[Bill96766]

THE PROBLEM

I'm suddenly having problems booting my computer. It has been the case since I built it back in 2000 that the power supply comes on but does not initiate POST on the MB (Gigabyte GA7DX). Simply pressing the case reset switch would initiate POST. Last night that was no longer the case. After resetting it a dozen or so times, it finally booted but once I logged on the compter froze. Reset again, no POST. I tried again an other dozen times, and the boot process quit at different stages - from no POST, to verifying DMI data pool (sucessful), to logon and then freeze - seemingly without rhyme or reason.


WHAT I HAVE TRIED

The process seemed to have most trouble after checking the HDDs, although Windows said the check was okay. I disconnected the IDE cable from the SIIG Ultra ATA 133 controller. Each and every time POST and BIOS loaded, but without a startup disk connected I could only get so far... I then tried the HDDs on both channels of the SIIG and boot-up was again chaotic.

I moved the HDDs to the on-board controller, the computer booted fine and I am using it right now, BUT I need the on-board controller for other drives and (because I don't understand it) I question whether the SIIG controller is actually busted or if there's an other problem. Obviously I'm not an expert, but it seems too wierd that a problematic PCI card would keep the MB from POST or the BIOS from loading, especially if the problem was intermittent?


Any advice is much appreciated!!

- Bill

Gigabyte GA7DX 133mh
Award BIOS 6.00
AMD Athlon 1.2gh
512 MB DDR PC2100
Win2000 SP4 (2195)
Matrox G450 DualHead
OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
USB Human Interface Device
Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
BUSlink USB 2.0 Host Controller

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Welcome to G2G

Can you tell me your power supply specs please (i.e Manufacturer & power rating in watts)?

Also, how many drives do you have? Both hard drives & Optical drives please

[Samm]

Welcome to G2G

Can you tell me your power supply specs please (i.e Manufacturer & power rating in watts)?

Also, how many drives do you have? Both hard drives & Optical drives please

[Bill96766]

250 watt mystery brand power supply

** note ** about a month ago the 300 watt supply I had shorted out, This is one i borrowed from a friend as a band aid (I live on a rural Hawaiian island, retail components are hard to come by). It performed fine through the month, but maybe this is related?

QUANTUM FIREBALLP AS40.0 [Hard drive] (40.03 GB) -- drive 0, rev A1Y.1300, SMART Status: Healthy
WDC WD1200JB-00DUA3 [Hard drive] (120.03 GB) -- drive 1, rev 75.13B75, SMART Status: Healthy
MATSHITA DVD-RAM SW-9585
PIONEER DVD-ROM DVD-105

Welcome to G2G

Can you tell me your power supply specs please (i.e Manufacturer & power rating in watts)?

Also, how many drives do you have? Both hard drives & Optical drives please

[Samm]

Thanks for the info.

Firstly, I suspect it may be the PSU thats the problem. 250W, particularly if it's a generic brand psu, is not really enough to power a system of that spec with 2 hard drives & 2 optical drives. I used to have a system of very similar spec to yours, with a 300W PSU & had constant problems with it booting successfully, all of which were due to the Power supply being under-rated.

You say you have 2 hard drives & 2 optical drives, right? So why do you need the PCI IDE controller?

[Bill96766]

I will get a 350W PSU online and in the meantime I will drop a few underused components to ease the burden on the current PSU.

This is actually the first time that the hard drives operated normally w/ onboard IDE controller. Previously the hard drives performed badly and appeared as SCSI devices in Windows. I installed the PCI IDE controller and the problem went away. Also, I will need the PCI controller b/c I will be installing a third HD soon.

Thanks for the word

Thanks for the info.

Firstly, I suspect it may be the PSU thats the problem. 250W, particularly if it's a generic brand psu, is not really enough to power a system of that spec with 2 hard drives & 2 optical drives. I used to have a system of very similar spec to yours, with a 300W PSU & had constant problems with it booting successfully, all of which were due to the Power supply being under-rated.

You say you have 2 hard drives & 2 optical drives, right? So why do you need the PCI IDE controller?

[Samm]

OK, let us know how you get on