HowToFixComputers.com

chris1379 · Guest

I have a K7VTA-Pro with an Athlon XP 1900 running Windows 98 SE. Lately
it has been acting strange from lockups to blue screens, etc. Sometimes
it's almost unusable and other times it works OK. When it acts up, I
notice that one or both of the CD/DVD drives won't open or close. I
have tried disconnecting them, new cables, different memory, etc, etc,
etc. I have systematically removed everything in it but just when I
think I have found the culprit, it starts it again. I know it's not a
Windows problem because. the CD/DVD-ROM drives failing to respond
happens before the OS even starts to load. Could my PCI bus be failing?
What else can I check?

Chris

chris1379 · Guest

I did think about the PS but the voltages check OK with a multimeter. I
suppose it could be the capacitors on the board going bad too but they
aren't swelling so far. I do know that the KT133A chipset had a number
of issues, including PCI problems but the only ones I've heard of with
IDE problems were bad out of the box. BTW, the CD/DVD drives open and
close fine with the IDE cables unplugged.

Chris

dave AKA vwdoc1 wrote:

dave AKA vwdoc1 · Guest

power supply maybe?
I have an emachine that has issues with it's power supply. Crashes and
strange behavior after I run it about 10-15 minutes. Another power supply
solved the problem, but the "normal" power supply is too big for it's case.
I don't use this computer. lol

"chris1379" <chris1379@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
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dave AKA vwdoc1 · Guest

So the only things that remain constant are the motherboard, case and power
supply?
I will ASSuME you have checked the BIOS settings and tried different
settings.
AFAIK once the capacitors go bad..............they are bad and are either
not functioning at boot-up or quickly after they get heated up.

Got a table to work on?
Maybe pulling the motherboard out of the case, insulating it and using a
different power supply to test things out. If that checks out OK then start
adding your components back to it, hard drives, optical drives etc. adding
one at a time.........but keep it out of the case!
Looks weird but it may help you isolate the problem. ;-)
Also it makes sure that your components are properly seated too!

good luck,
dave

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jim evans · Guest

On 12 Dec 2006 21:38:40 -0800, "chris1379" <chris1379@bigfoot.com>
wrote:

chris1379 · Guest

I wanted to follow up on this. I'm still not sure exactly what the
problem was but it seems to be OK for now. While doing some
troubleshooting, my old SCSI hard drive decided to go up in smoke. As
far as I can tell, it was due to no error of mine. It's possible the
drive was part of the problem but the symptoms were still there when it
was previously disconnected. I also rechecked the power supply and
noticed the 3.3V going up as high as 3.8V when it was warm. I removed
the SCSI card and put the WinTV card in its place and all seemed OK
except for the WinTV failing to start sometimes. I believe this is a
known issue with all mobos using the KT133a chipset. I also found 2
loose screws that hold the board in the case somewhere along the way.
Instead of replacing the power supply, I opted for a new case w/PS, and
a new Geforce MX4000 video card. I still get the reboots sometimes on a
restart but it's mostly stable, The WinTV even works if I disable
overlay mode.

Chris

jim evans wrote:

chris1379 · Guest

Well, looks like I spoke too soon. It all went south again. Wouldn't
even boot into Windows. I finally traced it to the Linksys LNE100TX
network card. I removed the drivers in safe mode and then removed the
card. Not a single crash since. I reinstallled DirectX and that fixed
the WinTV failing to start. This system has never ben this stable.

Chris

Rick · Guest

Here's a replacement MB on Ebay. He's got a starting bid of $50 but no
takers yet. If your MB is bad this is an option.

http://cgi.ebay.com/SOYO-SY-K7VTA-MOTHERBOARD-W-CPU-768-MB-MEMORY_W0QQitemZ290069468877QQihZ019QQcategoryZ31496QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

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