If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Here's one I haven't seen...
I have a Dell Vostro 230 desktop computer, that freezes on boot. That
is, it just stops dead in its tracks, fans still running, and the image still on the screen. It is at a pretty regular spot in the boot process, after POSTing, and early in the OS's wind up. It's the same for whatever operating system, I try on CD, or off of the hard drive. The repair process freezes up, always an an early stage of the game. I have disconnected or replaced RAM, power supply, hard drive, optical drive, and CMOS battery, but always get the same response. I pulled the CPU cooler to take a look and re-pasted it--same result. I guess it pretty much has to be the motherboard or the CPU, but wtf? |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Here's one I haven't seen...
Grinder wrote:
I have a Dell Vostro 230 desktop computer, that freezes on boot. That is, it just stops dead in its tracks, fans still running, and the image still on the screen. It is at a pretty regular spot in the boot process, after POSTing, and early in the OS's wind up. It's the same for whatever operating system, I try on CD, or off of the hard drive. The repair process freezes up, always an an early stage of the game. I have disconnected or replaced RAM, power supply, hard drive, optical drive, and CMOS battery, but always get the same response. I pulled the CPU cooler to take a look and re-pasted it--same result. I guess it pretty much has to be the motherboard or the CPU, but wtf? Just out of curiosity, I notice in an Ebay listing it's a Core2 board, and likely intended for a 65W processor or less. It has three phase power, which is kinda stingy. (You can do it with less, and my old 65W AthlonXP board did it with just two monster phases, but that's not how Intel boards typically do it.) So the number of phases is rather limited, and inserting a quad core as an upgrade could cook it. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Dell...item2a3d6bd10a As a low-power board, make sure some well-intentioned user hasn't upgraded it to a "cook itself" state. The Vcore converter could be latching off, while the rest of the power remains. It's also got a very weird mix of Polymer and electrolytic capacitors. Maybe they were trying to use electrolytics in non-critical things, but the assignment of type still looks a bit random to me. Not an encouraging sign. Usually when boards mix those, there are visible "rules" at work as to what type goes where. For example, for bulk decoupling, like near a PCI Express slot, those can be electrolytics. Because if they pop, you'd never notice. And Dell used Polymer ones for that. Makes no sense, if you're shaving nickels and dimes off the manufacturing cost. The electrolytics were the ones with the leakage problem years ago. Paul |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Here's one I haven't seen...
On 8/21/2014 4:45 PM, Grinder wrote:
I have a Dell Vostro 230 desktop computer, that freezes on boot. That is, it just stops dead in its tracks, fans still running, and the image still on the screen. It is at a pretty regular spot in the boot process, after POSTing, and early in the OS's wind up. It's the same for whatever operating system, I try on CD, or off of the hard drive. The repair process freezes up, always an an early stage of the game. I have disconnected or replaced RAM, power supply, hard drive, optical drive, and CMOS battery, but always get the same response. I pulled the CPU cooler to take a look and re-pasted it--same result. I guess it pretty much has to be the motherboard or the CPU, but wtf? Apparently, the onboard NIC has failed in a manner than freezes up the boot. Disabling it in BIOS has skirted that problem. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Here's one I haven't seen...
Grinder wrote:
On 8/21/2014 4:45 PM, Grinder wrote: I have a Dell Vostro 230 desktop computer, that freezes on boot. That is, it just stops dead in its tracks, fans still running, and the image still on the screen. It is at a pretty regular spot in the boot process, after POSTing, and early in the OS's wind up. It's the same for whatever operating system, I try on CD, or off of the hard drive. The repair process freezes up, always an an early stage of the game. I have disconnected or replaced RAM, power supply, hard drive, optical drive, and CMOS battery, but always get the same response. I pulled the CPU cooler to take a look and re-pasted it--same result. I guess it pretty much has to be the motherboard or the CPU, but wtf? Apparently, the onboard NIC has failed in a manner than freezes up the boot. Disabling it in BIOS has skirted that problem. Interrupt storm ? Probably hard to check for that, if it will no longer boot :-) While I would probably have started pulling excess cards out of the thing, I don't know if the symptoms would have me disabling peripherals in the BIOS. I'd have missed that. Good catch. You might run the part number of the NIC, and see if it's known for this form of failure. Paul |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Here's one I haven't seen...
On 8/21/2014 8:18 PM, Paul wrote:
Grinder wrote: On 8/21/2014 4:45 PM, Grinder wrote: I have a Dell Vostro 230 desktop computer, that freezes on boot. That is, it just stops dead in its tracks, fans still running, and the image still on the screen. It is at a pretty regular spot in the boot process, after POSTing, and early in the OS's wind up. It's the same for whatever operating system, I try on CD, or off of the hard drive. The repair process freezes up, always an an early stage of the game. I have disconnected or replaced RAM, power supply, hard drive, optical drive, and CMOS battery, but always get the same response. I pulled the CPU cooler to take a look and re-pasted it--same result. I guess it pretty much has to be the motherboard or the CPU, but wtf? Apparently, the onboard NIC has failed in a manner than freezes up the boot. Disabling it in BIOS has skirted that problem. Interrupt storm ? Probably hard to check for that, if it will no longer boot :-) While I would probably have started pulling excess cards out of the thing, I don't know if the symptoms would have me disabling peripherals in the BIOS. I'd have missed that. Good catch. You might run the part number of the NIC, and see if it's known for this form of failure. It looks like that particular model of Dell does seem to have a problem with freezing between POSTing and booting. |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Here's one I haven't seen...
Grinder wrote:
On 8/21/2014 8:18 PM, Paul wrote: You might run the part number of the NIC, and see if it's known for this form of failure. It looks like that particular model of Dell does seem to have a problem with freezing between POSTing and booting. It looks like some other models of Dell use the Broadcom 57788 as well. You would think these freezes would have been caught in testing. Paul |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
FOI: New Haven immigrant cards confidential | Ismo Hofmann | Storage & Hardrives | 0 | June 28th 08 12:36 AM |
7.11 drivers still haven't fixed problem | Paul in Toronto | Ati Videocards | 5 | November 25th 07 10:34 PM |
Old-school A64X2's haven't gone down in price? | Yousuf Khan | AMD x86-64 Processors | 11 | November 30th 06 02:11 AM |
GF6800U benchies for those that haven't seen it yet :) | Michael Brown | Overclocking AMD Processors | 0 | April 16th 04 01:30 AM |
How come we haven't heard from ISP's? | YanquiDawg | Overclocking | 28 | September 28th 03 09:22 AM |