[number6]

My computer froze completely and after a hard shut down refuses to boot. It has gotten to different stages, but only once has finished POST with a different power supply, but not past that.

By swapping three power supplies, the original and two spares that I'm not sure if they work, the computer once got through POST and no further. Usually there is no video; sometimes the power light is green, sometimes orange; sometimes the lights on the keyboard work, sometimes not; sometimes the CPU fan spins, usually not. The power supply fan always spins.

I tested all molex connectors on the original power supply and all 5 volt connections were a little strong and all 12 volt connections were just a little weak. I couldn't get my test leads into the floppy connector or the smaller motherboard power connector. The larger motherboard power connector didn't have any voltage. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to test that one. If anyone could tell me, that would be helpful.

Gateway
Pentium 4
250 Watt power supply
Power supply model: NPS-250CBS A
Two spare power supplies are 200 Watts
Can't tell what the motherboard model or manufacturer is.
Message was edited by: number6 Not integrated video.

[rgreen4]

Number, although the PSU's are on the weak side, they should at least get it to boot. From the symptoms, I'm not sure it was the power supply. It sure would be nice if you had a spare 350+ watt PSU that was known good (if any really are until installed). From the symptoms, the first indication was that the computer froze - which to me would indicate either CPU or memory. You should have two sticks, you can try removing them one at a time and attempting a re-boot. If it boots, then you know the missing one is bad.

Was there no other indication?

[number6]

Hi, ~22087].
You're probably right about the memory or CPU. I forgot that they might be problems. The memory is two 128 MB sticks RDRAM which goes in pairs and I don't have any spare RDRAM to swap (I can find barely any to buy either). Do you think I should see if I have any CPUs that might work with this motherboard? With RDRAM prices so much higher than DRAM and SDRAM, do you think I should get a whole new motherboard and RAM?

I found [this page which told me how to test the larger motherboard power connector, and while I was doing that (not done yet) the POST message got part way through and told me the motherboard model and CPU speed:

Motherboard model: GB85010A.15A.0044.P12.0107251225
CPU: Pentium 4 1.5 GHz

[rgreen4]

I don't know. It may have reached the end of it's usefulness. From those specs, the machine must be about 6 years old. I may be time to build a new one. If the case is a good one, you can re-use that, and of course the HD and optical drive (I assume it's a DVD burner by now). I recently put together a mid range system for the mother of a friend, it was just under $400 without monitor or software, it had a dual core, Gigabyte MB, 2GB of ram, DVD Burner etc. The case was a $30 cheapo, it was nice on the outside, but didn't have all the nice toolless latches and so forth on the inside.

Here are the parts:

Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H Motherboard It has on board 5.1 audio, integrate graphics with VGA, DVI and HDMI output! Only has two memory slots though.

Intel Pentium E5200 Dual Core 2.5GHz

Kingston 2GB DDR2-800 Kit

That total is just under $166. You already have a case, the PSU should be OK with the onboard graphics and one or two HD's. It turned out to be a nice little machine that I was not ashamed of. I would assume she's happy with it as I have not heard back. When I left after setting it up, it had all of her software on it and running Vista Home Premium (I had an upgrade package that I was not going to use), which she requested. She had a Dell for a short time that had been sold by Wal-Mart, had been registrered with Dell and then returned and sold to her. I was suspicious when we tried to set up her as the user and there was already a user on it. When she called Dell to register it, and get help with a hardware issue, she found out it had already been registered. It was returned and I built her a machine with a much better (22" Samsung WS rather than the Dell 19" WS) for just a little bit more). If you don't already have a DVD burner, you can get your choice for about $25 now, (even with the Nero software). I recommend an SATA drive as this board has only one IDE. That will allow you you use the IDE for your current drive and have a spare connector for whatever.

[coastie65]

{quote:title=number6 wrote:}{quote}Hi, ~22087].
You're probably right about the memory or CPU. I forgot that they might be problems. The memory is two 128 MB sticks RDRAM which goes in pairs and I don't have any spare RDRAM to swap (I can find barely any to buy either). Do you think I should see if I have any CPUs that might work with this motherboard? With RDRAM prices so much higher than DRAM and SDRAM, do you think I should get a whole new motherboard and RAM?

