power light blinks 1

[BLEW2]

every now and then, my "power" light blinks on and off continuously.
if ignored,the video output goes off and the pc powers down.
my mother board is by ASUS.I have set the Windows98 Power management so that nothing is supposed to power itself off.
any ideas ??

 

[kestrel1]

It could be a setting in the power managment in the system BIOS. Have a look in there. normally pressing delete, F1 or F2 will get you into the BIOS, depending on your system.
Most systems will give you an on screen message to say which button to use.

 

[BLEW2]

kestrel1, thanks for the idea but wouldn't the problem be more consistent?there's nothing in the ASUS manual except power-up bleeps. i wondered if it might be a fan or psu fault
regards

 

[kestrel1]

PSU's can cause some very strange faults when they are on the way out or overworked. They are so cheap now that it may be a good idea to try that. Buy one that is of a higher wattage than your current one, as the one you have now may not be up to the job.
I wouldn't think that a fan would cause this sort of problem.
Does this only happen when the machine is idle?

 

[BLEW2]

kestrel,i believe that it's only when idle but the pc often sits "powered-on for fairly long periods without any trouble

 

[kestrel1]

Only a thought, but if this is a recent thing it could be that your CMOS battery is on the way out. I know this sounds crazy, but I have had a few computers that show very strange problems & it has been down to the CMOS battery. These are normally very cheap.
It could be the PSU though. Try the CMOS battery first.

 

[BLEW2]

if i remove the battery (wherever it is).wont i lose the Bios or something ?

 

[SkipCox]

You won't lose the bios...it'll just reset to a default setting. Just write the current settings in your notebook (you do keep a notebook with your rigs info in it?) and restore those settings after the battery replacement.

Quick FYI. Most motherboards use a 2032 battery available about anywhere with a decent battery merchandiser.

Skip

http://home.comcast.net/~scox9/index.html

 

[kestrel1]

Even if you don't have all the settings correct for your BIOS you will still be able to boot up. The BIOS on modern motherboards is a bit more reliable than that of motherboards 15 years or more ago.
The defaults should work fine & you can always go into the BIOS & change things.
I would suggest that when you first reboot, you go into the BIOS & set the time & date & also get the BIOS to auto detect the hard drives & set the CD-Rom drives. If you have kept all the settings as stated correctly by Skip, then it is a simple case of resetting everything thew way it was.