PC boot problem 4

[Crustyoldbloke]

Last week I moved my son's PC, taking care not to drop it or bash it. When it was in it's new place, it failed to boot. The boot sequence goes as far as "verifying pool data" and stops.

I have tried to boot it from a floppy "startup disk" and from a Win98 CD, by changing the bios sequence, to no avail. I have also changed the hard drive to a known "good one", again, no good.

Am I looking at a motherboard problem? or is there something else I should be doing diagnostically to get to the root of the problem?

Any help, greatly appreciated.

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

Jay

No I don't have that software installed.

Can't see any fuses at all. Had a look at the booklet for the MOBO, nothing in there. Not that it would have helped because the pictures in the booklet look totally different from the MOBO, unless I'm reading it wrongly.

Phil 16:45

 

[DorothyDix]

Hey Crusty.....I think I found something which may help you. Go here

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm

It deals with the very issue you have described. I could just pretend I thought of it myself,but it's too much to type hehehe.

GOSH,I hope this is helpful...Have we broken the record yet????

PAUL

 

[DBSSP]

Try rotating the book, lol, j/k. I know, "Not funny." No, I understand what you mean. If the mouse you have is a good mouse, I really don't think getting a new one will solve the problem at all. I think we are looking at a dead board. I believe we have tried everything conceivable to troubleshoot it. It's can't be software related as software hasn't even begun to load, we've tried many things in bios...Have you tried setting the bios to "Fail-Safe" defaults and see where that gets you? I'm not sure if your board has this option, but it takes alot of the high-performance features and tones them down or turns them off, allowing for only the bare essentials to boot your pc.

We have tried drives, cards, memory sticks. It sounds like the mem slots are fried...We've ruled out about everything we can. Sorry, tough break man. I think I'm all out of ideas. Jay

"Jeezus-sqeezits Bob!"

 

[GrandpaCarl]

HI PHIL,

Have not been asleep. Been chasing another problem and verifying memory cells on the PS/2 mouse connector. FYI, pin 3 is GND and pin 4 is +5 (2=RXD; 6=TXD). Granted that the bent pins are on the cable part, but you still could have done some serious damage.

If pin 3 pin was bent alongside pin 4, yet 4 made contact to +5 this means that GND and VCC in the mouse were at +5V!This means that the RXD line, when pulled low by the transmitter on the motherboard, would forward bias the parasitic diode in the communications chip in the mouse. This is a disasterous condition and will likely cause damage both to mouse and motherboard.

I have seen numerous cautions that go something like this: Do not, in any circumstances, plug or unplug the PS/2 mouse connector while the power is on. Doing so may damage the mouse, the motherboard, or both! They made a believer out of me when I had a friend ignore my caution (I am a pessimist, but a live pessimist) and blow both mouse and motherboard. His system would boot up though, just no mouse recognition, even with new mouse.

I am betting on a damaged mouse and motherboard!

GrandpaCarl

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

Hi Guys

I'm back. I'm surprised we haven't got the record for a thread.

Wife came back with a new mouse (very gaudy looking, purple and grey). It doesn't work, but then I didn't expect it to, but come the new MOBO, who knows.

Paul, I'll have a look at computerhope site soon, but felt I had better do this first as reloading this page is quite time consuming.

Jay, I aint got "failsafe" settings.

Carl, have you swallowed a dictionary? LOL, I'm not a betting man, if I was, I think I would definitely put money on MOBO being blown though.

I'll revive the thread when I have some good news.

Die dulci fruere

Phil 18:25

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

Paul

Thanx for the link, I've finshed reading it now and I don't think my problem is covered particularly

I'm having the night off, whilst you guys go to lunch I guess.

Cheers

Phil

 

[ceh4702]

when you have one floppy and harddrive attached does it boot to floppy??

Does the BIOS see the Hard Drive??
If not set up the tracks and sectors in the BIOS switch if off auto and it should display the Hard Drive setup info. Sometimes you have to run a utility to see it.

