Strange M/B issue 1

[BlayneRTFM]

First the hardware

M/B Soyo SY-6IWM/L
Pentium II slot 1, 350 MHz
256 MB pc100
Fujitsu 20GB HDD
Windows XP Pro/Fresh install

Everything else is onboard

OK, I have a client with a pc as described above. It works fine for about an hour and then freezes or blue screens. When you reboot the system the harddrive is no longer detected and you cannot enter into cmos setup.

If you shut it down and wait 10 minutes or so it boots up ok for a while and then does it again.

I have tried a new power supply, a new harddrive, checked the cpu for overheating, checked jumper settings and cmos settings - all to no avail.

Has anyone else ever experience this type of problem? Could it be chipcreep or another obscure issue? Please help!

Thanks in advance.

 

[satrow]

Typical Fujitsu MP* drive on its way to hard drive heaven, I'm afraid. Common problem with this series of drives; I'm surprised that there are so many left(2 in the last 12 hours!).

Get the drive to another PC, if it finds the disk, get any valuable data off, Quick!

Buy a new 7,200 disk.

Andy.

 

[BlayneRTFM]

Thats what I thought too. But I tried another HDD and it did the same thing. The original drive was cooked so I put in a known good drive that was working fine on one of my systems and within three hours, I got the same problem.

I get a blue screen & memory dump, the hard drive drive disappears, regardless of which controller it is on. I let things cool off awhile and things run fine again. I don't like fujitsu myself but I know this drive was working fine before going into this system.

I'm so confused!

 

[satrow]

Sounds like you may have another issue at work here; have you used a memory tester yet?

http://www.memtest86.com/

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Have you checked the condition of the capacitors on the mainboard? No bulges, seepages, furring?

Andy.

 

[torturedmind]

i suspect there is some "fried" physical component on your mobo that may have been overlooked - busted or burned capacitor, resistor and the likes. check carefully your entire mobo, especially near the psu connections. you could also "sniff" your mobo and if it smells like burned tyres or sumthing then you'll know if you need to buy a new one.

hope this helps. peace!

kilroy
philippines

"Illegitimis non carborundum!"

 

[DragonQ0105]

Try a different hard Drive which you can format and install windows on. If it carries on happening then it isn't the Hard Drive....you could try replacing BIOS battery.

 

[pweegar]

Sounds like, as has been mentioned, a mb cmponet that is giving you the problem. Esp. after the motherboard warms up. Try another mb/cpu.

I've seen mb's with very small cracks do the same thing. After the mb gets nice and warm, the crack expands, causing a break or short and the pc crashes.

 

[BlayneRTFM]

Thanks for the advice people. I've tried all of your suggestions and still came up with nothing. I can't find any cracks or bad capacitors/resistors but I have to assume one of the chips or components are bad. pweegars idea sounds reasonable since it happens only after the system warmes up a bit. I guess my client will have to spring for a new mobo - not so bad with today's prices.

Thanks again.

 

[satrow]

Probably need to be a lot more than just a mobo; the hard disk logic board is worth using, if it still works, to rescue data from other dead Fujis'. I wouldn't risk using it again, except to get the data off.

A new Slot 1 Mobo may be hard to find.

Andy.

 

[micker377]

Just looking for cracks is futile. Many mobos are multi-layer, I've read about 5 layer boards! Oh for the good ol' days when you could see a crack and just "jump" it.

 

[TekTippy4U]

Is there a Temp setting in the BIOS you can adjust, that may need altering (focus on cpu auto-shut off temp) or maybe should not even be adjusted as it's telling you it'll fry the cpu if it gets too hot.

