Gossamer Forum
Home : General : Chit Chat :

Power Failure

Quote Reply
Power Failure
Its not really a power failure, but I have an amd athlon 800 mhz - 1.0 ghz board with an 800 and 2 256 memory sticks, and an amd compliant 300 watt power supply. Every time I take the processor out, of course nothing loads and the comp just sits there with the fan on, but when I put it in, the keyboard lights go on and the fans come on and occasionally the monitor will flicker and then it shuts down by itself. I can't figure this out. I don't know what it could be because I have 2 of everything that i said above because one of my family members has them too. I've tried their mobo and cpu, and it still happens and I would think the likelihood of that happening is slim. The only thing that I've kept in were the memory sticks. I haven't tried using the other 2. Has anyone ever heard of a comp shutting down on boot because of misseated memory or faulty memory? I've looked all over and all I could find is that someone had the same trouble with a laptop b/c of the memory. We've seated the memory many times also and it's not the first computer I've set up. Or better yet, has anyone ever experienced anything like this. Oh, the memory is SDRAM.

Side Note:
I got all this stuff from Tiger which I think was a mistake b/c they say they don't offer a warranty for the board just in case it is, and I called the board place and they say call the reseller b/c they would know most about the system, not to mention they are long distance and expect you to wait 20 + minutes for a live person. They also say they only offer their warranty for mobo's bought directly through them. So even though they sell through Tiger, they only offer warranties if you buy through them. And yet Tiger is supposed to be a good reseller but they sell this businesses mobo's. Thats the worst crap i ever heard.

Lavon Russell
LookHard Mods
lavon@lh.links247.net

Last edited by:

Bmxer: Dec 4, 2001, 7:22 AM
Quote Reply
Re: [Bmxer] Power Failure In reply to
I've heard that memory can cause problems. what about pci things? video card?

You mentioned you got another machine ... how about just slippin your gear into the functional one.

errr ... any loose wires? I had trouble with my fd ... when I installed my cd drive I nudged the wire Shocked

If the shop gives you slack wait for a very busy time and slowly ... slowly get frustrated ... slowly increase your volume of voice and start complaining that they could just send the board back. Remember is pressure on the staff to help you out! Bring in sales reciepts and what not to show off in front of other customers ... remember slowly build up ... and up and up and start hollering for the manager if you have to. customer sales associates can be pricks just to screw with you! hehe ... I worked department store for 4 years while in college I've met all types and the loud ones are the worse!

I don't know how old you are but if under 20 scream that they're taking advantage of a kid if older ... hmmm loudness.

good luck !!! Angelic

openoffice + gimp + sketch ... Smile
Quote Reply
Re: [QooQ] Power Failure In reply to
Yeah, I was just thinking maybe it could be the video card but I didn't know things like a misseated video card could make your computer shut down, let alone in the first half a second. If it was the video card, wouldn't just removing it at least solve the booting thing? b/c i've tried that. I don't know. Tiger is a reseller online. Tigerdirect.com. I'm 18 but believe me, if they had a store and I got it from there, i'd make a scene. I would yell at tech support but I still don't even know what the problem is b/c the tech support guy acted as if he didn't even know what a computer was. I asked him questions and then there was silence. Then whenever I referenced the motherboard or cpu, he'd tell me about the warranty only covering the cpu. I don't know. I might try the other memory and video cards. Although I did switch from the Nvidia agp that i was using and tried a pci sirge and it still didn't work.
Lavon Russell
LookHard Mods
lavon@lh.links247.net
Quote Reply
Re: [Bmxer] Power Failure In reply to
hmmm ... just guessing on the hard things ... so many things can go ka-plooey ... static and what not.

Just was all chatting in another post about all the great ways on how to make your machine spit smoke or flames.


On line eh!

jump straight over the first person ... be nice and polite and keeping requesting manager level or real tech person. Careful ... they might be advanced and have voice level readers (like polygraph testing for lieing -- I've heard about the machines are in use in Japan!) Be really American and pushy. Tech staff hates this.

next ... ask for the person's name, section, blood type, girl (phone number Wink), etc ... also mention their name over and over ... first and last ... make em paranoid. And don't forget to check spelling! If you want quote them and write a note about most of the ambiguous things that they say. This techinique is used quite often in Japan, actually a city civil servant mentioned that if you don't get this down from the start the next time you call / stop by they'll look at you like they've never ever realized that you existed before. Play the tech game in other words!

good luck and hope you get your machine up again. fingers crossed eh!

openoffice + gimp + sketch ... Smile
Quote Reply
Re: [QooQ] Power Failure In reply to
I'd be willing to place my money on flakey RAM. RAM can do all kinds of whacky things if it didn't get enough love as a child. Second guess would be the "Momma Board" (as our old net admin, Diana used to call it).

I've got a diagnostics program (fits on a floppy and boots with its own little OS) that will do all kinds or parity tests, etc. It rocks! I can't find it just now, if I do I'll tell you what it is. It's extremely thorough and does a great job of hunting down gremlins.

Good Luck! Mike.

Oh, yeah... it's called "Trouble Shooter" good luck searching for it - you'll get a million unrelated hits, but it's worth it if you can find it.

Last edited by:

Watts: Dec 4, 2001, 1:16 PM
Quote Reply
Re: [Watts] Power Failure In reply to
Thanks Watts and Qooq for your replies. I'm posting this from my new setup! I finally got it to work. Turns out it was the stupid memory. I got continuous post beeps but luckily the other 2 work so I have 512 although I would love the 768 I could have had. Oh well, i'll get another. I'll look for that Trouble Shooter program because I would love something like that. My first place to look would probably be Download.com and then around those pc shareware places.

Thanks again guys. Smile
Lavon Russell
LookHard Mods
lavon@lh.links247.net