Replacing motherboard and cpu

[novicetoday]

I believe either my motherboard or my CPU overheated.My computer (HP Pavilion 7935) was freezing up and the only way to get it to operate was to reboot. Yesterday it shut down by itself. I tried to restart and it would turn on with the power connected, as soon as I would push the start button for it to boot up, it would immediately power down.No beeps. I opened the case, heatsink filled with dust and the smell of cooked cicuits arose. I have tried to find my information on the HP site but was unable. I know I have an AMD Athlon chip and I think an Asus motherboard, what is my limit for an upgrade for this unit? thanks for any help.

[novicetoday]

I have received a reply from HP they tell me I can not replace the chip or the board something about the board only supporting the preinstalled CPU. The processor shipped in the Pavilion is an Athlon 1.3 GHz/200. Thanks again for any help.

[Budfred]

HP computers are very proprietary, so even if you find a motherboard and CPU combo to install in that box, it probably won't work with your HP restore disks. This means that you will need to buy a new copy of whatever version of Windoze you want to run. You may be able to buy a new mobo and CPU from HP, but you will pay through the nose for it. At this point, you are probably out of luck. You can test your system further to see if anything survived and use it in a new system, but when it smells burnt, it isn't promising.

What I would do at this point is either go buy another prebuilt system or build one myself (my preference actually). I might hold off on buying the CPU to see if I could use the one in there, but it would depend on the deals that I could find. If you raid the system you have for parts and buy an OEM version of Windoze, you can probably build a nice system for less than $500. Either way, open it up occasionally and blow out the dust or you will fry another one.

Budfred

[novicetoday]

Thank you for the reply. That was what I thought might be the case. I do have the impulse to build my own Heck I have a new power supply and the case with fans the WinXP CD is from a retail version I bought when I first came out,its a start. My children like the idea oldest is 13 good time to get them involved on the inside. Any ideas for a decent system I pefer the products from AMD. This machine was the one my children used, I never gave it a thought to clean, mine I clean all the time. Thanks again (BudFred Ice fishing yet)

[gwallen4]

Here's the specs for the Pavillion 7935:

http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/document.jhtml?lc=en&docName=bph06989

You could use some of the hardware from the old computer:

Harddrive, floppy, CD, video board, and possibly memory (it looks like the MB supported PC133 SDRAM so it might work on a new single data rate MB). So all you need is the case with power supply, motherboard, and CPU with heatsink.

If this is for your kids and you don't want to spend much, you can probably get a cheap MB and an AMD Duron processor for a little over $100.

Post back with the list of parts that you have so far including salvage parts from the Pavillion, and we'll recommend a motherboard.

[Budfred]

I recently built an AMD Athlon XP 1600+ system with an ECS K7S5A motherboard that I got from Newegg. The CPU and MB together cost about $108 total with free shipping. Not a bad deal. The motherboard will accept either SDRAM or DDR RAM, so your current RAM would be usable. It is a limited time sale at Newegg, but they have been offering it for a month or two.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=343&manufactory=1028&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=22&manufactory=1414&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1

As for ice fishing, the ice is not thick enough yet in town and when it gets to be, I stay indoors as much as possible. Never understood the concept.....brrr...:D

Budfred

[novicetoday]

Thanks for the information. I have tried to read the contents of the HD in question with my other machine but I get some reading about a root control missing.When I rebuild the other machine with the parts described hope to have it done for Christmas as I am sure some gift will be a game the Kids want. Gwallen4 and BudFred thanks for the links and have a happy Holiday I will post my success when finished.P.S. I have always found it warmer and cheaper to buy take out fish at the local Diner and save my ice for the cold drinks in front of the tv in the house.Thanks again

[Budfred]

Are you sure that wasn't something about the root directory? It could be that your hard drive is bad and it may be worthwhile to download the diagnostics from the maker and run them on the drive.

Budfred

[novicetoday]

Yes that is what it said root directory. The HD is a Samsung SV002H. With the other machine not working I thought it had something to do with the WinXP that was in stalled as the O/S . Although I run XP on both machines. The way I tried to read it was on my good machine I hooked it in where my CD player would have been connected. Yes I did change to jumper on the HD to slave. On boot up it will not let me proceed past the 2nd screen where it shows me the primary and slave information. Thanks

[novicetoday]

To clear up my procedure. I also tried to bootup the burnt computer with an old HD I have windows 2000 installed same result. No movement on the part of the machine. I plug in the machine green led light comes on, I push the start button on front panel all the fans come on.That is all the action or noise that happens.Case fan and CPU fan run. The cd drive and the floppy drives make no noise the leds do not light up nor do they make any noise,the machine doesn't powerdown anymore. I have also tried my good HD from my computer I am usiong to connect to the Internet, this one has WinXP installed. I have tried all the HD's with a new Power supply also. The monitor just keeps changing from a light blue screen to a checkered and then to a black screen. Thanks

[gwallen4]

novicetoday said:

The way I tried to read it was on my good machine I hooked it in where my CD player would have been connected. Yes I did change to jumper on the HD to slave. On boot up it will not let me proceed past the 2nd screen where it shows me the primary and slave information.