I found [this page which told me how to test the larger motherboard power connector, and while I was doing that (not done yet) the POST message got part way through and told me the motherboard model and CPU speed:
Motherboard model: GB85010A.15A.0044.P12.0107251225
CPU: Pentium 4 1.5 GHz

Hey Number, I believe what you said is the MOB # is in fact the BioS version in that thing. Gateway / eMachines tend to be a little different from everybody else. I agree with rg though, that maybe it's time to rebuild the thing. Incidently, you said you WERE NOT running the onboard graphics chipset. With about any Video card, that 250w was a tad light. I will admit I did run a PCI Nvidia FX 5500 256 DDR card with a 250w PSU in my last eMachines and it seemed to do OK. coastie

[number6]

Thanks for your input [~22087] and [~50619].
It looks like I'll be building a new system when I get a chance and I'll probably come to you for advice on parts if that's all right. I was surprised, [~22087], at the price of the system you built. I was expecting to pay more. We'll see, I guess.
Thanks, fellas.

[number6]

[quote name='coastie65']

number6 said:

Hi, ~22087].

> You're probably right about the memory or CPU. I forgot that they might be problems. The memory is two 128 MB sticks RDRAM which goes in pairs and I don't have any spare RDRAM to swap (I can find barely any to buy either). Do you think I should see if I have any CPUs that might work with this motherboard? With RDRAM prices so much higher than DRAM and SDRAM, do you think I should get a whole new motherboard and RAM?
>
> I found [this page which told me how to test the larger motherboard power connector, and while I was doing that (not done yet) the POST message got part way through and told me the motherboard model and CPU speed:

Quote

Motherboard model: GB85010A.15A.0044.P12.0107251225
CPU: Pentium 4 1.5 GHz

Hey Number, I believe what you said is the MOB # is in fact the BioS version in that thing. Gateway / eMachines tend to be a little different from everybody else. I agree with rg though, that maybe it's time to rebuild the thing. Incidently, you said you WERE NOT running the onboard graphics chipset. With about any Video card, that 250w was a tad light. I will admit I did run a PCI Nvidia FX 5500 256 DDR card with a 250w PSU in my last eMachines and it seemed to do OK. coastie

Thanks for the correction there, [~50619]. It didn't say on the screen and I didn't know any better. Good spotting.

[rgreen4]

Oh, you can pay more for more power, but that is a good reasonable price for a basic machine, re-using your case, etc. That's the beauty of rolling your own. You can customize to what you want that fits your budget. And the beauty is also that you can purchase the three items one at a time to ease the strain. I would start with the MB as they seem to change the fastest, especially in the lower power grouping. I was shocked to find one in that price range that had the three onboard video outputs. I was not surprised to see only the two memory slots, but for a basic machine, it's all you really need.

[coastie65]

No, on a Micro ATX MOBO, 2 DIMM slots is all you generally get, due to the size. Now, if they will handle up to 2048 MB Dual Channel each, you will be fine anyway, as that will give a possible total of 4 Gb. of RAM. coastie

[rgreen4]

Here is the 4GB kit of the same memory. While not listed specifically in the Gigabyte supported memory list, the only difference between this and the other is that each stick is 2GB vs 1GB. There are other 2GB memory modules listed. It is still a reasonable price. I have a tendency to stick with brands that I have had good luck with, thus until I have a problem, it's Gigabyte, Intel and Kingston. Hard drives I have had good luck with just about all of them, but I have more Seagates than anything else.

[coastie65]

I put Crucial in here the last time around and it seems to be doing fine. The only memory that I remember having any problems with was Centon.

[rgreen4]

Crucial is a respected name brand. Centon is not carried by Newegg, but is carried by Tiger Direct. No comment, just observation.

[coastie65]

I got the Centon, years ago at CompUsa when I upgraded from 256 Mb to 1 Gb. in another machine. I took it back and got PNY which seemed to do well and was cheaper, so got a bit of a refund to boot.