Hi Guys,

Got a problem with a PC i've recently built and just wanted to run the symptoms past all the knowledgable peeps on here to make sure I won't be wasting my time pulling the machine apart

Basically it's just a basic system for the inlaws to surf the web on, the basic spec is as follows:

AMD Sempron 2400+
A-bit KM400 M/board
256Mb DDR2600 Ram
300Watt Power Supply
Windows ME


The PC has performed fine for a few days until last night when it was turned on & about 1 second later turned itself off, when the power button was pressed again it booted up fine.
About 1/2 an hour later whilst copying a CD to media player the PC suddenly turned off & wouldn't turn back on with the power button until I switched it off & on at the wall when it started to boot up but would freeze at the first screen where it finds and lists the drives. After doing this several times I went into the bios and had a look around just to make sure everything looked OK, CPU temps etc. whilst doing this the PC just hung in the bios and wouldn't respond.
I restarted the PC (again!) and after booting I went into media player to try and replicate the crash before. This time whilst copying a CD a warning came up that it could not write to drive C, after clicking OK the PC just hung.

I reckon the problem is to do with the motherboard as this is the only component other than the power supply that would suddenly turn off a PC, I'm edging towards the motherboard rather than the power supply due to the problems with the freeze in the BIOS etc. Also the power LED on the motherboard never went out, as far as I could see, so this would also seem to confirm that the power supply wasn't intermittent.

Can anyone lend any further suggestions, or things to try before I send the motherboard back.

Apologies for the long thread

Gareth

 

Hello

I would check all the cables coming from the motherboard and into the drives. I had something similiar when the IDE cable has slightly come out.

Steve.

 

Provided all cables and cards are secure I would say...

PSU - the light not going out is no guarantee its OK
Mobo

See if you can find a cheap PSU and bypass the one in the case. Cost you less than 20 quid and quicker than taking out the Mobo.

Actually though if it is the PSU I recommend you get a decent one not a cheap one because if the PSU goes it may well take out your mobo and several other expensive components like your graphics card and memory

 

Try posting on here http://forum.abit-usa.com/

 

Definately PSU problem, sounds faulty to me, as 300W sbe enough juice for that box. If the mobo was faulty it probably wouldnt boot at all.

 

you have got the heatsink on correctly havent you , as if you havent it would heat cpu up quickly and it would crash, the last time i had a faulty PSU it trashed my motherboards completely

 

could also be a lot of other thing - try changing each component with another one, one by one, but i think it could be the psu or the ram?