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Old December 31st 04, 12:51 PM
Eddie B.
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"jpsga" wrote in message
news:Gj1Bd.829162$8_6.627204@attbi_s04...

"Eddie B." wrote in message
...
I would appreciate suggestions about a problem I am having.

The PC is based around a GA7N400 Pro mainboard with an Athlon XP2700 cpu.
It has been used for about 2 years. Now, it sometimes won't boot (not
displaying anything on the screen at all), or when booted, will crash
some time later, usually when simply idling (i.e. not actually accepting
key strokes or mouse input). When it crashes, it keeps the cpu cooling
fan (and chipset fan, and case fans) running. After a crash, it
definitely won't reboot, but "sulks" for a few hours or a day or so!

I suspected originally that it was a video card problem, especially as
its cooler was choked with dust, but the cleaned-up Ti4600 (4X) card
works fine in another PC, and the problem PC exhibits the same (no boot)
behaviour with a different card. I have put the hard drive into a
different PC as a "slave", and run a virus check and other diagnostics on
it. The problem PC won't display the pre-boot screen without a hdd
present either. (i.e. I think I have eliminated hdd and video card as the
root of the problem. Am I right to eliminate the psu, on the grounds that
it keeps the fans spinning after a crash?

It may be my imagination, but the problem seems to have occurred after a
Linksys 54g wireless network card was installed - although taking it out
hasn't cured the problem.

It seems to me that the problem must lie either with the mainboard or the
cpu. Can anyone suggest how I might resolve which it is, please (and why
that would give rise to the symptoms experienced)? I'm reluctant to
dismantle a working PC to provide a spare cpu or mainboard, so the
obvious solution (try the cpu on a different mainboard, try a different
mainboard with the XP2700) has to be a last resort.

TIA

Eddie

Complete spec:

GA7N400 Pro mainboard
Athlon XP2700 (333)
512Mb generic RAM (1 stick)
fdd
hdd IBM/Hitachi 120 Gb
PNY GF Ti4600 (4X)
LiteOn DVD CDRW combo
400W psu
Windows XP Pro
Creative SB Live Platinum (with the front panel etc)
Linksys 54g network card

Since the BIOS will generally peep at a bad AGP or memory, I wonder about
the main BIOS chip.

Can you boot from the other BIOS chip?

JPS

Thanks for the advice. I'll have a go at that when I've finished backing up
the stuff from the hdd.

Eddie