socket 478 mobo won't always boot

stevenaaus · Post by **stevenaaus** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 2:46 am

K6 gurus.. my cel2.4/U8668grand often won't powerup.
I've tried a few PSU (300-400w) , video cards , everything in the bios ,
reseating memory, replacing IDE cables + checking loose jumpers. The sympton is: Mobo light always comes on and 50% it boots. Else, after a few second halt, 50% it boots and 50% it just spins the cdrom without lighting up the mobolight !, then generally it comes up 3rd go after another powerdown.

Annoyingly , or not, once it's going it's a bloody solid board. Rock solid at 2400(100mhz) and pretty good at 2688(112mhz) (a flake every hour or so of gaming which is probably memory related) Of course it's a munted P4 and should be chucked in the river, but I only bought it because of the solid and quiet case and it was dirt cheap.

I've a hunch this is a manufacturing thing, but I'd like to be able to fix it. Heh, my rep's on the line.

sylvan2626 · Post by **sylvan2626** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 7:58 am

What OS, mobo, and BIOS are you using? A modded BIOS? How are your BIOS boot options set?

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:09 pm

The every other boot thing reminds me of "Shaddam" and his problem. - And I suspect it is for the same basic reason, though I couldn't begin to tell you what specifically is causing it. - Anyway Shaddam had an every other boot situation caused by having incorrect memory assignments sitting in the default position, and correct memory assignments in a secondary position. - Result 1st boot, - goes to default; - fails; second boot, - on account of failure of previous boot, - goes to alternate assignments, - works. Next boot , - because previous boot succeeded, - goes to defaults. - Nice merrygoround that.

stevenaaus · Post by **stevenaaus** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 11:20 pm

> What OS, mobo, and BIOS are you using? A modded BIOS? How are your >BIOS boot options set?

OSes include winxp pro and mandrake 9.1 (or something) with grub
the boot loader. Bios is the original.. and while i haven't checked recently, I recall that biostar hadn't released an update when I looked a few months ago. This board is not really new either , had revisions and is a budget, so I'm not sure an update will ever be available but will check when I can.

Re: every other boot. - This is not the case. It is very random. A couple of times I thought I'd fixed it but then it comes back. (and I don't know what "incorrect memory assignments " is )

stevenaaus · Post by **stevenaaus** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 11:23 pm

Oh, and bios options... I tried 'em all, including jumper reset.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 5:54 am

Immaterial, (memory assignments), probably not the source of your problem. 1) Check to see if all your bios settings are holding their settings. If some are going back to their defaults, replace mobo battery. If mobo battery is good, 2) simplify. Strip machine down to minimum essential components required to boot. See if problem still there. If not could possibly be memory assignments. If still there most likely defective hardware of some sort. Don't really have many suggestions for this one. You need more expert help than me.

tazwegion · Post by **tazwegion** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 5:02 am

Well seeing as you've already tried a few PSU's, V/cards and a 'plethora' of Bios options/settings... I just gotta' ask have you tried it booting with a fresh installed OS? Overclocking is great (performance wise) but it can & does effect the quality of information storage

Which leads me to the next question... have you tried the HDD in anything else? & are there any bulging/leaking capacitors on your motherboard as this will effect stability GUARANTEED

stevenaaus · Post by **stevenaaus** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 10:43 pm

> I just gotta' ask have you tried it booting with a fresh installed OS?

The board just won't post sometimes. it was like this when I got it (wihtout an OS)
and 3 or 4 OSes later it's the same.

> have you tried the HDD in anything else? & are there any bulging/leaking capacitors on >your motherboard as this will effect stability

Thanks for the tips. Will check these out but I'm pretty sure I've swapped out the HDD without success.

I have found a new bios and while my problem doesn' seem to have been addressed, I'll give it a go and let you know.

stevenaaus · Post by **stevenaaus** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 7:59 pm

Upgraded the bios (to the most recent which is 26/06/2003) with no success.
I got 4 straight cold boots out of it - enough to fool me to think it was
fixed - but this morning it's back to the 3 boot grind which is common -

1. power on, mobo+hdd lights on, no beep or video, after a while hdd light goes
out. nothing else. (I did read ~a~ report on the web that if you leave it on for an hour it boots.)
(turn power off.)

Sometimes boots up second go, but often not)
2. power on, hdd light on , no mobo light, cdrom spins up very happily.
(turn power off)

3. power on, if mobo light comes on I know it will boot which it generally does
on 3rd boot. if no mobo light... repeat step 3

Annoyingly, it's a compaq presario without a reset switch and whenever in the
past I've connected one to the mobo (and out the back to a press button), it
just plain won't boot - the reset switch seems to do nothing - and I've
disconnected it in a hurry. The computer is actually in a quite small tower
case and getting to the reset switch connectors is bloody impossible as it's
jammed right up against the case wall so it ~is~ possible I connect the reset
switch to the wrong pins, or made a faulty switch. Am reluctant to take mobo out
because of the cramped size, and it's probably for no reason anyway. It was
hard enough switching the PSU and reseating the RAM.

Still it is a beautiful box. The HDD is on rubber mounts with finger screws,
(positioned on it's side inside the lower front of the case) and the PSU is on a
swivel which has it sitting over the mobo on a shorter but wider and very
*solid* and quiet ATX case. The whole box cost me 400$australia (US$300) (with
compaq keyboard and mouse. No monitor, OS, or warranty) and was an impulse buy
with my plastic. To buy a similar quality case+PSU would be at least $150 and
maybe more. My previous box is an awesome Slot-A 750 but it's in a large, noisy
el cheapo case. I'm not really into new games - the most I notice my celeron's
speed is doing kernel compiles and playing the darkplaces quake engine.
Hopefully I'll even get to play dukeforever when (cough) it comes out.

So I guess I'm ready to

GIVE UP ON THIS BUG

, It'll give me an excuse to upgrade
this box to a cpu that doesn't suck sometime in the future. And to play with my
$10 fic-503+. For the last couple years the only socket 7 boards I've had to mess with
were TX and SiS530 boards,

smoke · Post by **smoke** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 2:24 am

stevenaaus wrote:my cel2.4/U8668grand often won't powerup.

Check the capacitors on the board very closely to see if any are bulging, or leaking.

tazwegion · Post by **tazwegion** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 4:02 am

Still sounds like you need to check for bulging capacitors on the M/board, I've had boot issues before... and after ruling out the obvious, an inspection of the PCB conveys the problem...

I'm assuming you're in one of our major cities, otherwise I'd offer to have a look 'for gratis' naturally

stevenaaus · Post by **stevenaaus** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:11 pm

...Been reluctant to worry about this - as it runs so well after boot up,
but I'll open it up and have a good look.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 9:52 pm

stevenaaus wrote:...Been reluctant to worry about this - as it runs so well after boot up

If that is the case, then I doubt you will find anything wrong with the capacitors. If you did have the leaky cap problem, it would certainly not be fine after boot. Sounds like the computer is getting stuck on something during POST. When the computer fails to boot, does it sound off any POST codes?

smoke · Post by **smoke** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 10:46 pm

That last guest post was me.

stevenaaus · Post by **stevenaaus** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 12:30 am

Had a look at the caps. Didn't see anything... but visibility was generally
not good, and those next to the CPU were quite obscured.

No POST codes.

I can't even pin it down to hot or cold operation.

K6Plus

socket 478 mobo won't always boot

socket 478 mobo won't always boot

Re: socket 478 mobo won't always boot