Two issues with aging machine

[DGDevin]

I have a three-year-old PC built by a friend, it has an Asus A7V333 MB,
Athalon 2200 (which only seems happy running at 1800), XP Pro, and it is
having a couple of problems.

Recently while replacing a malfunctioning DVD burner I made the
breathtakingly stupid move of disconnecting and then reconnecting the
burner's power cable while the computer was running, power supply died
instantly and I sat there marvelling that I'd been able to tie my own shoes
that morning. After replacing the power supply the computer takes forever
to boot as Windows gets all the apps and processes up and running, and
everything then runs very slowly, audio and video will stutter if I try to
run two applications at once. The BIOS screen says the CPU is still running
at 1800 (as it always has) and all 1.5gigs of RAM is working. The guy who
built the machine suggests I reinstall Win XP Pro and has sent a link on how
to do that without losing all the apps and data. I do have a backup drive
which hopefully has working copies of everything via Bounceback Express if
worse comes to worse. Does this sound like something in Windows was
corrupted during the power supply crash?

The second problem is the PS/2 keyboard and mouse socket on the back panel
seem to be shot. The mouse started acting odd awhile back so I went to a
USB mouse which cured that. When the keyboard became unresponsive I first
tried a new keyboard (no luck) and then a USB keyboard. The USB keyboard
works but the machine generally will not boot if the old keyboard isn't
plugged into the back panel socket, and most of the time when booting there
is a rapid "stuck key" sound and it hangs on the initial startup screen
(before Windows). Lately the machine has also produced a slow beeping noise
on startup which the Asus manual says means there is no RAM, in that event
not even the initial screen comes up and a red LED appears on the front
panel by the power switch. Playing with the keyboard plug (slowly wiggling
it around in the socket on bootup) so far will eventually stop the "stuck
key" sound and get the machine to boot all the way, although again Windows
takes forever to get itself set up and the speed issue above remains. I'm a
bit surprised to still be able to get the thing to work, who knows, I might
not be able to read any responses to this post.

I can't see anything in the Asus manual about a jumper that would disable
the back panel keyboard socket, nor can I see anything in BIOS setup that
would disable it from looking for a PS/2 keyboard.

Ring any bells with anyone? Any helpful hints? Or should I take this as a
sign that a whole new computer is justified?

 

[Jan Alter]

I have a three-year-old PC built by a friend, it has an Asus A7V333 MB,
Athalon 2200 (which only seems happy running at 1800), XP Pro, and it is
having a couple of problems.

Recently while replacing a malfunctioning DVD burner I made the
breathtakingly stupid move of disconnecting and then reconnecting the
burner's power cable while the computer was running, power supply died
instantly and I sat there marvelling that I'd been able to tie my own
shoes that morning. After replacing the power supply the computer takes
forever to boot as Windows gets all the apps and processes up and running,
and everything then runs very slowly, audio and video will stutter if I
try to run two applications at once. The BIOS screen says the CPU is
still running at 1800 (as it always has) and all 1.5gigs of RAM is
working. The guy who built the machine suggests I reinstall Win XP Pro
and has sent a link on how to do that without losing all the apps and
data. I do have a backup drive which hopefully has working copies of
everything via Bounceback Express if worse comes to worse. Does this
sound like something in Windows was corrupted during the power supply
crash?

The second problem is the PS/2 keyboard and mouse socket on the back
panel seem to be shot. The mouse started acting odd awhile back so I went
to a USB mouse which cured that. When the keyboard became unresponsive I
first tried a new keyboard (no luck) and then a USB keyboard. The USB
keyboard works but the machine generally will not boot if the old keyboard
isn't plugged into the back panel socket, and most of the time when
booting there is a rapid "stuck key" sound and it hangs on the initial
startup screen (before Windows). Lately the machine has also produced a
slow beeping noise on startup which the Asus manual says means there is no
RAM, in that event not even the initial screen comes up and a red LED
appears on the front panel by the power switch. Playing with the keyboard
plug (slowly wiggling it around in the socket on bootup) so far will
eventually stop the "stuck key" sound and get the machine to boot all the
way, although again Windows takes forever to get itself set up and the
speed issue above remains. I'm a bit surprised to still be able to get
the thing to work, who knows, I might not be able to read any responses to
this post.

I can't see anything in the Asus manual about a jumper that would disable
the back panel keyboard socket, nor can I see anything in BIOS setup that
would disable it from looking for a PS/2 keyboard.

Ring any bells with anyone? Any helpful hints? Or should I take this as
a sign that a whole new computer is justified?

