HowToFixComputers.com

Kylesb · Guest

Helped a friend troubleshoot problems with a winxp/k7s5a system.
Registry recovery messages were quite common on startup (but XP would
indicate the files were recovered from backup or logs). Also had
other weird program errors and failures. CPU/Memory tests showed
things looked OK. Finally pulled out a new HD and attempted to
install XP on the new HD, and failures occurred reading the XP CD (2
different CDs I might add). Tried another CDROM and had similar
problems. Drive Fitness tests all passed for his primary drive (IBM
40 gig Deathstar drive, my first suspect). Finally, I swapped the
mobo with a spare I owned (and was gonna use soon) and found that
fixed the problem. It appears the IDE interface was causing
intermittent problems/failures. I suspected the IDE interface when a
backup program reported CRC errors reading his 2nd HD (a WD 40 gig HD)
where his HD backups were stored.

Anyone else seen this type of failure with a k7s5a?

--
Best regards,
Kyle

Buffalo · Guest

Did you use the same memory sticks when you switched MBs?

"Kylesb" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:2kdlvhF16u99U1@uni-berlin.de...

Mick B. · Guest

Yes, had exactly the same problem/symptoms. I too replaced the hard drive
which was my primary suspect to no avail. A new mainboard (all other
components the same) fixed it.

Mick
"Kylesb" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:2kdlvhF16u99U1@uni-berlin.de...

Kylesb · Guest

Yup, used all the same old parts except the mobo, and that fixed the
problem. Receiving a CRC HD error is quite unusual. In fact, I don't
know if I've ever seen such an error from a windows OS. Before
swapping out the mobo, I ran memtest86 and got no errors. I also ran
my Tufftest floppy disk test. I think a floppy tester tho is
inadequate to test out the HD interface since none I'm aware of are
able to put the HD interface into UDMA modes for testing, relying on
the BIOS routines for HD access (which is PIO mode typically, no DMA
modes).

--
Best regards,
Kyle
"Buffalo" <eric(nospam)@nada.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:ermEc.463$XM6.345@attbi_s53...
| Did you use the same memory sticks when you switched MBs?
|
|
| "Kylesb" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
| news:2kdlvhF16u99U1@uni-berlin.de...
| > Helped a friend troubleshoot problems with a winxp/k7s5a system.
| > Registry recovery messages were quite common on startup (but XP
would
| > indicate the files were recovered from backup or logs). Also had
| > other weird program errors and failures. CPU/Memory tests showed
| > things looked OK. Finally pulled out a new HD and attempted to
| > install XP on the new HD, and failures occurred reading the XP CD
(2
| > different CDs I might add). Tried another CDROM and had similar
| > problems. Drive Fitness tests all passed for his primary drive
(IBM
| > 40 gig Deathstar drive, my first suspect). Finally, I swapped the
| > mobo with a spare I owned (and was gonna use soon) and found that
| > fixed the problem. It appears the IDE interface was causing
| > intermittent problems/failures. I suspected the IDE interface
when a
| > backup program reported CRC errors reading his 2nd HD (a WD 40 gig
HD)
| > where his HD backups were stored.
| >
| > Anyone else seen this type of failure with a k7s5a?
| >
| > --
| > Best regards,
| > Kyle
| >
|
|

Kylesb · Guest

Thx for confirming that I'm not the only one to see this failure mode.
I have seen a floppy interface die on a mobo b4, so it doesn't
surprise me.

--
Best regards,
Kyle
"Mick B." <gragravar@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:JYqEc.153$Dlz.129@news04.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com...
| Yes, had exactly the same problem/symptoms. I too replaced the hard
drive
| which was my primary suspect to no avail. A new mainboard (all other
| components the same) fixed it.
|
| Mick
| "Kylesb" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
| news:2kdlvhF16u99U1@uni-berlin.de...
| > Helped a friend troubleshoot problems with a winxp/k7s5a system.
| > Registry recovery messages were quite common on startup (but XP
would
| > indicate the files were recovered from backup or logs). Also had
| > other weird program errors and failures. CPU/Memory tests showed
| > things looked OK. Finally pulled out a new HD and attempted to
| > install XP on the new HD, and failures occurred reading the XP CD
(2
| > different CDs I might add). Tried another CDROM and had similar
| > problems. Drive Fitness tests all passed for his primary drive
(IBM
| > 40 gig Deathstar drive, my first suspect). Finally, I swapped the
| > mobo with a spare I owned (and was gonna use soon) and found that
| > fixed the problem. It appears the IDE interface was causing
| > intermittent problems/failures. I suspected the IDE interface
when a
| > backup program reported CRC errors reading his 2nd HD (a WD 40 gig
HD)
| > where his HD backups were stored.
| >
| > Anyone else seen this type of failure with a k7s5a?
| >
| > --
| > Best regards,
| > Kyle
| >
|
|

Buffalo · Guest

Thanks for the reply.
Buffalo

"Kylesb" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:2kg34dF203qsU1@uni-berlin.de...

Kylesb · Guest

OK, now for the next installment of this saga.

I did a very close visual inspection of all caps, found none to look
sickly (bulging or leaking).

Now for the unusual question:
Anyone seen the situation where enough dirt on a mobo cause the HD
controller to produce problems?

I've cleaned up this mobo real good (it had plenty of fine dust, the
typical type from use in a home office) and now cannot get it to
produce any HD errors/failures.

