So to the best of your knowledge, there were no changes to the system
between the time it worked properly, and started this problem
behavior? Does it seem pretty consistent or progressively getting
worse?

There have been no system changes. It was progressively getting worse and
now it won't boot up to normal mode at all.



Do you have a voltage meter (or at least a motherboard monitoring
utility) you could use to check the power supply and motherboard
voltages?


No voltage meters at all, although my monitor does support readout the
motherboard does not.


You wouldn't have moved the system recently, right before the onset of
these problems? I vaguely recall that Matsonic boards during this era
had HORRIBLE memory slots, that the memory practically had to be
hammered in, and/or it was necessary to put something behind the board
to get the memory in, or keep from damaging the board while pushing
hard enough to get memory fully inserted in the slots. MIght your
memory not be fully seated in the slots?


I never move the system and dust around it. I checked the RAM its in all
the way and locked in.


Unlike while sitting at the desktop idling, while booting the system
is under relatively heavier load. Considering also the BIOS oddities,
I don't think Windows and/or it's booting is actually the problem,
rather it's just when you SEE the problem surface. Failing loose
components I think either your motherboard or power supply are dying,
and considering the age of the system and relative quality level, you
may be lucky that it lasted as long as it has.

I had a psu go about a year and a half ago and it caused some hard drive
damage.
I had to get some help with the format because normal ways weren't working.
I'm not really sure what the guy did but he got it recognized as a MS_DOS
boot partition once again
and I was able to get windows back on. Since then i've replace the psu with
a cheepie compUSA brand because
I have no good computer stores in my area except for the chains and at the
time compUSA was the only one that
had any type of psu in stock. I was in the middle of college work and
needed the pc back up as soon as possible.
I could replace it, but i'm not really sure its causing the problem and the
money spent replacing it might better be spent
upgrading to a new system. I just wish I could keep two running.



That could be related or a completely different issue like a bad IDE
cable, or if the HDD is as old as the rest of the system, it too could
be failing, but that doesn't explain the video lines or BIOS issues.

Again lots of starange HDD issues over the past 2years.


Does your system use an AT or ATX power supply? Maybe it doesn't
matter, but I suspect you have a 5V issue, your 5V rail on the
motherboard isn't sufficient, but whether the cause is the motherboard
or power supply can't be determined without more testing, or perhaps
only with replacement parts since they do still "somewhat" work.


ATX

The hard drive should have no effect on the BIOS problem, either you
have two problems, it's not the HDD, or the HDD is shorting and
dragging the power down to where the rest of the system is instable.
If you haven't done anything to the system prior to the problem it
would seem to be merely a progressive aging to the point where it's
time for replacement.


I figured that since I got the new (older) gf2 pro installed and got the
drivers intalled that the problem might have been
dual related. Both the vid card was going and the HDD. Since the boot up
shimmering is now gone, but now the hang has turned into a no boot
situation. The system as been under alot of stress, power going out, short
in some speakers that caused the surge protector to kick in...the psu that
failed. I have been holding onto an extra WD HD thats brand new in
anticipation for a new pc but I might put it in this pc to see if thats the
problem. Again I would love to have a second pc around to do some audio
recording away from the normal pc room.

If you're looking for the absolute lowest cost to get the PC going
again, I may have some old super 7 boards and low-end power supplies
lying around, will never be used, if you're willing to pay postage
I'll send you one of each, providing I have something that'll fit in
your case, I don't remember if I have only ATX-form factor super 7
boards or an AT or two.


Dave


I would love to take you up on that Dave but I want to exhaust all
posibilities on my end first. I'm considering a format of the current
drive, as everything is backed up so I have nothing to lose. If that
doesn't fix my problem and get me through until the spring then I would be
interested in trying a different board and psu. The case is a mid atx
tower.

you can email me at if you come up with any old parts
that your interested in dumping towards my cause =)

thanks. -hiphop