A bit of a mystery...

[Larc]

My backup computer died a while back following a brief power outage even though
it was plugged into what I thought was a good surge protector. Nothing happened
when I tried to start it. Replacing the PSU with a known good Antec (higher
power than the one that had been in there) didn't help matters nor did resetting
the BIOS. After checking everything I could think of, I decided the motherboard
had died for sure.

Then, just so nothing was left undone, I popped the battery out. After I put it
back, the computer started right up. Why removing and replacing the battery
would work when clearing the CMOS via the jumper four different times wouldn't
causes some questions.

Now, there are no obvious problems with the computer except it has slowed down a
lot. A process that should have taken no more than three hours to run took more
than seven and a half hours. RAM checks out, the CPU checks out, the hard
drives check out, and all the BIOS settings check out, but everything is still
slow. Also, I did a repair install of WinXP and then defragged.

I guess there's damage somewhere that just isn't showing up with the normal
checks. Anybody else experienced anything like this and found an easy solution?

Thanks in advance for any helpful ideas.

Larc



§§§ - Please change planet to earth to reply by e-mail - §§§

 

[Patrick]

My backup computer died a while back following a brief power outage even though
it was plugged into what I thought was a good surge protector. Nothing happened
when I tried to start it. Replacing the PSU with a known good Antec (higher
power than the one that had been in there) didn't help matters nor did resetting
the BIOS. After checking everything I could think of, I decided the motherboard
had died for sure.

Then, just so nothing was left undone, I popped the battery out. After I put it
back, the computer started right up. Why removing and replacing the battery
would work when clearing the CMOS via the jumper four different times wouldn't
causes some questions.

Now, there are no obvious problems with the computer except it has slowed down a
lot. A process that should have taken no more than three hours to run took more
than seven and a half hours. RAM checks out, the CPU checks out, the hard
drives check out, and all the BIOS settings check out, but everything is still
slow. Also, I did a repair install of WinXP and then defragged.

I guess there's damage somewhere that just isn't showing up with the normal
checks. Anybody else experienced anything like this and found an easy solution?

Thanks in advance for any helpful ideas.

Larc



§§§ - Please change planet to earth to reply by e-mail - §§§

Have you tested the bogomips, with the Knoppix CDrom?

Get Knoppix at http://knopper.net/knoppix

Burn the ISO to a CD-R or CD-RW

insert CD in to computer CDrom and reboot. See if that isn't a lot
faster...

The cure for the basic problem of power surges/sags is to get a decent
UPS! Cheaper than all the hassle of rebuilding computer systems!
My residental AC lines get over 7,000 spikes of more than 17,000 Volts,
per hour, and even though they are less than 30 ms in duration, they do
eventually play havoc with computer PSUs and everything they feed.

 

[JAD]

First unless you unplug and be sure of the jumper # that controls
CMOS it won't clear on most ATX type motherboards. Also with resetting
the bios, You may have turned off UDMA/ATA, also the setting for "DMA'
from within windows may have been reverted back to 'disabled'. Check
to make sure that the memory timings have not changed and that the
proper amount of ram is being identified along with the CPU Type,
voltages and speeds.

HTH

 

[Shep©]

First unless you unplug and be sure of the jumper # that controls
CMOS it won't clear on most ATX type motherboards. Also with resetting
the bios, You may have turned off UDMA/ATA, also the setting for "DMA'
from within windows may have been reverted back to 'disabled'. Check
to make sure that the memory timings have not changed and that the
proper amount of ram is being identified along with the CPU Type,
voltages and speeds.

HTH

Just to add to what Jad says.
You cannot fully clear the CMOS on ATX powered systems with power to
the board as a residual current is applied across the CMOS
battery.This can stop incorrect or,"Dirty Data" being cleaned from the
CMOS.Always switch off the power supply or pull the power cord out if
you want to clear the CMOS on these systems.

Note:CMOS data can be corrupted in quite a few ways and proper
clearing and correct resetting of the BIOS data can cure some
problems.
HTH






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