My machine finally settled down after I replaced the RAID. Then I leave town for a few days and let the office get too hot. THe machine boots up, then locked-up. Then would not reboot at all; nada...nothing but the power light. I let it sit for a while to cool off some more, then it booted-up ok. Everything ok, then the screen locks again. Have to reboot with the power switch on the back. Initially, I thought could be the board, but the inconsistency makes me think CPU. It's a dual AMD, so maybe one is dying. Sound like the CPU?
Could be a CPU overheating or memory problems. Make sure the fans on the CPU's are spinning while powered on. There are motherboard monitors you can download for free online that can maybe hook into the thermistor on your CPU sockets (if they have one) and get a temp reading.
Dual AMD and now dual harddrives? That sounds like a power supply problem. Lock ups happen when the PSU can't handle the load for all the hardware - and thats exactly what happened to me until I got a 480 watt Antec PSU from New Egg. Now everything runs great.
Keep in mind most power supplies are way too much for the power PC's actually use. I have a DVD +/ RW drive, about 5 hard drives totalling 1 terabyte, a 20" LCD monitor AMD 3000+ XP processor, 1 gig of RAM, a USB hub powering about 3-5 external USB devices all plugged into an APC UPS. The APC UPS with all this plugged in registers at max around 230-240 Watts of power consumed by the machine. The key is not just getting more power, but getting a good power supply. There are some sorry power supplies out there. You can have power supplies that can be rated for 500W and choke on much less hungry setups. Spend the money on something good like Seasonic or Antec.
Thanks guys. I thought about the power supply, but I am actually running with 2 fewer drives than I used to (I replaced a 4-drive RAID with a 2-drive). I don't have the time to mess w/ diagnosing the chips/board, so I purchased a new board and chips (and a server power supply) today. It posts OK, but won't let me into the CMOS (I need to set it to boot from the DVD drive so I can reinstall XP). I hit the DEL key, but it just sits there. Not sure if it makes a difference, but it's a dual xeon w/ 3 GB RAM. Any ideas?
I have a question about motherboard hook ups: My mobo says in the system about the panel connectors this: PWRLED+ PWRLED- PWRBTN# GRND HDLED+ HDLED- GRND RESET# Question, how can I tell positive from the negative on the hook ups. I mean each wire in my case has a white wire but the other wires are all different colors. Are whites negative?
Yeah but I've been told that I need to be certain because being wrong can burn up the motherboard. Right now though I do have all the whites hooked up as negatives. My video card should be in today so hopefully I'll be posting from my new computer tonight!
Seems like you're posting on a new computer every night. What do you do to your poor PC's Pun?! Cohen, Are you sure the DEL key is what takes you into that BIOS' setup?
I have three at home but it's only one that has given me trouble. Most of the computer questions I ask on this board are for other folks.
I cant speak for Mango...but I would have said the same thing. Anytime when you think a certain job will be done at the exact time it shoudl be...something ALWAYS comes up to keep it from happeneing. I can almost guarantee that you will run into a gotcha that will keep you from getting online from your new computer tonight. its just Murphy's Law of computing.
DoD, Yeah, it is DEL. MOST oddly, the problem with the new hardware may have just been an issue either with the monitor connected to the DVI, because I used a USB mouse, or I just needed to shift the ram DIMMs around. I'm posting from my rebuilt Windows XP Pro, dual-xeon 2.4 GB, 3 GB PC3200 DDR RAM, GForce FX 5700 LE Optima 128MB 8x AGP graphics, SATA RAID 0 (2 Raptors). yee haw.
Is it? I really wouldn't know. I'm more interested in processing power for my work. If the video's powerful enough to make certain that the CPUs are not bothered by video tasks, then I'm happy.
