Is it CIH virus or overclocking?
Either way, here's how it started. OC'd my PII 450 to 495 w/110 FSB (used Arctic Silver w/heatsink as well as case fan over it), have Matrox DH G400 4X AGP and only NIC and sound card in PCI's. 416 mb PC100 (different breeds), Seagate 8.4 HDD, Philips CDRW 404, Toshiba 2X DVD, 250 watt PS, and Asus P3V4X mobo. Things went well for a couple weeks until I was burning a CD and the software froze (as usual), so I rebooted and after loading my display came on @ 16 color! Couldn't even load my Matrox driver in 16 color so all I could think of was uninstalling Service Pack 1 (running WIN98) and it did reload drivers on reboot. Things went good for a little while then I began having to start in safe mode, etc etc. I decided at this point to go ahead and do some intended upgrading so got a Maxtor 27.3 gb 7200 HDD, PIII850, 12x DVD, and new P3V4X mobo (a cmos battery and chip didn't do the trick on the first one).
I am still not able to even get a POST beep like the first setup. Tried removing sound card, all but one DIMM, boot from only floppy, remove mobo from case onto foam for rebooting (the latest attempt---now w/only floppy, 32 mb chip, cpu, and matrox installed, I get the cpu and fan to run but no floppy activity at all). All this time the monitors show nothing at all but with the speakers attached I do get the popping from them when firing up if attached to video card---they are an HP 15" and a generic 17" by the way...popping was normal since I got the Matrox over a year ago.
The floppy went from green light on (upside down cable) to nothing now. It's the HP 8300A's original from 3 years ago so shouldn't be fried...I installed a 486's into a friend's and it works just fine. (which by the way entailed installing a new hard drive, OS, and DVD w/ decoder card so that being the fourth upgrade I've done, I assume I'm doing everything right.
Apparently not...if anyone can help I know you guys here can...I've read all the postings going back to the first of the year and I feel there is help available. Sorry for the long msg but I wanted all pertinent info the first time for you.
PS> One embarrassing note...while screwing with the system the first time b4 upgrades, I installed a DIMM half-a**ed and I got the lovely smell of ozone on firing it up...should that only effect that particular DIMM? (was on the replaced mobo). NOT using that DIMM in trouble-shooting.
I appreciate any help in this month-long fiasco!

Have you tried going back to the correct cpu clock speed? It's tough to troubleshoot on an overclocked system...495 should be a fairly realistic speed, but you never know...

It's tough to say what the problem is since you never got it fixed and then replaced a whole bunch of components...it could be anything...go back to the basics...

Set the system back to 450mhz and try to get it to boot with a known good dimm and known good video card...if that works, add parts one at a time...refer to the how-tos on this site for detailed info...

Welcome, grovermonster! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif How's Cookie? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

As I understand it, you are not overclocking now. Correct?

Are you re-using the original 250-watt PS?

If so, that may be what's causing at least some of the problems.
If it's more than a few years old, it's output may not be enough
for the new components.


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"I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
-- Charles Babbage, mathematician, computer pioneer, analytical engine designer (1791-1871)
-- (Question: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?')

"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand."
-- Homer Simpson

This may sound crazy, but if you smelled ozone, I doubt it was as a result of a misplaced memory module. DIMMs run on, at the most, 5vdc. I've had the priveledge or repairing a lot of fried circuit boards and I can't ever remember 5vdc sparking that strongly. I would first replace the power supply, if only to eliminate it as a suspect.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Hello there and thanks for the quick replies...I am not oc'ing right now, jumpers set at jumperfree and I just now fired up with only the 32 mb dimm, ps, PIII 850, and floppy and the only thing that happens is the fans come on. Shouldn't there be an error code for no video? The mobo is on the packaging foam inside the case to rule out shorts. Let's say the floppy for whatever reason decided to go south, would that prevent POSTing or its beeps from sounding? What about PSs...can they selectively short particular wires after working great for 3 years? (Glad to hear DIMM's aren't that nasty a pollution prob from bad seating--pphew!)
At this point I would love to hear any beeping no matter what the error---why don't you just talk to me, CMOS!?
Random question to you guys...what do you think about clocking the PIII850...no idea why I got that instead of the 866...math just won't add up. What's the safest max to run the PCI at? The AGP can run @ 266 right? Is 40 on the PCI too much? (in the event I ever get that far)