Athlon XP 2800+ won't boot

[Wolfsblood]

Ok, I've got an aging computer that my wife uses primarily for web stuff and photo and video editing. Used to be my old gaming rig which she also used but since then we've added 2 kids to the household and gaming time has greatly diminished.

 

Anyway, specs: ASUS a7n8x-x Athlon 2800+ Barton core, 2 gigs RAM (various brands) eVga 7800gt AGP card, 420 watt PSU.

 

What it was doing:

Booting normally for a long time, then sometimes there would be no video display. Shutting it down ans re-seating the video cable sometimes got it to come back, other times not. Used both the vga and dvi outputs on the card, both worked sometimes. When the machine was running, it would occasionally flicker to black for a split second, fast enough that if you blinked you might miss it. Seemed to be random. We had another eVga 7800gt RMA'd because I figured it was the card that was causing the problem. This seemed likely since an old ATI 9800 pro was working fine as long as you didn't play 3d games (it was old and overheating when taxed). The problem went away for a few months after getting the replacement 7800gt, and then came back a couple days ago.

 

What it is doing now:

nothing. Well, not totally nothing. The fans spin up, the GPU fan on the GeForce 7800gt spins up, the optical and floppy drives do their thing, it sounds like it's booting up, but no display. Now the ATI 9800 pro gives no display either, and even if it did, it would be no help since the fan is kaput. (bearings feel like they seized up) Last time I got it to boot into windows, I noticed that Motherboard Monitor 5 showed the processor as running at 100 Mhz FSB instead of the default 166 and the speed was showing as 1275 instead of the default 2083. It used to be oc'd to 2230, but had been backed down about a year ago to the mid 2100's I think.

 

My guess is that the mobo is shot, but do not know how to test it. It's also possible that the proc is bad, but again I have no way of knowing or testing. At least I don't know how to test these things.

 

I've tried to swap out those items that I can to eliminate them as culprits. So far, I'm, reasonably sure it's not the gfx card, nor the monitor as the problem is still there on both AGP cards I have here, and on multiple monitors I've tried.

 

Ideas? Anyone have any unwanted components lying around?

[samurai nightling]

I don't know what the problem could be in your situation, but it sounds like it could be quite a few different things. With a computer like that, I would honestly not bother and build a new one, not even an expensive one if you don't want to spend alot of money, just new. Or if you don't have time to build, buy yourself a nice $300-500 desktop already made. You can get a pretty decent machine with that amount of money nowadays that has everything more new and upgraded from what you currently have. Just grab the harddrive out of the old machine and transfer the files and stuff you need to the new computer.

[Preacher]

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=TS...3-R&cat=SYS

[Cujo]

power supply or motherboard. change to a different power supply. if it doesn't fix it then it's mobo and the computer is as good as dead.

[ZeroDamage]

I would not buy a brand new PSU for this system either. Either try a tester, borrow one or something. Do not buy one unless you intend to upgrade to a new system all together. This system is seriously too old to fix as I doubt you will be able to find a barton core chip anywhere.

[dwEEziL]

I have a 2500+ Barton Core cpu.

[Preacher]

I think I have a 462 chip in a box somewhere as well. If I do you can have it for the cost of shipping.

[Wolfsblood]

At this point, I'm thinking it's most likely the mobo. All the components seem to be getting power, and the fact that mbm 5 was showing the proc running much slower than it was supposed to. It's possible that the psu is failing. I do have a tester for that at least. I was really hoping to get at least another year out of it though. Just had to drop an unexpected $1500 into some emergency house repairs and don't have a lot of extra cash to build a new system. But at least by building one, I can spread the hit out over a longer period than dropping a bunch of coin on a store bought one, and I get to pick the parts.

 

Oh the other thing it did was the last time it (sorta) booted, I hit the del key to enter the bios and it hung on that screen and never went into the bios. In my mind, that's one more tick mark on the mobo side of the equation. Forgot about that until now. :/

 

Oh, and ZD, the only other psu's I have handy would be woefully underpowered. Well, those and one that I fried in another computer. oops. >.< Dells don't like non-dell psu's..... just fyi, lol

 

Thanks for the offers though Dweezil and Preacher. Much appreciated.

 

Thanks for all the info everyone. Pretty much backed what I thought the issue was, and I know it's not worth trying to buy new replacement parts. I was just hoping that I was missing something obvious and it would magically work again.

[samurai nightling]

Don't buy diapers for a week and then voila! You now have enough money for a computer. Ever hear of clothe diapers?

[dwEEziL]

Thanks for the offers though Dweezil and Preacher. Much appreciated.

 

I wasn't offering...I was bragging.

[Preacher]

I have an older power supply too, again just pay for shipping.

 

I'm sure you already tried this but if not try gripping the CPU fan and giving is a slight twist back and forth (not hard just move it around a tad) If that doesn't do anything then maybe try taking the CPU fan off and then removing the CPU the reseating it all including removing all power connectors andt hen putting them back on (especially the 20 pin mobo one). If that doesn't work throw the entire box at the wall and then beat it with a golf club till you feel better.

Edited March 24, 2009 by Preacher