Muzman on 25/10/2009 at 08:21
Yeah good point, cheers. In the end it wasn't so much cheaper to get a new drive as much quicker than finding the adapter/expander doohickey.
Anyway, got that slew of new parts like I said. I first put in the new PSU to see what would happen. Answer: nothing. Exact same problem persisted, despite my buff new super slick Corsair chugging away.
I can't really afford to wait around and see if it eventually did start up one day, unfortunately, so I pulled it out and pressed on with the full rebuild.
As you can now see, indirectly, that's going ok. I haven't tried the graphics card yet (as I left it at my sister's house). There wasn't any sign of damage on the old motherboard when I pulled it out. I suppose there wouldn't be.
Muzman on 29/10/2009 at 22:38
It's Aliiieeeeeve! \o/
I know you're all waiting, breath baited, for the verdict. What else have you got to do with your time? let's face it.
Well the video card also lives, much to my amazement (annoyingly, now it looks kinda crap compared to the rest of my machine).
I guess that leaves the motherboard then. Since it worked fine now and then the processors must therefore be ok, yes?
What on earth would cause a motherboard to work fine once every few days?
baeuchlein on 30/10/2009 at 13:04
Quote Posted by Muzman
It's Aliiieeeeeve! \o/
You're speaking of the new machine built from the newly bought parts, right?
Quote Posted by Muzman
Well the video card also lives, much to my amazement
I was already expecting this, since removing this card did
not remove the problem.
Quote Posted by Muzman
I guess that leaves the motherboard then. Since it worked fine now and then the processors must therefore be ok, yes?
What on earth would cause a motherboard to work fine once every few days?
That the machine worked fine every now and then does not mean that your CPUs are OK, but the fact that changing the CPU of the failed machine did
not result in a working computer immediately shows that the problem lies elsewhere, not in the part you just exchanged. Your CPUs should be fine.
If we leave some very obscure explanations out (and I think we should do that), everything points to the motherboard.
Why it works sometimes, and sometimes it's dead, is a great mystery and probably will stay like this forever.
One hint is that it's mainly a problem whenever the computer has
not been on standby before, meaning that some piece of hardware apparently has problems when that piece is too cold. Since it does not happen when the computer was on standby, it's apparantly a part which is partially powered up (and therefore generates some heat in the process) when the machine is on standby. A loose contact whenever it's too cold appears to be responsible for all this.
Another hint is that there were problems booting up and/or problems with the PCIe graphics card, meaning that the malfunctioning part of the motherboard is involved when the graphics card is used. I don't know what's up with PCIe boards, but my ancient boards with AGP slots usually handle the AGP slot through the so-called "northbridge" of the board's chipset; this is a large chip usually hidden below a large piece of metal (a heatsink for passive cooling) and close to the CPU.
But even if you can identify the faulty piece of hardware, the question is whether any kind of repair could be applied. If it's just a bad solder point somewhere, one could possibly fix it, but if there's something failing inside a chip, there's not much one can do. Maybe if you could heat up the machine before turning it on... but I doubt that's a realistic idea.
Muzman on 5/12/2009 at 13:12
Interesting idea, cheers ( Yes, only the new machine works. 'scuse the lateness. Been busy using it).
A mount point or two were missing in the old case. I didn't think much of it before, but I'm wondering now if just installing pieces on it caused a little stress fracture somewhere on the back of the motherboard or something.
I'll probably bung it in a different case build one day.
baeuchlein on 8/12/2009 at 10:54
Quote Posted by Muzman
A mount point or two were missing in the old case. I didn't think much of it before, but I'm wondering now if just installing pieces on it caused a little stress fracture somewhere on the back of the motherboard or something.
Possible. Try to use as many mount points as possible if you use this motherboard again, maybe the fracture will remain closed, then.
ceebs on 8/12/2009 at 15:36
Whats the system clock doing?
This sounds vaguely like a bios battery failure
