My machine has become...

Sergeant Thorne · Post by **Sergeant Thorne** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:27 pm

...an expensive paper-weight.

Specs:
Intel D915GSE motherboard (it exists, if only for Gateway)
Pentium4 540J Prescott 800MHzFSB 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor
2x Samsung PC3200 512MB 400MHz DIMMs
This one, customized.

I'm going to call Gateway about it tomorrow but I thought I'd post about it here anyway. I have a vague but looming premonition of an arduous run-around awaiting me in Gateway customer service, be it at the hands of a real person, or the latest and greatest digital answering hand-off.

My main machine (posting from my secondary/server machine) decided not to boot up yesterday evening. No signal to the keyboard (no KB light activity at all), mouse, or screen. The machine comes to some degree of life--fans running, disk drives able to be ejected, but refuses to begin the boot process. There is a red "diagnostic LED" on the motherboard that lights up and stays lit, and after a little searching I discovered this bit of information on that: Diagnostic LED.

There has been no new hardware installed, and no software new enough to be at fault. The last thing of interest that I did was to uninstall a few programs, one of which informed me that I would need to restart the system. I put off the restart, and then forgot about it. Finally I put the computer into hybernation and went off to do something else. When I came back later and hit the power-up button, it behaved exactly as I've described, and it hasn't changed a bit.

I have tried removing first one memory DIMM, and then the other, individually. No difference. I also tried going through the proceedure to reset the bios, but the machine doesn't seem to be getting far enough to notice a difference, as I've seen none (I figured it was worth a shot--nothing ventured nothing gained/learned, sort o' fing.. should be fun to deal with once I get the real problem fixed

).

suicide eddie · Post by **suicide eddie** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 3:03 am

it does sound a wee bit that the cpu is at fault, the board powers up but nobody home. pull it, clean the socket, regrease etc and see if that helps. also check the mb manuel and see if there is a overheat cut-out theres either a pin to swop or kb seqence to turn it off.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 3:34 am

No. Don't do that.

A CPU will boot without a heatsink or fan attached: it takes a minute or two for the CPU to get hot enough to crash, or the MB to throttle it back.

This sounds like a power issue to me, and first things first: unplug the ATX power plug on the motherboard then plug it back in again. Wiggle the plug and socket around a bit, then try and boot again. Re-seat the 4-pin power socket if it's used as well.

That could be a total solution.

Next you want to check the PSU: use the outlet from your server box and plug it into the main board, along with the the power switch cable - onto the faulty machine. Try booting now.

If the CPU was faulty, you'd be getting 3 long beeps (I think - check the BIOS beep codes for your BIOS/Mobo type). Faulty memory usually still results in a post (at least) and then frequent crashes - particularly when installing software) and if it was the GFx card, you'd get a faulty or missing GFx beep code.

Best o' luck! Check back in with your progress.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 7:40 am

Don't forget to use an office duster over the entire system.

Sergeant Thorne · Post by **Sergeant Thorne** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 8:38 pm

I've dealt with Gateway customer assistance. This guy was the first Indian I've spoken with in customer assistance that I've really been able to understand. I forget what gave his nationality away, but he spoke so well that it wasn't immediately apparent. He also seemed fairly knowledgeable about computers, which was a relief. We're in the process of tracking down the problem so that they can send me a replacement part (I could almost jump for joy). Sending the machine in (at my expense) is a last resort in their book too, so we're operating on roughly the same wavelength.

@ Eddie: It's looking like you're right. It's just the timing that has had me thrown... if it is indeed a hardware problem, it had to have been caused by what I did. Unfortunately I've been unsuccessful so far in my attempts to locate a MB manual for my machine. It only came with a general Gateway system manual, and the motherboard itself, being custom-made for Gateway, I believe, doesn't exist as far as Intel's website is concerned. Thanks!

@ Mobius: I checked the power cables with no results.

Mobius wrote:Next you want to check the PSU: use the outlet from your server box and plug it into the main board, along with the the power switch cable - onto the faulty machine. Try booting now.

That sounds kind of risky, especially with my level of hardware experience.

I'll keep it in mind, though. And if I ever get ahold of a manual for my MB I'll check the beep codes. Thanks!

@ Krom: That would probably be a good idea, though it's really relatively clean in there. I'll have to get a few of those.

Thanks again, guys. I'm pretty confident I'll get to the bottom of it with Gateway support. I'm glad it died before the 1-year warranty expired, anyway.