Boot Order = A,C,??

If so can yu see the harddrive from a DOS prompt C: or
a:\DIR C:?

Hint: Use a Win98 Boot Disk.

It could have no good files or have a bad partition.

Try running fdisk and just look at the partition information and see what it says. If you can see the hard drive you can determine if the partitions have been blown away, or the Fat table is damaged or what. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[ceh4702]

My favorite computer online shop is

http://www.newegg.com

My favorite mouse is the PS2/USB Microsoft Optical Wheel Mouse. No mouse ball.

If you install a new motherboard, Unplug it from the back when you install things like memory and EIDE drives. Dont trust using Shutdown. That does not turn off the power. The Mouse and the keyboard are not plug and play. You have to unplug the computer to plug/unplug them. You can short out the ports by doing it while the computer is on.

It is advisable with a new motherboard to repartition and reformat a harddrive. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[SoulAssassin]

I've had a similar problem and would have advised all of these options before the inevitable motherboard. I had a pc just hang at the verifying dmi message. Swapped out the board and all was well. I have also seen a keyboard/mouse with bent pins damage the board as well to the point where there was no video (shorted board). I'd advise just cutting your losses, replace the board (maybe cpu and ram if needed).

 

[dinosnake]

May I add a 1/2 pennies worth?

I remembered seeing this before. See:

http://www.dewassoc.com/support/win98/verify_dmi_data.htm

on the above you may be able to (if the system starts with a floppy - reset your boot order setting to help with this) replace the repartition and format statements with a FDISK /MBR command. Has worked before.

Also, if you have any questions regarding this motherboard:

http://ftp.gigabyte.com.tw/support/user_pdf/586s2.pdf

I would check JP1 just in case. Did you check IDE and floppy cable condition? How about motherboard mounting in the case - is it solid with the back side not hitting any part?
Your mileage may vary...

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

Good Morning All

10:00 on a cloudy but warm day with heavy rain forecast.

CEH4702, as advised earlier, BIOS is normal, no drives are read. Therefore, can't boot from a floppy to a prompt. I think I will try replacing MOBO and take it from there. The replacement is currently languishing 12feet up some pallet racking in a warehouse near Heathrow airport. It's anticipated that it's journey to me (120 miles) will commence either today or tomorrow depending on the warehouse workload. I don't mind waiting because it's a free replacement (truth is they're obsolete and worthless to the PC builder, so I will owe him a beer or two next time we meet)

SoulAssassin, RAM and CPU are fine at present.

Dinosnake, thanx for the links.

http://www.dewassoc.com/support/win98/verify_dmi_data.htm

Read that yesterday and it may be something I refer to at a later date if changing the MOBO doesn't work. The other one

http://ftp.gigabyte.com.tw/support/user_pdf/586s2.pdf

is exactly the same as the book I have which came with the PC. Drives and their cables are just fine.

Thanks to all of you for participating.

Die dulci fruere

Phil

 

[DBSSP]

Well, we all gave our best and nothing worked, at least your repairs won't be costly, eh? Good luck and feel free to let us know when we can be of assistance again!

jwizard@cham-cor.com Jay

"Jeezus-sqeezits Bob!"

 

[DorothyDix]

AND by ALL means Phil....if your new motherboard doesn't fix the problem,feel free to tell us about it before you drop kick it through the window and head for the nearest Psychiatrist! we'll come with you.



Cya Phil

PAUL (Dorothy Dix)

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

Hi Chaps

I seem to have misled you all. The MOBO I have is an "ECS P5SS-Me Super 7 motherboard". I thought the pictures didn't look right. My friend the PC builder must've given me the wrong book in error.

Are these MOBOs more susceptible to spiking?

Phil

 

[GrandpaCarl]

Phil,

You are forgiven. Isn't the first time when the book doesn't match the merchandise. Very frustrating, especially in times of trouble or where you see something about a feature you wish you had.

