"Seth_J" wrote in message
...
My sister recently shipped me a nonfunctioning Compaq SR2037X desktop
thinking maybe I could get it working again since I've been in computers
since the 1980's. She's already sent it to a tech guy who replaced
various components including the motherboard and CPU and yet it still
won't go. Here's what I've done so far.
I do get a bootup screen and can run around in BIOS just fine.
At first I thought it was just some loose cables since the power supply
cable to the SATA drive had come off. Hooked it back on. NTLDR is
missing. No biggie there, I was planning to install PCBSD on it
anyway.
I put the installation DVD in, and...it keeps hanging on various spots
in the kernel loading process. Just freezes solid. So okay, I'l try
the second option, installing Ubuntu 10.4 on it.
Only that DVD won't work either. I've tried both on other systems and
they work just fine, so I know it isn't the media causing this.
For the heck of it, I tried downgrading to Ubuntu 9.04. That installed
flawlessly from the CD. Very interesting. I upgraded it to 9.10. That
worked too. But when I tried to upgrade to 10.4 over the internet, it
hung up again. I feel like there's a clue in there somewhere, but
exactly what it's pointing to, I don't know.
Next up from the 9.04 CD I ran both a hard drive and a memory test.
Hard drive tested okay. Now the kicker is this desktop has two memory
modules. If I remove one, then test the other, that works fine. The
module and slot don't seem to matter. If I put them both in there, the
test starts showing errors after about the fourth time through. This
seems like another clue, as if a memory handler can't do its job right.
Now what could it be? I wonder about the power supply thinking maybe
something's getting too hot and failing in there or sending an erratic
or incorrect voltage. Unfortunately I have no VOM meter to test this
theory, and even if I did I don't know the specs, though I'm sure I
could find them somewhere.
So, what do you think? Anyone encounter a problem like this before?
Back to square one ... did your sister DO anything to the PC before the
problem ?
I'd suspect memory too, since with a new mb and new CPU - what's left ?
Just power and memory.
Is video memory onboard motherboard or separate video card ?
monitor settings ? If you leave in basic VGA, 800x600 , nothing fancy, does
that work OK ?
Either mem stick works OK alone, but are they identical memory sticks ? the
same SPEED ?
In BIOS go to advanced / memory section and toggle memory options.
On the motherboard , if in pairs are they accessed differently than if only
one stick ?
Switches to be set ?
I didn't have your exact model number, but guessing at it from :
http://partsurfer.hp.com/WSearch.asp...chText=SR2037X
got me:
MEMORY INFO:
P8670-69004
512MB, PC2-4300, DDR2-533, SDRAM DIMM memory