BUBBALOU · Post by **BUBBALOU** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 5:00 am

mobo or PSU,, take a glance at all the caps on your mobo for swelling(blown). You can plug a standard PSU into that motherboard (unlike a pos dell) and rule out the PSU. if the HD activity light is solid then it would be HD/Optical failure.

I used to work for Gateway, great customer support and quality machines (500x and above) not to mention they own E-Machines now too

Was your call to GWTech support after normal business hours? that is usally when it goes to the alternate support channel... but it has been 2 years since i worked for them

also that is an intel specd mobo for gateway
( Intel 915G (South Lake) 2522158 other version 2522156 )

When in doubt bios recovery

Sergeant Thorne · Post by **Sergeant Thorne** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 1:36 pm

Yeah, Bunyip mentioned the possibility of a faulty capacator. I looked them over the other day, and nothing seemed out of order. I don't really know exactly what to look for, though. Is a swollen cap easy to spot?

Oddly enough, this machine doesn't have a HD activity light.

Yeah, my call was around 3 o'clock. I could tell there was a time difference, because the guy mistakenly said "have a good night", and then corrected himself.

I think I am going to try a bios recovery. It would be great if it's just something on that order.

Thanks a lot.

Sergeant Thorne · Post by **Sergeant Thorne** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 8:36 am

It wouldn't get far enough for the bios jumper to have any effect.

The computer is currently in the shop at Gateway. They were pretty convinced it was a faulty motherboard, but wouldn't just send me the part. Understandable, I suppose. $26 shipping is better than $80+ for a new motherboard, anyway.

Thanks again for the posts.

Sergeant Thorne · Post by **Sergeant Thorne** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 6:53 pm

Computer's back and I'm all set. It was the motherboard; they switched it out. The whole process was pretty quick--I got it back 12 days after shipping it out.

Lessons learned:
1) Don't "hybernate" anymore (Dad's recommendation).
2) Always backup irreplaceable files. I realized that if some of the information on my HD had been lost it would have set me back quite a bit, so I'm going to start working on some DVD-/+RW backups.
3) I'm spoiled. It's good to be back to 3.2GHz and 128MB of vram again.

See you in the mines! ...when I'm not in the skies!

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 7:19 pm

i never hibernate. i just let it run idle. 10 minutes and my Matrix screensaver turns on. another 10 minutes... monitor goes into standby.......... thats it.... Server and PC just run idle, no HD powerdown, no CPU throttledown....... it just sits there idle.

Vindicator · Post by **Vindicator** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 7:32 pm

AceCombat wrote:i never hibernate. i just let it run idle. 10 minutes and my Matrix screensaver turns on. another 10 minutes... monitor goes into standby.......... thats it.... Server and PC just run idle, no HD powerdown, no CPU throttledown....... it just sits there idle.

...when it should be FOLDING!

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:28 am

Yeah, shame on you Ace. Get it folding ...

Nosferatu · Post by **Nosferatu** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:45 am

Capacitor blowing can be really subtle. I saw a couple pics in this thread: http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25482&page=2

Also look closely at capacitor bases looking for a tinny amount of black gunk leaking out. If you see that, its toast.

Havent they worked through the bad capacitor problem by now? Mobo makers sure got a real drubbing when it became an issue. I even had one fail on me a few years back but none since then.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 2:48 pm

A-bit was particularly famous for using shitty capacitors. Of course now they proudly advertise that their capacitors come from Japan now.

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 10:00 pm

Vindicator wrote:
AceCombat wrote:i never hibernate. i just let it run idle. 10 minutes and my Matrix screensaver turns on. another 10 minutes... monitor goes into standby.......... thats it.... Server and PC just run idle, no HD powerdown, no CPU throttledown....... it just sits there idle.
...when it should be FOLDING!

IT IS FOLDING!!

ive got these HUGE units!! its taking dually P-II's like 8-9 days to crunch these things!!

i just said "idle" because im not doing anything actively on it.

Vindicator · Post by **Vindicator** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 11:51 pm

Youre so fulla crap Ace. We are watching you

Surely your dually P2 isnt your primary system... Whatever happened to your P4?

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:54 pm

CapStar was the P-4. but thats my gaming box. AceCombat is my FTP Server/Folding box.

and i am folding, look at last week and within the month.......

now take a look at THIS page and see that i AM FOLDING!