I love it when other folks end up doing what I thought I might try sometime
to see what would happen. And after reading I sigh a note of relief that I
wasn't in an experimenting mood. My guess here is that you 'try' your
builder's suggestion after backing up your data. 'Asus heal thyself.' But
I'm somewhat dubious at your final results. Electronics are often not
forgiving about surges or shorts. Quite possibly a new PS may be needed to
remedy the event, and maybe you want to try another keyboard as well. The
fact that it boots is a plus. Give it a shot as at this point you've already
paid the piper and you have nothing to lose but your time. While you're
doing it keep browsing at the brochures of the next system you'd like to be
enjoying.

 

[DGDevin]

I love it when other folks end up doing what I thought I might try
sometime to see what would happen. And after reading I sigh a note of
relief that I wasn't in an experimenting mood. My guess here is that you
'try' your builder's suggestion after backing up your data. 'Asus heal
thyself.' But I'm somewhat dubious at your final results. Electronics are
often not forgiving about surges or shorts.

I was figuring if it was a hardware problem there would be some sign of it
other than the slow bootup etc., but maybe something did get messed up when
I kil. . ., err, I mean when the power supply died.

Quite possibly a new PS may be needed to remedy the event, and maybe you
want to try another keyboard as well.

I've put in two new power supplies, the latest higher-rated than the
original, no dice. Also tried a brand-new keyboard in the PS/2 port, didn't
work any better. That the bootup problem goes away by moving the keyboard
connector around in the port seems to point to the port rather than the
keyboard, no?

The fact that it boots is a plus. Give it a shot as at this point you've
already paid the piper and you have nothing to lose but your time.

Yeah, I'll try reinstalling Windoze and see what happens, nothing to lose at
this point.

While you're doing it keep browsing at the brochures of the next system
you'd like to be enjoying.

Yup, the wife even gave the okay for that today, I just hate to give up on a
machine that does everything I want it to just fine when it's in good
health.

Thanks,

 

[Rod Speed]

I was figuring if it was a hardware problem there would be some sign
of it other than the slow bootup etc., but maybe something did get
messed up when I kil. . ., err, I mean when the power supply died.

I've put in two new power supplies, the latest higher-rated than the
original, no dice. Also tried a brand-new keyboard in the PS/2 port,
didn't work any better. That the bootup problem goes away by moving
the keyboard connector around in the port seems to point to the port
rather than the keyboard, no?

Yes, most likely you have a dry joint where the connector is soldered
onto the motherboard and moving it around makes good contact.

Yeah, I'll try reinstalling Windoze and see what happens, nothing to lose at this point.

Unlikely to help.

Yup, the wife even gave the okay for that today, I just hate to give up on a machine that does
everything I want it to just fine when it's in good health.

Post the SMART data on the hard drive, you may have damaged
the drive or the controller when you killed the power supply and
the slow boot may be due to retrying on errors, but it does
succeed eventually, producing the slow boot due to the retrys.
Use Everest http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

 

[Mr. Brian Allen]

I've had the stuck key sound before. That usually indicates a bad keyboard.
You could always turn the new USB keyboard into a PS2 keyboard with the
adapter. Radio Shack sells them cheap.

 

[DGDevin]

I've had the stuck key sound before. That usually indicates a bad
keyboard. You could always turn the new USB keyboard into a PS2 keyboard
with the adapter. Radio Shack sells them cheap.

I already tried a new keyboard in the PS/2 port, same thing.

 

[DGDevin]

Post the SMART data on the hard drive, you may have damaged
the drive or the controller when you killed the power supply and
the slow boot may be due to retrying on errors, but it does
succeed eventually, producing the slow boot due to the retrys.
Use Everest http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

Dang, that's a long report. Is this the relevant part? Thanks.

01 Raw Read Error Rate 6 56 51 215877159 OK:
Value is normal
03 Spin Up Time 0 96 96 0 OK:
Always passing
04 Start/Stop Count 20 100 100 257 OK:
Value is normal
05 Reallocated Sector Count 36 100 100 0 OK:
Value is normal
07 Seek Error Rate 30 73 60 22279331 OK:
Value is normal
09 Power-On Time Count 0 99 99 1629 OK:
Always passing
0A Spin Retry Count 97 100 100 0 OK:
Value is normal
0C Power Cycle Count 20 100 100 262 OK:
Value is normal
C2 Temperature 0 42 51 42 OK:
Always passing
C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 0 56 51 215877159 OK:
Always passing
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 0 100 100 0 OK:
Always passing
C6 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count 0 100 100 0 OK:
Always passing
C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 200 200 0 OK:
Always passing
C8 Write Error Rate 0 100 253 0 OK:
Always passing
CA <vendor-specific> 0 100 253 0 OK:
Always passing

 

[Rod Speed]

Dang, that's a long report. Is this the relevant part?

