Computer Guru Urgently Needed

The Coffee's · Post by **The Coffee's** » 30 December 08 1:44 pm

OK I need some professional Computer help from anyone that may be able to offer some advice. 
I have a home computer system which although is old has been good for general use and DVD work. 
The system is a Pentium4 1.7ghz, and the motherboard is listed as a Gigabyte GA-8SR533 pentium P4 Titan. 
Video card is a Nvidia GE Force 2 MX/MX 400 AGP 
Old Sound Blaster Video card 
Maxtor 20g Main Hard Drive. 
WDC 80g secondary Hard Drive,br>

The Problem: Originally the scrteen would blank in and out at random and after replacing a faulty video card fan all seemed fine for a short time. it was not long ago that when I booted the system that it hung at the "DMI Pooling" on the start up screen. Many years ago I had a similar problem so I started the remove all extras like cards etc and re-boot.
At first this did nothing and after loading "load fail safe" settings in the boot up BIOS screen I have some success with the sysyem starting but video card was disabled with a Code 10 error and some windows components (sound control in task bar) was missing or not installed.
I noticed in the Start up boot BIOS screen that the main hard drive (maxtor) was not listed and not able to be detected, yet the WDC second drive was showing and detected fine.
once the system started it orignally did not show the second hard drive and after a second boot it showed up in Device Manager.
Windows update refused to fix video card errors and could not find windows service pack 3 for windows components. 
It has been frustrating as just as I think I am getting things solved it hiccups and puts me back at the start.
From reading and experience I believe I have one or more issues that may involve Video Card, Hard Drive or Mother Board. I have reset and re-seated all components and leads but if I try to re-boot with normal BIOS settings it again Hangs at DMI Pooling. Normally I would just replace components or update but I have a lot of porgrams and settings and leads etc that I dont wont to loose (not so much lazy to change but just comfortable with system).
I am hoping someone can shed some light or help in some way, a coffee or two is on offer for solving my problem.
Thanks in advance Mr.Coffee 0401496649

Swampy · Post by **Swampy** » 30 December 08 3:37 pm

Have you checked for leaking capacitors? Or caps with the silver top bit bowed? That is a sure fire cause for lots of random happenings, including IDE chain dying, random freezing, hanging during bootup, etc.

Two choices with leaking caps. 1. remove and replace bad capacitors. 2. replace motherboard.
Good luck.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 30 December 08 4:49 pm

Also this time of year with extra heat computers do weird things, get air in a can or an air compressor and blow out any dust and crap that has accumulated on heat shinks etc.

Dust acts as an insulator, traping small pockets of air that quickly heat up and stay hot.

The Coffee's · Post by **The Coffee's** » 30 December 08 4:54 pm

delta_foxtrot2 wrote:Also this time of year with extra heat computers do weird things, get air in a can or an air compressor and blow out any dust and crap that has accumulated on heat shinks etc.

Dust acts as an insulator, traping small pockets of air that quickly heat up and stay hot.

Did that at the first port of call, blew out all the dust, re-seated heat sink and put on new heat transfer paste, re-seated all leads and cards. had a good look at capacitors no sunken tops.....very

cant find answer yet...but geocachers are a clever bunch and hopefully soon it will be

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 30 December 08 5:09 pm

With increased temps, computers do weird things as they get hot, not always totally failing, but certainly reboots and what not, try blowing a small or even big desk/room fan into the case

Mr Router · Post by **Mr Router** » 30 December 08 6:27 pm

the farmers 5 · Post by **the farmers 5** » 30 December 08 6:42 pm

Compress the espresso grinds,froth up the milk ,sit back and dont stress.

Then fire up the iphone internet for the "FTF" hunts.
If all else fails,pull out my laptop,its still at your place after 18 months.
Cheers.........Good luck.

The Coffee's · Post by **The Coffee's** » 30 December 08 7:48 pm

delta_foxtrot2 wrote:With increased temps, computers do weird things as they get hot, not always totally failing, but certainly reboots and what not, try blowing a small or even big desk/room fan into the case

Funny I actually tried that. The problem at this moment is I can start the computer but it is running in a "Load fail safe" mode via the BIOS boot screen and although running fine major components are disabled (more to do with software rather than hardware). every time I load optimum defaults it hangs on DMI Pooling. I intend to try a different AGP video card later but I think it will be the main board that is faulty.