TT4U

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These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
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[TekTippy4U]

Look what I found

****BIOS Description*****
Award PCI BIOS with green, ACPI, APM, PnP, DMI Functions and Year 200 compliant
Supports multiple-boot from E-IDE/ SCSI/ CD-ROM/ FDD/ LS120/ ZIP
4 Mbit Falsh ROM
Built in Security Feature

****Health Monitoring Description*****
Built-in I/O chip hardware monitoring functions
Nine on-board voltage monitor for CPU Vcore, VTT, +5v, -5v, +12v, -12v, 3.3v, 5VSB and battery
CPU fan four speed control and monitor
FAN speed monitor
Precision CPU temperature monitoring through CPU on-die thermal diode
Battery low detection

from;

http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=65

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
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[satrow]

Have a star, TT4U, for doing it the logical way; I usually RTFM last if ever!

Andy

 

[TekTippy4U]

thanks satrow....now let's hope it actually means something.
I mean, i also thought to myself - suppose the mem timings are off (or just ecc vs. non-ecc), or the cpu speed is off because the mobo jumpers for setting the system bus are not correct (maybe the original CPU was changed and never set to correct CPU speed in BIOS - easily checked by looking).
-- or even perhaps the BIOS was flashed and/or Reset to system defaults (wrong Bus speed and/or Core speed in BIOS results sometimes) from either a power failure or a CMOS battery removal. I just wonder about the effects that could have.

TT4U

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These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
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[satrow]

TT4U ~ some PII's don't have a CPU fan to be controlled! Bus speed is a slot/CPU regulated thing; a 233/66 misread would be a 350/100. Non ECC RAM should give a Bios error. Mem timings...? MMmmm...

Wish I was sat in front of it...

Andy.

 

[BlayneRTFM]

Hey satrow - I wish you were sitting in front of this thing too, maybe you could afford the hair-loss because I sure can't!

I found that info at soyo too and have been all over the bios settings. I've tried fail-safe and optimized. I've tried disabling the health monitoring altogether. Unfortunatley there are a lot of settings that I'm not too sure of like sdram ras precharge time, SMAA [7:4]/SMAB [7:4], L2 latency adjust. And a half-dozen others.

But if left at default settings, could these really cause the mobo to suddenly lose the hard drive? I thought that was what fail-safe defaults were for. Anyway, I'm pretty stubborn and still haven't given up. I actually scrutinized the stupid board with a magnifying glass and couldn't find any physical damage whatsoever - I was kinda hoping I would...

 

[edfair]

In the old days it would be time to hit the board with a chiller spray. But since you can't get replacement parts, and probably couldn't install them if you could, all it will do is confirm that it is a heat related problem if you find the sensitive spot.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[TekTippy4U]

Alrighty then;
satrow;
I have a pII with a Cache ECC (L2) setting in the BIOS and it doesn't cause a BIOS error
plus - older mobos (probably not this pII soyo) have Mobo jumpers for seting the CPU Math co-processor, which on a pII is Numeric data processor on IRQ13

Now i"m thinking the Mem even more (possibly the actually mobo slots). and even though I still think it's heat related 'somehow' -'someway'.....

Those memory timings and Mobo jumpers are what I'd look at ...thinking with slightly askew adjustments that over time they heat up and cause the fault.
even though this article concerns VIA chipsets, it's got some info on mem and bios settings

http://www.sysopt.com/articles/viatweak/index.html

there are better, more detailed, and more specifc articles to find

silly side question - Is the CMOS jumper in the "correct" position...not "recovery" , but Normal?

also silly - In the BIOS, near the PnP OS setting (it's set No -right?) - look for (ESCD) Configuration Data and 'reset' or 'clear' it.

TT4U

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These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
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[TekTippy4U]

wish I could edit and add...but;
found this soon thereafter

http://www.sysopt.com/articles/bxtweak/index2.html

sse if you can learn something from this 440BX chipset tweaking article...
this is Page 2 of 3

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[satrow]

TT4U ~ L2 cache is on-chip stuff not RAM. Not sure how much BX stuff translates to 810 chipsets.

BlayneRTFM ~ I think I'd put this 'board to one side 'til you get you hands on another PII/III to try in it.....

Can you test the 'board with a floppy-based utility like Tufftest?

Andy.