Is it the power supply?
#1
Is it the power supply?
MB-AOpen AP5T, 233MMX, 200W PS
I'm replacing a possibly bad hard drive (4 G) with a Maxtor 30 G (7200 rpm)drive and I can't get the thing to boot.
I'm booting with a diskette.
It starts to post, gets to listing the drives, then recycles and starts over again. It will do this as long as I let it. It doesn't matter whether the old or new HD is connected.
Plugged into the power supply are the MB, a floppy, a CD, and a HD.
By uplugging the new hard drive, I was able to get it to boot to the A:\ drive once, but without a HD, where do you go from there?
I was also able to hit the Del key and get the bios menu up, but after a few moments, it restarts.
So, is it likely the PS is too small? No good?
I'm replacing a possibly bad hard drive (4 G) with a Maxtor 30 G (7200 rpm)drive and I can't get the thing to boot.
I'm booting with a diskette.
It starts to post, gets to listing the drives, then recycles and starts over again. It will do this as long as I let it. It doesn't matter whether the old or new HD is connected.
Plugged into the power supply are the MB, a floppy, a CD, and a HD.
By uplugging the new hard drive, I was able to get it to boot to the A:\ drive once, but without a HD, where do you go from there?
I was also able to hit the Del key and get the bios menu up, but after a few moments, it restarts.
So, is it likely the PS is too small? No good?
#2
It is a possiblity, a 230 or 250W would be better for what you have installed in the pc. I had a 230 with 3 HD's, CD, floppy, 2 case fans, vid card fan, cpu fan and a 2.2 orb drive that seemed to handle the work load pretty well.
If you unplug cd does the same happen? At any rate I would upgrade to atleast a 250W ps. You didn't drop a screw behind the MB did ya?
Brian
If you unplug cd does the same happen? At any rate I would upgrade to atleast a 250W ps. You didn't drop a screw behind the MB did ya?
Brian
#3
Post
Yea try unplugging some stuff. Also unplug the drive and see if it posts. Don’t need a drive just to post. 200 watt is awful small; I think this one was a 250 or 300, biggest one I could get at the time. I am researching this problem, back soon with more info… This could be a virus but not sure, STBY…
#4
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While the PS could be faulty, this is only a 233 MMX, nowhere near a power hungry processor. I'm leaning toward a bad memory module, or even a bad processor. But try the PS first... a newer PS won't hurt.
#5
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Yea after more research I agree, there is a major failure here. If you can't even boot from a disk that is odd to say the least. Pull the memory and hopefully there will be someone in your town that can check it. Could even be a mother board failing. Pull the HD and memory and see if it posts to a prompt. Plug the drive back in and try it again, bet trintro is right and the memory has failed. If it's Simm repalce the board and CPU etc. Simm is sky high cause they don't want to sell it.
#6
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Maybe not the power supply
I don't think the power supply is the problem. I think the problem may be the bios recognizing the hard drive. This MB will only support up to DMA 33 hard drives. I'm sure that the new drive is ATA 100 or at least ATA 66. I think that the drive is backward compatable to DMA 33, but it may have to be configured to that speed. Also the bios may not recognize the 30 gig drive, due to the size limits of the older board. Remember that this is a 233mhz board, which is at least 4 years old. 30 gig drives weren't around back then, so it may have to be partitioned into smaller logical drives. A bios upgrade might also solve the problem. Let's remember that the computer was running with the old power supply and the only thing changed was a drive upgrade. The newer drives are usually more power efficient than some of the older ones, so a larger power supply may not be needed. Yes, a larger PS will definately make the system more stable, and will put less strain on the components, but I don't think it's needed to post.
Post back and let us know.
nashcat
Post back and let us know.
nashcat
#7
Thanx all for your input. I think just about everybody was right in some way.
My original suspicion was motherboard, but I wanted to rule out other things first.
Unplugged the CD, same symptom.
I did find a stray "screw" in the bottom of the box. It was actually some kind of post, looked like a miniature soldering tip, pointed on one end, without the threads on the other end. Don't know if it had anything to do with the problem.
Wiggled and tightened every connector, ribbon cable, board etc. Found a few that seem to need it.
Was able to scrounge a 230W PS. Tried it and JOY! Alleluia! Alleluia!
nashcat: I couldn't even get to the point of the bios recognizing the drive or that it was LBA. Once the power supply was replaced, the thing booted and I fdisk'd and formatted the drive. You're right, it wanted to treat it as an 8G drive. I downloaded a Maxtor utility which properly partitioned and formatted the new drive to 30 G.
trinitro: Even though this isn't a power hungry setup, I'm thinking the following:
The power supply originally was juuuuuuussst powerful enough to run everything.
The aging components began to put a strain on it (The old drive was starting to act up).
The new drive, being 7200 rpm may require more consistent power, and that pushed it over the edge.
It's mostly back together now, and seems to be behaving. Now on to the zip drive. I hope the 230W can handle it.
Thanx guys. (Don't you love this forum?)
My original suspicion was motherboard, but I wanted to rule out other things first.
Unplugged the CD, same symptom.
I did find a stray "screw" in the bottom of the box. It was actually some kind of post, looked like a miniature soldering tip, pointed on one end, without the threads on the other end. Don't know if it had anything to do with the problem.
Wiggled and tightened every connector, ribbon cable, board etc. Found a few that seem to need it.
Was able to scrounge a 230W PS. Tried it and JOY! Alleluia! Alleluia!
nashcat: I couldn't even get to the point of the bios recognizing the drive or that it was LBA. Once the power supply was replaced, the thing booted and I fdisk'd and formatted the drive. You're right, it wanted to treat it as an 8G drive. I downloaded a Maxtor utility which properly partitioned and formatted the new drive to 30 G.
trinitro: Even though this isn't a power hungry setup, I'm thinking the following:
The power supply originally was juuuuuuussst powerful enough to run everything.
The aging components began to put a strain on it (The old drive was starting to act up).
The new drive, being 7200 rpm may require more consistent power, and that pushed it over the edge.
It's mostly back together now, and seems to be behaving. Now on to the zip drive. I hope the 230W can handle it.
Thanx guys. (Don't you love this forum?)