Startup Problems with Chaintech VNF4/Ultra System

digerati

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Joined
21 Mar 2004
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I have a system I built myself based on a Chaintech VNF4/Ultra motherboard. It has been running solidly for over 4 months now with no problems at all, but when I started it up today, the computer started to make a rapidly repeating beaping noise after it made it's normal single beap while posting. The rapid beaping continued as the computer otherwise went through it's normal startup process up until the point when the Windows XP startup screen would normally appear. At this point the screen shows the "Hardware/Profile/Configuration Recovery Menu" and offers me the option to load "profile1".

When I hit enter and presumably load "profile1" the system loads properly and I am able to seemingly perform regular computing functions without problem. However, if I choose the restart the computer the exact same problem appears again with the exact same outcome. I am at a loss as to the source of the problem.

I have not made any significant hardware changes to the system recently other than replacing an old Lite-on CDRW drive with a new Liton-On CDRW-DVDrom drive. On the software side, I reinstalled Windows XP about 3 weeks ago and updated my ATI videocard drivers to version 5.8 about 2 days ago. The computer showed absolutely no signs of problems after any of those changes right up until the point I shut the system down last night.

I went into the bios and loaded the "optimized default settings" but it didnt change anything, I also tried loading the "fail-safe settings" also with no change in the problem. I checked the system temperature and it is reading the same range as it always has since I first built the system: CPU: 26C System: 32C. I am using the latest bios available from Chaintech.

The post codes that always flash while the system is starting up are: 63, 65, 75, 82 though I do not know what they mean nor where to find that out. I think I saw 6F and 95 appear once but unlike the other numbers, which always show up, I have not seen those again.

Here are my system specs:

AMD Athlon64 3000+ Winchester w/ CNPS7000A-AlCu HSF and Arctic Silver 5
Chaintech VNF4/Ultra Motherboard
GeIL Value 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
ATI Radeon x800xl PCI-E videocard
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3120026AS 120GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
CDRW/DVD LITEON SOHC-5236K
LITE-ON Black IDE CD Burner Model LTR-52327S
NEC 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - OEM
Enermax EG425P-VE SFMA 2.0 ATX12V 420W Power Supply
Antec Sonata Case

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Well, it sounds like you did some homework, which is always a good start.

My theory, and this is only my opinion, could be a motherboard problem. First off, no software changes could cause beeping, but it was good that you presented that history. In relation to your hardware profile messages, that sounds like something related to the BIOS, but more likely a CMOS battery. My explanation behind this, with the exception that your customized hardware profile is corrupt, is that your comptuer has problems remembering the config within Windows. However, this also would not cause the system to beep, and if it did, it would not boot without prompting you.

Kinda iffy, does your system work OK once it's in Windows, and left on for a few days? Is it stable, no BSOD's, and do you get the beeps every single time? Can you provide more details, how many beeps?
 
1) With power OFF! Look to see if you dropped anything metallic on the MB while changing out the CDrom. Tilt the PC and shake it lightly to see if any screws etc fall out. Blow off the MB with canned air (electronics cleaner). Reboot and see if the beeps are gone.

2) Disconnect the new optical drive power and ide cables and reboot. See if the beeps go away.

3) Roll back to a restore point before the problems started. See if the beeps go away.

Those steps will rule out anything you have done recently. If that doesn't work is there any pattern to the beep (is it apost beep code?) or is it just one long string of the same tone?

Your bios is probably set to show the post code numbers as it runs. You can turn that off in bios.

If the beeps start while posting it is not windows/software related. So start pulling out hardware a peice at a time until all that is left is the CPU, MB, 1 stick of RAM and Video. When the beep stops you have the culprit. Replace everything else and see if the beep is still gone.

If it still beeps with just the CPU MB, 1 stick of ram and video, pull the video, then the ram. If you get all the way down to the CPU and MB it could be either. If the system was never overclocked I would guess it's the MB.

PS New hardware sometimes dies. It's refered to as infant mortality and the reason they have warantees. Good luck.
 
I have 2 theories:

1) CMOS battery
2) Bad or dieing PSU. Just changing from a cdrw to dvdrw could've been enough to stress it.
 

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