Motherboard Problem

[Not Bman]

I'v been haveing all kinda of weird problems, like my system wont find my hard drive, then all of a sudden it will and things like that. I want to test my motherboard to see if its crap, something wrong with it. Is there a program I could get to do that? Where can I get it?


*I put it in Other Hardware, cause it might not be a motherboard problem*

 

[Taurus]

well, start by listing your hardware, including your motherboard. and maybe also a list of the different issues you've been having.

 

[Cosmin]

BY posting your config. we will surelly help you solving this prob. Even (new) motherboard has a small LCD showing up what's wrong with the configuration attached to it ..

 

[LeeJend]

And don't panic (yet).

I had some major freakiness 2 years back and finally traced it to a $20 sound card that was dieing. Put in a new SB Live and have been completely stable since.

It could be anything down to a cable with an intermittent conneciton in it.

 

[Not Bman]

I have checked every kind of cable in a computer. Here is my stats....

Video Card : Geforce 4Ti 4200 64mb
Processor : AMD Athlon XP 2200+ 1.80GHz
Memory : 512 MB of RAM
Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-7DXR
Sound : Using Onboard Sound

I'm running Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1. I have gone into the BIOS and looked at everything it could be, yes I have turned on the ONBoard Sound Chip.

 

[a1ehouse]

I had all sorts errors and thought it was my hard drive/MOBO. Turned out to be the power supply. Make sure you check all the obvious first. You should check each component separately. Do you have a friend with a PC you can check parts with? Also check for dodgy RAM.

 

[Not Bman]

I'v checked most of the parts, the power supply makes kinda sense, because the motherboard use to be my dads, which he used a little larger powersupply. So that might be it, hopefully not.

 

[LeeJend]

Check the label on the power supply. 300w and you're in good shape for your config. If the power supply is only 250 w that could be a problem.

I haven't really seen power supply problems cause HDs to act badly but I learned to never rule out anything when a PC gets flaky.

Does the case have enough cooling (more than just the power supply fan) to get the heat out? Check your MB temperature (BIOS, Sandra, Gigabyte utility) it should be 35-45 deg C, preferably the low end. Or stick a thermometer in the case and run for a while, then pop the lid and check the temp.

Run the WD utility (download it from the www.westerndigital.com ) to see if the drive has a health problem, it fits on a floppy. Remember WD has a 3 year warantee and RMA is a peice of cake if their health check utility says the drive is flaky.

The MB runs a health check every time you boot and if a problem crops up it should report it.

Sisift Sandra has a suite of burn in tests, but be careful they can fry a system. Better to run the WD stuff first in case it reports a failure, print it and do the RMA route.

 

[Xie]

Maybe even try pluggin it into a different power outlet ... dirty power can do some fun things to computers

 

[Not Bman]

Yea I checked my powersupply and its 300w. So thats not the problem, im going to download the WD utility and see what happens.

Oh yea, I have enough cooling, 2 exta fans, cpu fan, videocard fan, and the powersupply fan!

 

[GoNz0]

remember the old rule of rip it all out and disable the rest in bios if this throws a blank. add it all 1 by 1 and enable the rest till the prob crops up again.

 

[Black-Syth]

^ Good idea.

 

[Not Bman]

ok, I ran the program, and it found nothing, the motherboard is fine. Which I think its just all mest up so it didnt work, but anyways. Im going to take it all apart and back again, if not going to try a older motherboard and stuff like that. Thanks for the help.

 

[Not Bman]

Ok, I have taken apart everything in my computer. I have put it back together and tryed again, I have tryed 3 more times doing it different ways, the only thing that seems to make sence is the motherboard is screwed somehow. So I am going to buy a new [old] one for cheap and see if it works, the only problem is finding one that is going to work with my cpu and memory.
Thanks for all the help.