows and keeping the whole Windows installation on a recovery disk (No Windows OS CD-ROM). This could be the cause of my machine occasionally locking up when booting up or shutting down, so it might not just be the hardware.	D. McG (3023)
416389	2005-12-29 09:36:00	I have several diagnostic programs that help me track sticky problems down which will stress and test each component on the board as well as the hd drive, video etc They are not foolproof though and sometimes its a process of elimination really As M says remove all addon cards and usb peripherals. 0. Set bios to defaults then 'disable' fast boot, disable any onboard sound, networking etc. 1. Boot with only hdd attached and make sure all cables are firmly attached 2. Disconnect the cd drive as well (I've seen a faulty one of these bring a machine down before) 3. Try another PSU, they only came out with a crappy no name 230w and it's nowhere near enough to run a 1.7 along with a cd writer, and the usual usb peripherals etc 4. Remove the ram and reseat then run on one stick if you have 2 installed 5. Replace ram with another stick of "known good" ram 6. If you are using onboard video, try an agp or pci card instead 7. If you're already using an addon graphics card, swap it out with a known good one As for overheating issues, while it can't be discounted it's pretty rare I see almost every problem posted here lately has had someone reply with "Sounds like overheating" in all the years I've been repairing PC's I've only had a couple that were due to an overheating CPU. even so, Check the fans in the PSU and on the CPU and make sure they are clear of dust etc and spinning freely, also clean out the heatsink as they get pretty clogged up Give the heatsink on the CPU a "GENTLE" twist and make sure it isn't too loose If you're feeling brave remove the heatsink, clean the top of the CPU and the bottom of the heatsink, apply some good quality thermal paste and reseat If all this fails, toss the board I've also replaced several hard drive in these machines so if you can get your hands on another drive to try would eliminate the drive as the problem, although XP prolly wouldn't have installed if the drive was dodgy	bartsdadhomer (80)
416390	2005-12-29 11:13:00	I have also had to replace a number of Motherboards on PC company computers of that era. In particular the ones using the full size Elitegroup Motherboards these boards while often not failing completely would just never run right, bluescreens, reboots, loss of video signal at intermittent times were common occurences with them. I have a suspicion that a large part of the problem was the substandard cases the PC Company used, because the boards were full sized ATX they would only tightly fit into the case and in some cases it would have been necessary to have to flex the board to get it to fit onto the preinstalled case rises. (it certainly took quite a bit of leverage to get it off them) The really annoying thing was they would sometimes run two or three days sweet as a nut then on the 3rd or 4th start losing video then blue screening (had this happen personally twice) when running sweet both passed burnintest pro's most rigorous stress test. Others you can pick up easily as already mentioned by simply swapping out components and using the elimination technique.	Alan Cotrell (6634)
416391	2005-12-29 20:17:00	3. Try another PSU, they only came out with a crappy no name 230w and it's nowhere near enough to run a 1.7 along with a cd writer, and the usual usb peripherals etc Not always ... but yeah in general I suppose. I had one of these PSUs running 2 hd, 2 optical drives, as well as other components for ages with no hassles (over a year and a half). The onlty reason it was replaced was due to it starting to get noisier (though I relubed the fan bearing and it now resides in the spare machine) I will say ever since getting stung with a PC Co comp, I have learnt to dislike Elitegroup mobos and Maxtor harddrives AS for the thread starter, see if you can find a mate who would be willling to hook up your psu, RAM, and harddrives to there mobo/cpu (if compatible). If it runs ok (the O/S will probably not boot coz of drivers) but will discount those components	Myth (110)
416392	2005-12-29 20:34:00	oh yep if it's an ECS mobo then that's most likely at fault .they were very bad have you had a look for 'bulging' capacitors on the board ?.... i've also replaced about 12 of those boards this last year....they dont always show faults in the caps but they're not to be trusted they're BAD boards...........'purple death' board lol. K7VTA3 were the BADDIES......	drcspy (146)
416393	2005-12-30 09:53:00	Thanks everyone for the help . I'll try and isolate the problem this weekend . I guess I'll start browsing for a new mobo . Thanks again . M .	Mantis (3703)
416394	2005-12-30 10:00:00	Remember that changing the motherboard will mean the PC recovery CD will likely not work, so a new copy of XP should be on the list at the same time (OEM price is best and will be available with a mobo purchase) I think the PC Co CDs were BIOS locked to the motherboard, and a reinstall will be needed to get a new motherboard with different specs working.	godfather (25)
416395	2005-12-30 10:24:00	Last PC Company CD I looked at was just a rebranded XP install CD..... So double check, if you can.	Metla (12)
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