With a bent mouse pin and a likely forward biading of the parasitic diode inside the IC, it doesn't matter whose motherboard you have. The total results of damage to the motherboard may be wide reaching. I have done many a failure analisys on failed products in conjunction with my consulting practice, and it is amazing how a condition can propagate all over the board.

Looking forward to you getting your new motherboard and having all your problems solved! (until the next problem!)

GrandpaCarl

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

Carl

You are, as we say in the UK, a wily fox. You've been around the block a time or two. Your knowledge is impeccable, along with your foresight.

Yes, I'll be back, I'm sure.

For the record, I am a Solicitors' Agent, living in Kidderminster, Worcestershire (south west of Birmingham) specialising in accident investigation, and I can smell a suspect claim just by reading it.

My computing goes back to the time that we had the Sinclair 64, that's 64K. I am mostly DOS driven, and I guess that because I am not professional, things have passed me by a little of late. Now I guess that's something to do with age and lack of interest. But just by chance logging on to this site has reawakened my interest. I've been repairing computers for years, for friends and relatives and any females showing an interest. I'm much better at the software side of things than the hardware, but I never give up.

Time here is just after midnight, and I'm logging off.

Thanks for all your help Carl, I take it you're retired if you have spent 50 years at it, get some golf in and I'll meet you in Florida around Christmas if you like.

Goodnight

Phil

 

[GrandpaCarl]

PHIL,

Started designing computers in 1952I worked in industry for 11 years, designing and building transistors, test equipement development, then headed up the engineering department for one of Hughes Divisions. I have had my own consulting practice, and am still going strong. I take time to help others when I can.

Volunteer to help one of my Granddaughters teach kindergarten about 16 hours per week. Needless to say, I seldom have time to get bored or play golf

Enjoying the Southern California weather here.

By the way, I have four Sinclairs in the attic, along with some Commodores, Altairs, Morrow Syetems, Imsais, Zorbas, and an original IBM PC.

Though I have grown up in the computer world, I still don't believe it!

GrandpaCarl

 

[papa70]

I apologize if this a repetition of another post. I didn't read them all. But here are a few tips I have run across for this problem:

http://www.maxtor.com/products/DiamondMax/techsupport/InformationBulletins/15007.html

http://www.dewassoc.com/support/win98/verify_dmi_data.htm

Also, here are some other things to try

#1
boot from floppy and type sys c:

#2
You need to reset the DMI pool.
Get into your bios (it will tell you the "press soandso key for setup" when you cold boot),
and then go to device configuration and enable the reset configuration.
(I'm guessing it's an award bios.)If all else fails, reset the cmos jumper.
The probability is your devices don't match the current DMI pool.

#3
Turn exterior and interior caches off/on

#4
Set all hard drives to 'auto detect'

#5
1. Start the system in diagnostic mode, i.e., Ctrl key pressed while booting up (F8 for Win95).
2. Select 'Step-by-step'.
3. Go through the process and look for any driver that's suspicious. Chances are good that the culprit will appear toward the end of the sequence.
4. If the bootup process is successful, and once you are in Windows again, run Regedit and delete the folder that refers to this driver (Start > Run > "regedit" > Edit > Find; type the name of the driver in Find What box).
5. If unsuccessful, repeat step 1 through 3 and try a different driver.

 

[mikecx]

I'll add my 2c. Turn the computer off. Immediatly smell around the entire motherboard for anything that smells burnt. If there is even a slight burnt smell toss the mobo in the trash. Had a processor fry. No spark, no crunch, no smoke.....just a slightly odd burning smell coming from where the athlon xp 1700 now rests in peace.

 

[rsasaru]

Hi

Just joined this site and read the thread. Forgot most of it but I do remember an old system I had that would not boot unless I slowed down the processor. It worked fine at the slower speed, although the MOBO and the CPU were rated higher. Longshot perhaps?

Regards,
Robin