Yep. Tho you should have included the couple of
lines at the top with the drive ID details in them.

01 Raw Read Error Rate 6 56 51 215877159 OK: Value is normal
03 Spin Up Time 0 96 96 0
OK: Always passing
04 Start/Stop Count 20 100 100 257
OK: Value is normal
05 Reallocated Sector Count 36 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
07 Seek Error Rate 30 73 60 22279331
OK: Value is normal

That is rather high, but can be seen with some hard drives.

09 Power-On Time Count 0 99 99 1629
OK: Always passing
0A Spin Retry Count 97 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
0C Power Cycle Count 20 100 100 262
OK: Value is normal
C2 Temperature 0 42 51 42
OK: Always passing
C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 0 56 51 215877159
OK: Always passing
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 0 100 100 0
OK: Always passing
C6 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count 0 100 100 0
OK: Always passing
C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 200 200 0
OK: Always passing
C8 Write Error Rate 0 100 253 0
OK: Always passing
CA <vendor-specific> 0 100 253 0
OK: Always passing

Looks like the drive is fine.

 

[DGDevin]

Yep. Tho you should have included the couple of
lines at the top with the drive ID details in them.

Seagate Barracuda 7200 ATA100 200 gig, I run a second as a backup with the
Bounceback Express software it came with, learned that lesson recently when
half a RAID-0 died, a few CDs with the supposedly important data files
turned out to be way less than I wanted saved.

Looks like the drive is fine.

Okay, then I need to look elsewhere for the extreme bootup time and
generally slow performance, I guess reloading XP will be the next thing,
nothing to lose at this point.

 

[Rod Speed]

Seagate Barracuda 7200 ATA100 200 gig,

Those do report quite high 07 Seek Error Rate when fine.

I run a second as a backup with the Bounceback Express software it came with, learned that lesson
recently when half a RAID-0 died, a few CDs with the supposedly important data files turned out to
be way less than I wanted saved.

Okay, then I need to look elsewhere for the extreme bootup time and generally slow performance,
Yep.

I guess reloading XP will be the next thing, nothing to lose at this point.

I doubt it will be that myself, but its certainly easy
to try, particularly if you can just image the entire
drive and restore that image if it makes no difference.

 

[Terry Wilson]

I have a three-year-old PC built by a friend, it has an Asus A7V333 MB,
Athalon 2200 (which only seems happy running at 1800), XP Pro, and it is
having a couple of problems.

Recently while replacing a malfunctioning DVD burner I made the
breathtakingly stupid move of disconnecting and then reconnecting the
burner's power cable while the computer was running, power supply died
instantly and I sat there marvelling that I'd been able to tie my own shoes
that morning. After replacing the power supply the computer takes forever
to boot as Windows gets all the apps and processes up and running, and
everything then runs very slowly, audio and video will stutter if I try to
run two applications at once. The BIOS screen says the CPU is still running
at 1800 (as it always has) and all 1.5gigs of RAM is working. The guy who
built the machine suggests I reinstall Win XP Pro and has sent a link on how
to do that without losing all the apps and data. I do have a backup drive
which hopefully has working copies of everything via Bounceback Express if
worse comes to worse. Does this sound like something in Windows was
corrupted during the power supply crash?

The second problem is the PS/2 keyboard and mouse socket on the back panel
seem to be shot. The mouse started acting odd awhile back so I went to a
USB mouse which cured that. When the keyboard became unresponsive I first
tried a new keyboard (no luck) and then a USB keyboard. The USB keyboard
works but the machine generally will not boot if the old keyboard isn't
plugged into the back panel socket, and most of the time when booting there
is a rapid "stuck key" sound and it hangs on the initial startup screen
(before Windows). Lately the machine has also produced a slow beeping noise
on startup which the Asus manual says means there is no RAM, in that event
not even the initial screen comes up and a red LED appears on the front
panel by the power switch. Playing with the keyboard plug (slowly wiggling
it around in the socket on bootup) so far will eventually stop the "stuck
key" sound and get the machine to boot all the way, although again Windows
takes forever to get itself set up and the speed issue above remains. I'm a
bit surprised to still be able to get the thing to work, who knows, I might
not be able to read any responses to this post.

I can't see anything in the Asus manual about a jumper that would disable
the back panel keyboard socket, nor can I see anything in BIOS setup that
would disable it from looking for a PS/2 keyboard.

Ring any bells with anyone? Any helpful hints? Or should I take this as a
sign that a whole new computer is justified?

a few suggestions

remove the new DVD burner if still installed - any changes?
Reset / reload BIOS - any changes?
download/run memory test -> http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

good luck!