Odd Hardware Problem

[zipp51]

Hi All,

Just built a system for a friend.AMD XP 1600+,the rest is not high end so the parts aren't mentioned.The idea was to build a good cheap upgrade from a K6-2 system.The Mobo is a K7s5A Elite(ECS).Everything went fine,Win2kPro got installed and all peripherals as well as cable modem work perfectly.The problem is I can shut down the comp but it gets no beep codes at all when I reboot and just churns away between the cd rom and cdrw with the hard drive light staying on.When I reach around back and shut off the power switch and turn it back on and then press the power switch on the front of the case it boots up no problem.It will restart ok.Oh yeah I know I shouldn't shut the switch off while it's spinning.I've checked the lead wires,and changed and removed pci cards,reinstalled windows start up files.Anyone ever run into this problem before?I have but it has always been like polarity on the lead wires or wrong voltage.I have an idea it might be the power supply or one of the switches.

[FthrJACK]

in the BIOS turn off the following then try it

P+P OS (may also be listed as plug n play)

Boot Sector Virus Scan

make sure that APM is enabled, you might have to enable that in the BIOS, or on some machines in power management settings in control panel.

if that fails theres a few fixes on Microsoft Update for hibernetion and reboot problems, install all of them.

any effect?

[zipp51]

Thanks FthrJack,but the p+p is disabled and it has no virus scan in this bios.It has ACPI Aware O/S enabled as well as Power Management.It has a 4x AGP slot which with an older Voodoo3 2000 card.I also tried an 8mb ATI AGP card.Another note here I thought it might be because I installed SP3 and when I go to Windows update there is an error so when it scans for updates it says I need everything.Shouldn't do this I am supposed to be up to date.

[FthrJACK]

in that case find something solid, and hard, like a pavement, drop the box on it, hard.

does it work now?

hehehe it worked on the apple 2

ill think about it bud, it IS an odd problem

[zipp51]

If this were my computer one of my other comp's would have another hard drive and more ram and we would't be having this discussion.LOL I'd have a former bud that looked like this if I smashed it now

But seriously I'm going on vacation and will try some ideas when I get back meanwhile the comp is running and I told him not to shut it down except in an electrical storm.If you come up with something I'll be reading the posts first thing.Hope all is well in the UK

[FthrJACK]

This is bugging me as much as it is you i expect, i hate not figuring stuff out.

my only other two ideas short of flying over and having a look are:

motherboard is damaged

have you checked all the jumpers on the board?

(i expect you have your not daft, but i have to ask...)

other than that zipp im stuck

[zipp51]

I'm back from vacation.Yeah Fthr Jack I checked the wires but didn't try any thing different with the reset switch lead which I have learned may be a solution.Also I learned that within the first second or so of boot up the psu takes the time to generate the proper dc voltage to operate. Before this time, if the computer were allowed to try to boot up, strange results could occur since the power might not be at the right voltage.So the power supply sends a "power ok" or "power good" signal to the mobo.I don't think that this is happening normally.I guess this happens with cheap psu's.In addition, the power supply will turn off the Power Good signal if a power surge or glitch causes it to malfunction. It will then turn the signal back on when the power is OK again, which will reset the computer.This seems to be what is happening because as I said before I switch off the psu on the back of the system case and then back on and she recieves the signal and all is well.Hey I like hardware problems too,it bugs the hell out of me when I can't figure it out.I'm going to pick up the comp this week as I "gulp" let my bud use one of mine for a loaner.I will keep you and anyone else interested,posted as to what happens.

[zipp51]

Sorry I took so long to get back.The problem was a bad power supply.It's not good to go cheap on a power supply.This was the first one that I built that I tried to save on a case power supply combo.Never again.

[FthrJACK]

Glad you sorted it zipp

[Porn Loader]

had a similar problem with a kx7-333. i ordered it from newegg. board would power up, all fans running, but no video signal. monitor would just stay in standby.

i was using a 300watt psu that came with my inwin (it was running a tbird 1.33, 2 sticks of ram, cdrom, cdrw, 1hdd, gf4, and 4 case fans.. should be more than enough power). so i run out and pick up a antec 330 truepower. same problem. no video signal. swapped video cards twice ( gf2ti, gf2 pro). still not running.

take it over to my friends, plug everything in. it does the same thing on the 1st boot...... but after that it worked fine. hes had it for about 3 months now. he bought it from me, and i ordered a new kx7-333.

install it, board posted fine, booted into xp first try.

so i try re-install xp cause i was going from a kt133a to kt333..... xp doesnt recognize the drive (ibm 60 gxp). it would just chug. it took about 30 minutes to get to the eula.....

my $300 upgrade turned into a $500 upgrade