The Coffee's · Post by **The Coffee's** » 30 December 08 7:49 pm

the farmers 5 wrote:Compress the espresso grinds,froth up the milk ,sit back and dont stress.

Then fire up the iphone internet for the "FTF" hunts.
If all else fails,pull out my laptop,its still at your place after 18 months.
Cheers.........Good luck.

Oh to have a user name and password

The Coffee's · Post by **The Coffee's** » 30 December 08 7:51 pm

Mr.Coffee and the Clan wrote:
the farmers 5 wrote:Compress the espresso grinds,froth up the milk ,sit back and dont stress.

Then fire up the iphone internet for the "FTF" hunts.
If all else fails,pull out my laptop,its still at your place after 18 months.
Cheers.........Good luck.

Oh to have a user name and password

Hows the "Wagga Wagga Mega Mega Geocaching Event 2010" going?, better than my computer system I hope.

Geof · Post by **Geof** » 31 December 08 10:50 pm

What happens if you unplug both hard drives and boot a live OS from a CD. Does it run OK or still play up?

One of these would be the thing to try if you have no idea about these things.
http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads/official-releases

I have had HDDs die but still work partly.

roostaman · Post by **roostaman** » 02 January 09 8:54 pm

Mr.Coffee and the Clan wrote:
Hows the "Wagga Wagga Mega Mega Geocaching Event 2010" going?, better than my computer system I hope.

It's goin REAL good Mr Coffee, in fact it will probably still be GOING when your PC ....... isn't ! ! !

ArgusTuft · Post by **ArgusTuft** » 03 January 09 5:32 pm

Mr.Coffee and the Clan wrote:OK I need some professional Computer help from anyone that may be able to offer some advice. 
I have a home computer system which although is old has been good for general use and DVD work. 
The system is a Pentium4 1.7ghz, and the motherboard is listed as a Gigabyte GA-8SR533 pentium P4 Titan. 
Video card is a Nvidia GE Force 2 MX/MX 400 AGP 
Old Sound Blaster Video card 
Maxtor 20g Main Hard Drive. 
WDC 80g secondary Hard Drive,br>

The Problem: Originally the scrteen would blank in and out at random and after replacing a faulty video card fan all seemed fine for a short time. it was not long ago that when I booted the system that it hung at the "DMI Pooling" on the start up screen. Many years ago I had a similar problem so I started the remove all extras like cards etc and re-boot.
At first this did nothing and after loading "load fail safe" settings in the boot up BIOS screen I have some success with the sysyem starting but video card was disabled with a Code 10 error and some windows components (sound control in task bar) was missing or not installed.
I noticed in the Start up boot BIOS screen that the main hard drive (maxtor) was not listed and not able to be detected, yet the WDC second drive was showing and detected fine.
once the system started it orignally did not show the second hard drive and after a second boot it showed up in Device Manager.
Windows update refused to fix video card errors and could not find windows service pack 3 for windows components. 
It has been frustrating as just as I think I am getting things solved it hiccups and puts me back at the start.
From reading and experience I believe I have one or more issues that may involve Video Card, Hard Drive or Mother Board. I have reset and re-seated all components and leads but if I try to re-boot with normal BIOS settings it again Hangs at DMI Pooling. Normally I would just replace components or update but I have a lot of porgrams and settings and leads etc that I dont wont to loose (not so much lazy to change but just comfortable with system).
I am hoping someone can shed some light or help in some way, a coffee or two is on offer for solving my problem.
Thanks in advance Mr.Coffee 0401496649

Try making your arms longer or, alternatively, shorten your pockets

The Coffee's · Post by **The Coffee's** » 03 January 09 10:30 pm

Geof wrote:What happens if you unplug both hard drives and boot a live OS from a CD. Does it run OK or still play up?

One of these would be the thing to try if you have no idea about these things.
http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads/official-releases

I have had HDDs die but still work partly.

Worth a try did have a CD somewhere I have a listing on my computer
For it's location, Doh!

The Coffee's · Post by **The Coffee's** » 03 January 09 10:36 pm

Decided to buy a new motherboard and rebuild, hopefully can save hard drives and resume where I left off, any suggestions on what program would be best for copying old hard drive to new one during rebuild.

Geocaching Australia

Computer Guru Urgently Needed

Computer Guru Urgently Needed

Re: Computer Guru Urgently Needed