Installed winxp and win2k w/o the first hitch. Ran winxp overnight,
did a bunch of rebooting, defragging, blah blah, no problems at all.
Wiped it all out, installed win2k, all drivers and so forth, nary a
problem.

The one thing that is noticeable, at BIOS bootup the HD detection is
very rapid now. When it was acting flakey, the HD detection seemed a
bit slow.

Guess it's another one for the books, and that's why I'm posting this
message, b/c it's always a good idea to clean up your puter regularly.

Oh, and one other point of interest, when one runs a mobo on the
desktop, be careful of using one of those mobo bags as an insulator
beneath the mobo. I started using the bag and the foam pad beneath
the mobo. Seems the bag the board comes in just might have enough
conductance to trigger the mobo to apply the wrong voltage to the cpu
(I noticed in BIOS system monitor that the CPU was getting 2.0 volts,
oops, that's not right!). I then removed the bag and used just the
foam shipping pad as the insulator beneath the mobo on the bench, and
no more CPU voltage problems.
--
Best regards,
Kyle
"Kylesb" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:2kdlvhF16u99U1@uni-berlin.de...
| Helped a friend troubleshoot problems with a winxp/k7s5a system.
| Registry recovery messages were quite common on startup (but XP
would
| indicate the files were recovered from backup or logs). Also had
| other weird program errors and failures. CPU/Memory tests showed
| things looked OK. Finally pulled out a new HD and attempted to
| install XP on the new HD, and failures occurred reading the XP CD (2
| different CDs I might add). Tried another CDROM and had similar
| problems. Drive Fitness tests all passed for his primary drive (IBM
| 40 gig Deathstar drive, my first suspect). Finally, I swapped the
| mobo with a spare I owned (and was gonna use soon) and found that
| fixed the problem. It appears the IDE interface was causing
| intermittent problems/failures. I suspected the IDE interface when
a
| backup program reported CRC errors reading his 2nd HD (a WD 40 gig
HD)
| where his HD backups were stored.
|
| Anyone else seen this type of failure with a k7s5a?
|
| --
| Best regards,
| Kyle
|

Buffalo · Guest

"Kylesb" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:2kod2nF4o109U1@uni-berlin.de...
[snip]

Kylesb · Guest

"Buffalo" <eric(nospam)@nada.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:R4WFc.22386$%_6.4658@attbi_s01...
|
| "Kylesb" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
| news:2kod2nF4o109U1@uni-berlin.de...
| [snip]
| > Oh, and one other point of interest, when one runs a mobo on the
| > desktop, be careful of using one of those mobo bags as an
insulator
| > beneath the mobo. I started using the bag and the foam pad
beneath
| > the mobo. Seems the bag the board comes in just might have enough
| > conductance
|
| I think that is the idea of the bag so that it prevents damage to
its
| contents from static electricity.
| I don't think it would ever be a good idea to have it touching the
MB when
| the MB is energized.
|
|

I knew there was some very small conductivity (hi resistivity) to the
static I suppose if you place two probes close enuf (as in the
distance between CPU pings) there might be a measureable resistivity.
Hmm, brb, will go take a measurement. . .

Interestingly, the particular mobo bag I used has a grid of black
lines (at about 10 lines per inch maybe) printed thereon that appear
to be conductive ink, as there is measureable resistivity between the
lines. About 1.5-2 MOhm between adjacent parallel lines.
--
Best regards,
Kyle

Tech Support Guy · Guest

Saw it once and prompty returned the mobo to fry's.

Hope this helps.
The Tech Support Guy

www.ComputerRelative.com

"Kylesb" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:2kdlvhF16u99U1@uni-berlin.de...

Kylesb · Guest

Hard to return a 2 year old mobo, maybe 3 now. If you read the rest
of the thread, you saw that the culprit turned out to be good old
ordinary dirt on the mobo, a cleaning fixed the problem.

--
Best regards,
Kyle
"Tech Support Guy" <helpedyou@ComputerRelative.com> wrote in message
news:40f584fd$1@usenet01.boi.hp.com...
| Saw it once and prompty returned the mobo to fry's.
|
| Hope this helps.
| The Tech Support Guy
|
| www.ComputerRelative.com
|
|
|
|
| "Kylesb" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
| news:2kdlvhF16u99U1@uni-berlin.de...
| > Helped a friend troubleshoot problems with a winxp/k7s5a system.
| > Registry recovery messages were quite common on startup (but XP
would
| > indicate the files were recovered from backup or logs). Also had
| > other weird program errors and failures. CPU/Memory tests showed
| > things looked OK. Finally pulled out a new HD and attempted to
| > install XP on the new HD, and failures occurred reading the XP CD
(2
| > different CDs I might add). Tried another CDROM and had similar
| > problems. Drive Fitness tests all passed for his primary drive
(IBM
| > 40 gig Deathstar drive, my first suspect). Finally, I swapped the
| > mobo with a spare I owned (and was gonna use soon) and found that
| > fixed the problem. It appears the IDE interface was causing
| > intermittent problems/failures. I suspected the IDE interface
when a
| > backup program reported CRC errors reading his 2nd HD (a WD 40 gig
HD)
| > where his HD backups were stored.
| >
| > Anyone else seen this type of failure with a k7s5a?
| >
| > --
| > Best regards,
| > Kyle
| >
|
|