Is it the motherboard??

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zionblue

I have a homebuilt pc in my garage, with a soyo k7vempro motherboard,
running windows xp. It is a pretty lean machine, with only Sonar
recording software and 2 or 3 other apps installed. (my garage is also
my music studio)

Anyway, sometime this past winter it developed 2 simultaneous
problems...

1) It only starts once every so often - I changed power supplies from a
working pc, and replaced the switch in the case (the old one was crappy
anyway), still no change. I can click and click, and it only starts
once out of every bazillion or so clicks. -- once it does start, it
seems to run fine - it has been on now for weeks, for fear of being
unable to turn it back on once it is powered down.

2) It does not shut down all the way - this may be the major tell here
(?) of what is wrong... win xp will shut down, and just about the point
that it used to just peacefully click off, it instead now goes into
this strange idle, black screen, fans running, and the led's on the 2
cd drives flickering sickly on an off. I have to use the psu switch to
turn it off all the way, or it will flicker like that forever.

AND now I have one more fun problem... it stopped seeing the onboard
LAN port. No "network adapters" category is visible at all under the
device manager, and there is just nothin' happening lan-wise
whatsoever.

I have NO problem replacing the mobo, not a big deal to toss this one
and start over, but I need to know if it IS in fact un recoverable, and
that a new one would do the trick. More than the cost, it is the effort
to rebuild the darn thing that has me hesitant.

Thanks in advance for any advice...
 
Change the BIOS battery


|I have a homebuilt pc in my garage, with a soyo k7vempro
motherboard,
| running windows xp. It is a pretty lean machine, with only
Sonar
| recording software and 2 or 3 other apps installed. (my
garage is also
| my music studio)
|
| Anyway, sometime this past winter it developed 2
simultaneous
| problems...
|
| 1) It only starts once every so often - I changed power
supplies from a
| working pc, and replaced the switch in the case (the old
one was crappy
| anyway), still no change. I can click and click, and it
only starts
| once out of every bazillion or so clicks. -- once it does
start, it
| seems to run fine - it has been on now for weeks, for fear
of being
| unable to turn it back on once it is powered down.
|
| 2) It does not shut down all the way - this may be the
major tell here
| (?) of what is wrong... win xp will shut down, and just
about the point
| that it used to just peacefully click off, it instead now
goes into
| this strange idle, black screen, fans running, and the
led's on the 2
| cd drives flickering sickly on an off. I have to use the
psu switch to
| turn it off all the way, or it will flicker like that
forever.
|
| AND now I have one more fun problem... it stopped seeing
the onboard
| LAN port. No "network adapters" category is visible at all
under the
| device manager, and there is just nothin' happening
lan-wise
| whatsoever.
|
| I have NO problem replacing the mobo, not a big deal to
toss this one
| and start over, but I need to know if it IS in fact un
recoverable, and
| that a new one would do the trick. More than the cost, it
is the effort
| to rebuild the darn thing that has me hesitant.
|
| Thanks in advance for any advice...
|
 
I had a problem similar to what you describe in your first paragraph. I
changed out the P/S to no effect, and ultimately found that a new
motherboard did solve the problem, which was somewhat temperature-related,
it turned out. The colder the machine, the likelier it was to start.
I did not develop your other two problems.
I wonder if your computer, being in a garage in winter, might get very cold
The sudden increase in temperature of the components at startup might cause
differential expansion and possibly crack something. The room my computer is
in gets into the 40's sometimes in the winter.
I cannot say for certain that your motherboard is the problem, but, having
changed out your P/S, the MoBo is a likely suspect.
PS: changing a MoBo usually requires a Repair Install of the OS.
 
When you changed the mother board, did you get your own heat sink\fan? This may be a simple question but is the power feature set to standby when you click shut down? This has happened. It will ,on some, say shutting down and then go into standby mode, which won't shut it down all the way, or if it is set to hybernate that could be a problem getting it going again. Check your power options. If the pc is in a garage, not sure of conditions, but moisture is a big problem for a pc, or since you say it's for your music, electro magnetic interference from guitars, amps etc.... could be mucking with the motherboard. Where is it set up? esd[electro static discharge] like when you touch a door knob and zap! It's enough to kill a chip or make your system go screwy. Just some suggestions, keep the pc far away from electric instruments, off rugs, places with high moisture, etc..... if some moisture gets in the pc , eratic behavior is likely.
 
Hi all and thanks for the input -
I am fairly sure at this point that it is in fact the Mobo, and that it
is in fact my fault due to extremely cold temps. In fact, the first
time I started having troubles was the coldest morning of the year,
well below freezing.

Okay, so I am a dumb-a**, and should have brought it inside when not in
use... I have learned my lesson.

Now I am wondering - if I replace the mobo with a different Socket A,
reusing the cpu and all other components, will I have to basically
start over with windows and other apps, or will my system recognize the
new mobo like a drive, and make its own adjustments, settings, etc ?

My other option is to seek out an exact replacement for the same model
of mobo, in which case I am hoping I would not have to change a
thing... is this correct?

Thanks again - your time and advice is much appreciated!
 
I see where you are going with this - but would changing the CMOS
battery affect the network card?
 
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