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computer wont start 1

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trouble1

Technical User
Jan 10, 2002
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Every third or fourth time my computer stops as soon as I throw the switch. Try again and it works fine. I'm thinking system board initialization problem but I suppose it could be the switch itself. Anyone familiar with this problem? It is a minor problem now but I fear it will just get worse as time goes on. I don't mind replacing a part but I don't want to start replacing parts. Thanks for any help.
 
My guess:

Cold start use more power than "warm start".
(your components are getting warmed up in your
unsucessful start attempts)Hence your fourth or fifth
attempt goes okay.)
If this apply , stronger PSU .
Workaround (could work) BIOS disable "fastboot" "fast start"
(having the mem test back at boot ,can be interupted by "esc")

Could also be the spinup of harddisks .
(same with theese ,faster when warn than cold)
(could be a workaround in bios "delay ide init" )

syar
 
I'm not sure who makes the system board-bought the system on eBay. It has a 1GB Athlon processor, ATI Radeon DDR display adaptor, Maxtor 30 GB disk drive, DVD, CD, DSL modem, Award V6.00PGN bios. I recently replaced my hard drive under its warranty because there was an intermittent initialization problem.
It doesn't take 4 or 5 trys to boot. Just one, then it works OK. I had a computer at my office that I used for several months that required two attempts to start and its problem was determined to be a faulty system board. It never failed to boot on the second try. The units were all replaced so it was never fixed.
I will try the bios setup tweakings. Thanks for any suggestions.
 
No help tweaking the settings. Any other suggestions?
 
Does that situation get worse or stay the same? Can I isolate the capacitor and replace or does this call for a mb replacement? Thanks for your reply.
 
You can usually spot bad caps by a "bulging" top. I don't think you can repair this, Mobo's are "multilayer" (I've read about 7 layer boards). If it is the Mobo, I'd just buy a new Mobo and use everything from your old board.
 
Thanks for your reply. Any idea as to how to specify the board if I order one? I have no original information available. I know the processor is athlon 1gb and the memory is sdram 133. Is that sufficient information to order one?
 
truouble1!
All socket A based motherboards support AMD thunderbird 1ghz .
What you need to find out for sure is that you have PC133 (SDR single data rate) RAM , and want to stick with it .
Another option is to replace with DDR (double data rete) ram .

Stick with SDR and you must search for a mobo with socket A, and SDR ram support 168-pin sockets .

(DDR memory socket 184-pin)

syar
 
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