no cold boot
 

Wife's computer has started behaving oddly. First report I got was 'no
picture'. Actually, I was getting an error beep that led me to reseat
one Dimm. So. But the thing is, the machine will still not boot from
cold. Sits there for 15-20 minutes with nothing going. Cycle the power
button at that point and it will start up ... as though it needs warming
up. It's pretty clear that this is at the hardware level, since when
it's misbehaving, I'm not even getting the bios self-test beep.

Any constructive ideas? Time to upgrade? (She'd rather not). It's an old
Abit NF-7S mobo with an AMD cpu ... but it does what she wants, and
fast.

-P.

Re: no cold boot
 

On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:37:52 +1300, Peter Huebner <no.one@this.address> wrote:

>
>
>Wife's computer has started behaving oddly. First report I got was 'no
>picture'. Actually, I was getting an error beep that led me to reseat
>one Dimm. So. But the thing is, the machine will still not boot from
>cold. Sits there for 15-20 minutes with nothing going. Cycle the power
>button at that point and it will start up ... as though it needs warming
>up. It's pretty clear that this is at the hardware level, since when
>it's misbehaving, I'm not even getting the bios self-test beep.
>
>Any constructive ideas? Time to upgrade? (She'd rather not). It's an old
>Abit NF-7S mobo with an AMD cpu ... but it does what she wants, and
>fast.
>
>-P.



BIOS CMOS Battery..?

Re: no cold boot
 

On 14/01/2010 10:37 p.m., Peter Huebner wrote:
>
>
> Wife's computer has started behaving oddly. First report I got was 'no
> picture'. Actually, I was getting an error beep that led me to reseat
> one Dimm. So. But the thing is, the machine will still not boot from
> cold. Sits there for 15-20 minutes with nothing going. Cycle the power
> button at that point and it will start up ... as though it needs warming
> up. It's pretty clear that this is at the hardware level, since when
> it's misbehaving, I'm not even getting the bios self-test beep.
>
> Any constructive ideas? Time to upgrade? (She'd rather not). It's an old
> Abit NF-7S mobo with an AMD cpu ... but it does what she wants, and
> fast.

Check the output voltages on the PSU.

Re: no cold boot
 

On Jan 14, 10:37 pm, Peter Huebner <no....@this.address> wrote:
> Wife's computer has started behaving oddly. First report I got was 'no
> picture'. Actually, I was getting an error beep that led me to reseat
> one Dimm. So. But the thing is, the machine will still not boot from
> cold. Sits there for 15-20 minutes with nothing going. Cycle the power
> button at that point and it will start up ... as though it needs warming
> up. It's pretty clear that this is at the hardware level, since when
> it's misbehaving, I'm not even getting the bios self-test beep.
>
> Any constructive ideas? Time to upgrade? (She'd rather not). It's an old
> Abit NF-7S mobo with an AMD cpu ... but it does what she wants, and
> fast.

Backup the hard drive while you still can.

Re: no cold boot
 

In article <3e8d0b66-b174-4cb5-a110-6d3082c20c14
@p8g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>, mattyf9265@yahoo.co.nz says...
> > Any constructive ideas? Time to upgrade? (She'd rather not). It's an old
> > Abit NF-7S mobo with an AMD cpu ... but it does what she wants, and
> > fast.
>
> Backup the hard drive while you still can.

Looks like it's too late after all. After we had a couple of power cuts
yssterday it refused to boot at all. I've tried 3 different psu, and
disconnected RAM and drives and pulled the video card without any change
in behaviour occurring.

Ordered a new mobo and ram ... I'll put the harddrives into an external
box and see what needs backing up.

-P.

Re: no cold boot
 

On Jan 15, 8:45 pm, Peter Huebner <no....@this.address> wrote:
> In article <3e8d0b66-b174-4cb5-a110-6d3082c20c14
> @p8g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>, mattyf9...@yahoo.co.nz says...
>
> > > Any constructive ideas? Time to upgrade? (She'd rather not). It's an old
> > > Abit NF-7S mobo with an AMD cpu ... but it does what she wants, and
> > > fast.
>
> > Backup the hard drive while you still can.
>
> Looks like it's too late after all. After we had a couple of power cuts
> yssterday it refused to boot at all. I've tried 3 different psu, and
> disconnected RAM and drives and pulled the video card without any change
> in behaviour occurring.
>
> Ordered a new mobo and ram ... I'll put the harddrives into an external
> box and see what needs backing up.

It may be possible to get the data off the hard drive by putting it in
a ziplock bag and in the freezer for a day. I tried that yesterday and
it worked. You have maybe 5 minutes before the drive heats up and
stops working.

Re: no cold boot
 

In message
<cd9e4650-76c8-4ce3-93bb-5b0ffb0ab79c@e27g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>, Matty F
wrote:

> It may be possible to get the data off the hard drive by putting it in
> a ziplock bag and in the freezer for a day. I tried that yesterday and
> it worked. You have maybe 5 minutes before the drive heats up and
> stops working.

What about putting an ice pack on it?

Re: no cold boot
 

On Jan 16, 9:37 am, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <l...@geek-
central.gen.new_zealand> wrote:
> In message
> <cd9e4650-76c8-4ce3-93bb-5b0ffb0ab...@e27g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>, Matty F
> wrote:
>
> > It may be possible to get the data off the hard drive by putting it in
> > a ziplock bag and in the freezer for a day. I tried that yesterday and
> > it worked. You have maybe 5 minutes before the drive heats up and
> > stops working.
>
> What about putting an ice pack on it?

I managed to copy all the data in a few minutes. An ice pack would
probably help. Better would be to run the drive inside the freezer.

Re: no cold boot
 

On Jan 15, 8:45*pm, Peter Huebner <no....@this.address> wrote:

> Ordered a new mobo and ram ... I'll put the harddrives into an external
> box and see what needs backing up.

Don't discount the possibility that the PSU was the original cause of
your trouble. Maybe EMB's suggestion is still good, or check the PSU
for bad caps (swollen, leaking).

The not booting when cold matched a failure I had and the PSU had
leaking caps. Discovered, of course, after the mobo had failed. (A
new mobo booted with the bad PSU, but fortunately exhibited one of the
symptoms I'd had before I left the shop, and a new PSU didn't.)

Regards, John

Re: no cold boot
 

In article <8538e03e-88d4-4b67-a27a-5ec508e3fe98
@b2g2000yqi.googlegroups.com>, john.b.little@gmail.com says...
>
> Don't discount the possibility that the PSU was the original cause of
> your trouble. Maybe EMB's suggestion is still good, or check the PSU
> for bad caps (swollen, leaking).
>

{nods} yes, I tried 3 different psus, all with the same result. At
least, with all other power drains removed and voltage showing close to
13V and >5V on the two psu I checked, I should have signs of life from
the bios, which I didn't get in the end.

thx, -P.