[RESOLVED] Help!!!

[yyful]

A friend recently gave me a motherboard, processor(PII 266), power supply, and tower. I bought the rest of the equipment and am trying to build my own machine. However, when i try to boot the system, it powers off after a random amount of time (anywhere from a few seconds to a couple minutes.) I changed the power supply and the battery on the motherboard (which is an abit bx6 2.0 jumperless). Does this sound like a motherboard or processor problem? Has anyone had a similar problem in the past and found a solution? Please help!!!!


[This message has been edited by yyful (edited April 05, 2000).]

[lysergic]

Pull everything out except video, CPU, RAM. Reset the bios and boot up. See if it then turns off (I would assume since it turns off after a few seconds it is not even getting past posting some of the time) a few times. If it does then you know it is one of these things. Swap the video card out if you can. As well as ram and CPU. Might also want to take the mobo out of the case and put a sheet of antistat under it to be sure it is not shorting out somewhere on the case. I also assume since you changed power supplies you do not have a problem with it being set to 220V instead of 110V. Although it would not last several minutes of it was at 220V.

Next hook up floppy and hard drive and see if you can go into windows. If so start adding other stuff like cdrom, sound, modem etc.

Note, be sure to disconect the drive cables from the motherboard and not from the drives. The idea is to isolate as much as possible.

[yyful]

I did isolate the CPU, RAM, and video. It didn't help. A few things i neglected to mention on my last post:

The machine will check RAM, will recognize primary IDE (if attached)and other devices/settings, and will will try to boot from floppy (although it won't recognize a Win98 boot disk as bootable!) if it stays on long enough.

I have gotten a CMOS checksum error (but not every time). I changed the battery on the mobo, but did not help.

I have also received a CPU unreadable or has been changed message a couple of times since switching the power supply. This usually appears after I have reset the clockspeed (266 CPU, but default BIOS setting is 233).

The CPU error and the failure to recognize a boot disk make me wonder if the problem is the processor, but the BIOS problems make me wonder if it's a mobo issue. (And just to make things really interesting, I've never tried to build a machine before and am learning a lot of this stuff as I go!)

[This message has been edited by yyful (edited April 05, 2000).]

[shawnMt]

I had a board not long ago doing the same thing. Turns out the onboard cache was bad. I'm not saying that is what is wrong with yours but here is how I isolated it. Pull everything except cpu, vid and ram. You should also SWAP all 3 for known good to be sure. I stress this: SWAP cpu, vid and ram for known good units.

Go into BIOS and disable everything. Yes, everything - if it says ENABLED next to it, disable it. Of couse you need to take note of everything you change. Let the machine get to second POST screen and just leave it running. If no reboot then start re-enabling stuff untill you find the problem, or wrong setting.

What I am suggesting is to be sure the mobo works - which is why you need known good cpu, ram and vid.

From your previous posts, it looks like you are at least learning something! :>

[yyful]

I isolated the problem. It's the motherboard. I pulled everything else off the motherboard and started the machine and it still shut itself off. Thanks to all for your help and advice!