View Single Post
  #1  
Old December 20th 16, 01:30 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 533
Default Video: Skybuck's DreamPC from 2006 boots up strangely

Hello,

This video on youtube shows the strange procedure I have to follow to boot up my computer lately:

https://youtu.be/oglScNl_jjw

This strange problem started occuring after I accidently put the computer into sleep mode, and re-powered the system after the power was cut but the fans had not completely stopped spinning.

Did perhaps the spinning of the fans cause some kind of purge surge ?

Perhaps the copper coils inside the fans caused some kind of feedback power into the system ?

My first hypothesis/hunch was that it might be a bios bug/race condition.

I pulled out all cables, cut the power, even removed the battery, but this did not help. So perhaps it's hardware damage instead of software bug ?

One last thing I have not tried yet is to reset the CMOS ? Perhaps the CMOS of my DreamPC can remember settings without batery power ? To me that seems somewhat unlikely but what do I know ?!

Anyway I share this video with you to show this very strange and bizar boot sequence/problem/procedure.

I would love to hear any theories/hypothesis what might be causing this.

So far, before I showed this video and told this story people have written back with following feedback/advice/theories:

1. Power supply might be giving a bad "good power" signal. DreamPC2006 currently has OCZ Stream X power supply it has. (I could look into it further for more details though googling Skybuck's DreamPC might also uncover more info about it from my previous postings). Personally I cannot imagine this brand which was somewhat expensive to have this problem ? Though I can imagine that wear and tear over the years might have caused this... or perhaps lightning. Then again it seems very minor and such... so very strange... It didn't fail completely... it's just behaving strangely ???

2. Wrong settings for CPU ? The system boots with defaults... no overclocking is used or ever was used. Surely the system should boot with defaults ? I cannot imagine it not booting with defaults... Very strange. Perhaps try and set it to 2.0 ghz instead of standard ?! Haven't tried this yet cause it's such a strange theory and I am not sure if setting different settings than default is save.

3. Batteries inside keyboard/mouse remembering weird settings. My mouse/keyboard don't have any batteries, they just USB. I don't know if they have any memory though that stays resident after power cut ?!?

4. All cables were removed and power shutdown and CMOS battery removed, and everything reconnected, this did not help.

Was further strange about this system which it has done for years now. When I touch a key or mouse or even the case it would power on ?! Those settings were disabled in the bios but it still does it ?! Could this indicate some strange wiring problem ?

5. My latest theory, some plug/cable is misplaced inside of it, or the flash/card reader drive is causing some strange electrical effect, or perhaps even wrongly connected, I even once fried a system with such a plug connecting it wrongly... I believe I did connect it correctly... but perhaps these are just shady devices. I don't feel like experimenting with replugging cables unless there is hardcore proof that something was connected wrongly ! I'd right not fry my system or mess with it... unless some solution sounds credible and doesn't sound like it could endager my system. This system has to survive until at least 2017 february. By that time I should have a new AMD Zen based system ! =D But it would be very cool if my old computer woulds survive like all my other computers... there is a lot of info on it and it's still usefull and it would make a nice backup computer.

This current boot procedure is making me nervous... I am slightly worried that someday this will cause it to fry to death. Since these components are old and especially the socket 939 motherboard, I will probably not find an replacement easily.... though I just remembered I do have a backup motherboard lying around somewhere, so perhaps that could save me in the feature in case it's the motherboard and/or it's chips that go bad in the near future..

Let me know what you think is causing this weird power on/boot problem ?!?!?!?

Bye,
Skybuck.