Dead PC after plugging in parallel cable

  • Thread starter Thread starter adrian
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adrian

Hello,
I'm posting this for a friend as his PC seems to be dead. His system
is an Athlon XP2000+ with a Gigabyte GA-7VA mobo, running Redhat 8 I
think. Anyway, he bought a Canon BJC-2100 printer the other day and
connected it with a parallel cable - machine refused to boot, not even
POST although he could hear the fan running (but slower than usual),
but seemed to revive with the cable unplugged. The printer was fine
when connected via USB instead. Not one to give up easily, he tried
again with the parallel cable few times (no joy even with just the
cable - no printer). It seemed to work when he unplugged the chipset
fan so he tried to use this chance to check out any relevant parallel
port BIOS settings, with no change. Now it won't boot at all. Any
ideas/suggestions welcome...

Adrian
 
adrian said:
Hello,
I'm posting this for a friend as his PC seems to be dead. His system
is an Athlon XP2000+ with a Gigabyte GA-7VA mobo, running Redhat 8 I
think. Anyway, he bought a Canon BJC-2100 printer the other day and
connected it with a parallel cable - machine refused to boot, not even
POST although he could hear the fan running (but slower than usual),
but seemed to revive with the cable unplugged. The printer was fine
when connected via USB instead. Not one to give up easily, he tried
again with the parallel cable few times (no joy even with just the
cable - no printer). It seemed to work when he unplugged the chipset
fan so he tried to use this chance to check out any relevant parallel
port BIOS settings, with no change. Now it won't boot at all. Any
ideas/suggestions welcome...
Click to expand...

Electrical check of the cable ? Is it wired up wrong ?


Cheers, J/.
 
My guess is that the cable had a short circuit between 2 wires, which stopped
the port being scanned at bootup so it hung. Eventually you blew the port
driver i.c. so now no boot with the cable disconnected.
 
adrian said:
I'm posting this for a friend as his PC seems to be dead. His system
is an Athlon XP2000+ with a Gigabyte GA-7VA mobo, running Redhat 8 I
think. Anyway, he bought a Canon BJC-2100 printer the other day and
connected it with a parallel cable - machine refused to boot, not even
POST although he could hear the fan running (but slower than usual),
but seemed to revive with the cable unplugged. The printer was fine
when connected via USB instead. Not one to give up easily, he tried
again with the parallel cable few times (no joy even with just the
cable - no printer). It seemed to work when he unplugged the chipset
fan so he tried to use this chance to check out any relevant parallel
port BIOS settings, with no change. Now it won't boot at all.
Click to expand...

It sounds like a bad cable with a short.

At what point did unplugging the chipset fan seem like a good idea? The
BIOS settings could have been changed without the cable attached. It
sounds like a new cable and (probably) a new motherboard are needed.
 
I am the friend of Adrian whose PC was dead. Now, the system is up
and running - but not without problems. Let me try to answer your
questions so that you can advice me better.

When the system didn't boot up the first time, I took the cable back
to the shop and checked - no problem - it was working perfectly with
their printer. Anyway, got another cable also just connected the
cable alone and tried to boot. It wouldn't boot. Then, when I
disconnected and restarted, it didn't boot - only fans running. Since
the motherboard chipset fan was audibly rotating at a slower speed
(lower pitch of the noise), I disconnected it and switched on. The
system would boot. If I connect it again, it won't boot.

Then, the next day, I tried disconnecting all other extra fans, CD
drive and connecting the chipset fan. It did boot, but the system
froze after 10 minutes and won't boot again. It did boot only after
resting for 1 hour but again would freeze after some time.

The next day, I connected everything and it was working well for 1
hour before freezing. Then, I tried running random screen savers
(mostly OpenGL) switching every 5 minutes for 1 hour. It was
perfectly running - no problem.

After this incident, the chipset fan and cpu fan have started to make
more noise (not high pitch - more noise) and the pitch will suddenly
rise and then suddenly go low as if it is struggling and so on - very
disturbing. I checked the processor temperature also - it stays
around the usual 46C (it used to be around this even before).

Waiting for any ideas/suggestions/advice

Thanks in advance,
Prasanna David
 
Prasanna David said:
When the system didn't boot up the first time, I took the cable back
to the shop and checked - no problem - it was working perfectly with
their printer. Anyway, got another cable also just connected the
cable alone and tried to boot. It wouldn't boot. Then, when I
disconnected and restarted, it didn't boot - only fans running. Since
the motherboard chipset fan was audibly rotating at a slower speed
(lower pitch of the noise), I disconnected it and switched on. The
system would boot. If I connect it again, it won't boot.
Click to expand...

Bad pin on the motherboard parallel connector? Bad power supply
connection? Bad motherboard mounting, or maybe an intermittent
component on the motherboard?
After this incident, the chipset fan and cpu fan have started to make
more noise (not high pitch - more noise) and the pitch will suddenly
rise and then suddenly go low as if it is struggling and so on - very
disturbing. I checked the processor temperature also - it stays
around the usual 46C (it used to be around this even before).

Waiting for any ideas/suggestions/advice
Click to expand...

Basic troubleshooting. I'd start by checking the motherboard parallel
connector with a flashlight, making sure the motherboard isn't being
flexed when a cable is attached to the parallel port, nothing is visibly
shorting, and then checking the power supply voltages.

After that, swapping out components, starting with the power supply and
then the motherboard.

-- Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota * USA
 
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