BX6 rev2 boot problem

Here's the problem. my wifes PC WAS working absolutely fine
most of the time but more and more often it started to
switch off with NO warning at all. It then would'nt even POST when
I attempted to restart. No bios screen no hard drive activity no CPU

fan.
The PSU fan would be on and the RED HD light would be permanantly lit
until I disconnected both the CD Rom drive and switched the pc off at

the
back. It would then boot as normal when I reconnected them.

But as of today it will now not start-up at all. Still PSU fan

noise and
permanent
red light at front of case but thats as far as it will go even after

being
left unplugged
for 2 hours.


Here's what I've done so far to troubleshoot the problem....
when the machine WAS working of course.

1....Removed cd rom power and ide cables ..still failed after a few

days.
2....Booted from floppy and used 2 different DOS ram testers and left

them
running
for 10 hours .. NO faults reported.
3....Checked the temp of the cpu which was fairly normal (38c in

bios).
4...Within Windows Xp (Sp2) .. ran 3d mark2001 and prime 95 seperately

and
together
to try and test CPU/RAM & video card to force a crash .. no failures

after
10 hours
of testing.

And these extra things I've tried today in an attept to revive the

machine

1 . Disconnected all ide drives .....still no boot
2. Tried working cmos battery ...still no boot

So I've tried ALL I know.. can anybody give me any more ideas .. can

the
PSU be dead even if he fan on it is working. and giving out power to

the led
?


I've now left it overnight the PC will now post and let me into bios.
on each boot it now shows post screen detects cpu, harddrive and

updates ESCD then
resets EVERY time.

Today I've tested PSU with multimeter and found it to accurate
on each Molex connector and also on the ATX 20 pin power connector

pins
to what the manual states AND various tech sites on the net.

I've replaced the cpu with another ..Exactly same ..still no boot
I've replaced Video card with another .............still no boot
I've now removed sound card and network card ..... still no boot.

I CAN boot with floppy and used the hard drive util from Maxtor ..
It passes all manufacturer tests.
When booting from floppy I can "see" the Hardrive and its contents !

So it's even more confusing now .... perhaps the HD boot block is

now corrupt,
but would that make the machine reboot....I would have thought a bad

boot block would
just throw up an error message or something ??

***********************************************

PC stats are as follows...
Abit bx6 (rev2)
************
Cpu P2 266 (slot 1)
320mb edo ram
1 Maxtor 30gb HD ....own IDE channel
1 DVD rom drive .own IDE channel

Geforce1 256DDR .................................AGP slot
3com Ethernet 10/100 card..........................pci 2
SB 128............................................pci 4

Did you check the capacitors? See Homie's site:
http://motherboardrepair.com/

Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~mobo.help/


On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 21:43:14 +0100, "Ian"
wrote:



snip

PC stats are as follows...
Abit bx6 (rev2)

snip

Cheers HAL,
.... Very good info I'm looking into it ..!!!

Latest UPDATE on my problem if you can be bothered ...can you advise more ??


The BOOTING RESET was caused by a screwed XP installation (agp440.sys)
caused by the last cut-out ..as a repair of Xp sorted it out). .. still
doesnt explain WHY
these cut outs happen though.
So its back to normal completely although without sound card & nic for the
moment .
As before it seems rock steady and will pass all benches/tests I can thow at
it.
But one day I'll simply cut out I'm pretty convinced as I've changed
nothing ..weird !

As you may have read I did TRY another CPU (and cleared bios) and
although it made no
diffrence to the booting problem. I've noticed that when I did all my
probing with my meter when IT was
installed ALL the voltages looked well within the limits and the +12 was
always
between 11.81 & 12.10.
BUT tonight I've put the original CPU back in and noticed in Bios sensors
(haven't had time
to probe with meter yet) that the +12V was fluctuating from around 8v to no
higher than 11v the whole time I was observing & the CPU fan would slow as
the voltage dropped.
This definatly did not happen with the other CPU installed.
So I'm now thinking that somehow this CPU is dragging the voltage down and
this has been
causing the resetting symptoms described over the last 6 months or so.
Not sure if it possible for this to be the cause but I've chaged nothing
else tonight
... any ideas mate ???

My problem is that I'm not familiar with this board. Also, I've not
had a mobo with a capacitor problem - I've just heard lots of others
talking about it.

You might try the more popular abit newsgroup:
alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit

Also you might try emailing homie and describing your voltage
fluctuations. Also tell him the operating frequency of both cpu's as
cpu power consumption is related to cpu frequency.

Of course it could just be a power supply problem. Might want to ask
around and see if anyone will lend you theirs for a quick test.

Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~mobo.help/


On Fri, 1 Oct 2004 00:10:11 +0100, "Ian"
wrote:

Cheers HAL,
... Very good info I'm looking into it ..!!!

Latest UPDATE on my problem if you can be bothered ...can you advise more ??


The BOOTING RESET was caused by a screwed XP installation (agp440.sys)
caused by the last cut-out ..as a repair of Xp sorted it out). .. still
doesnt explain WHY
these cut outs happen though.
So its back to normal completely although without sound card & nic for the
moment .
As before it seems rock steady and will pass all benches/tests I can thow at
it.
But one day I'll simply cut out I'm pretty convinced as I've changed
nothing ..weird !

As you may have read I did TRY another CPU (and cleared bios) and
although it made no
diffrence to the booting problem. I've noticed that when I did all my
probing with my meter when IT was
installed ALL the voltages looked well within the limits and the +12 was
always
between 11.81 & 12.10.
BUT tonight I've put the original CPU back in and noticed in Bios sensors
(haven't had time
to probe with meter yet) that the +12V was fluctuating from around 8v to no
higher than 11v the whole time I was observing & the CPU fan would slow as
the voltage dropped.
This definatly did not happen with the other CPU installed.
So I'm now thinking that somehow this CPU is dragging the voltage down and
this has been
causing the resetting symptoms described over the last 6 months or so.
Not sure if it possible for this to be the cause but I've chaged nothing
else tonight
.. any ideas mate ???

On Fri, 1 Oct 2004, - HAL9000 wrote:

Of course it could just be a power supply problem. Might want to ask
around and see if anyone will lend you theirs for a quick test.

I have an Abit BE6 and had similar problems. Changing the PSU made the
problems go away and it has been fine ever since.

David
--
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Internet: | writing from |
| Fidonet: David Rance 2:252/110 | Caversham, |
| BBS: telnet://mesnil.demon.co.uk | Reading, UK |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

Just add a finish to this thread .. I sourced a dry solder joint on the ATX
power supply
to MOBO ... which when moved caused voltages to drop to as low as 8v on +12v
rail.
Resoldered it and all voltages are now normal and rock steady !
All problems have dissapeared (o:
Cheers all who put me in the right direction.

"David Rance" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 1 Oct 2004, - HAL9000 wrote:

Of course it could just be a power supply problem. Might want to ask
around and see if anyone will lend you theirs for a quick test.

I have an Abit BE6 and had similar problems. Changing the PSU made the
problems go away and it has been fine ever since.

David
--
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Internet: | writing from |
| Fidonet: David Rance 2:252/110 | Caversham, |
| BBS: telnet://mesnil.demon.co.uk | Reading, UK |
+-------------------------------------------------------+