It sounds like the HD is not being recognized. There could be several reasons for this:

1) Bad HD

2) Incorrect Bios settings - use auto or if that doesn't work set to manual using 1023 cylinders, 16 heads and 63 sectors, and 0 for other settings.

3) Improper jumper selection - if you have one drive on a cable, some drives require you to set it as single master, if you have two drives it must be set as master (this is different from single master) and the other drive as slave. Also you may need to use "Alternate jumper settings" - see the manufacturer's installation instructions.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

If your CD player was connected to the end of the secondary cable, it needs to be jumpered as one of the master options. Single master, master with slave, cable select etc. Try them all.

Then look in BIOS to see if it is recognised and have BIOS read it before closing with Save and Exit. Then reboot.

If you STILL can't read the contents try the manufacturer's diagnostics. If that fails, I think you're gonna need a new HDD.

[Budfred]

You don't need to risk another hard drive to check out the burned out computer, you just turn it on with the power connected, video, keyboard, and CPU. If it has any life left in it, it should beep to tell you it completed POST. Since it doens't do this, it is safe to assume that either the motherboard or CPU is shot, possibly both. There are other possibilities, but these are the main ones. If you have another board you can check the CPU on or another CPU you can try on the board, you can figure out if either are dead. However, it would still be possible that both are dead.

I just downloaded and ran the software for a Samsung drive over the weekend. I urge you to get this software and try them on your drive in a working machine. They work smoothly.

Budfred

[PhoenixCS]

I'd like to add that contrary to what has been said, most HP computers *aren't* super proprietary (as opposed to, say, Dell). If your power supply hasn't been toasted, you could very easily just buy a standard smallish ATX motherboard and processor not need to worry about much else. The problem with Pavilions is they are *cramped* and these leads to overheating unless you resort to case modifications such as additional fans. Also, like most brand-name consumer computers nowadays the power supplies aren't very powerful and is probably the #1 reason these computers die, to judge by what our shop gets in.

[novicetoday]

With all the advice given and weighed. I will buy a new board and Cpu, I believe the power supply is good ( I already bought a replacement, my first guess on problem). After I install these items I will try the old hard drive of which I downloaded the Samsung program into my good computer.This tiemetable will have to wait for the mail to arrive! Thanks for all the answers it is much appreciated, I will tell all when the parts arrive. Thanks again

[novicetoday]

I received today the parts!!? I bought the AMD 1700+ cpu which included the heatsink with fan retail box, also the ECS elitegroup K7S5A motherboard. The power supply that I bought new is a Codegen 300w model 300x1. My question is based on the size of my case. None of my cases, 3 to chose from, will allow the proper placement of the board. I read that I need an ATX form factor of 30.5x24.4 cm should I buy a case with another power supply or will the one described above be sufficient. The reason for the purchase of the 1700 it included the retail package with heatsink and fan versus the 1600, it only cost $10 more. The parts that are salvageable include a HP CD-writer plus the 1.4 floppy drive I hope the Samsung hard drive and the modem. I pretty much just use whatever sound is on motherboard. Thanks for any information.

[Budfred]

There have been some very unhappy comments about Codegen power supplies on the Forum and 300watts is a little light if you decide to add more drives or other parts later on. You can get a new case for about $30 and a decent power supply for $30-50. I have 2 Allied power supplies that I bought from Newegg and they are good so far. You can probably get buy with fewer watts with a really good power supply, but you probably need more for a cheaper PS. I have a 350 Antec that is probably fairly comparable to my 400 Allied. The power supplies that come with a case are often an afterthought, so if you buy a combo, it is a good idea to find out the brand and look into it. Here is a good article about power supplies:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/index.html

Budfred

[mjc]

I'd like to add that contrary to what has been said, most HP computers *aren't* super proprietary (as opposed to, say, Dell)

Well, most of their peripherals are standard parts (unless you have one that has a Riptide modem/soundboard), but the motherboard is not a standard production model. The BIOS is also highly "customized", usually to the point of being "idiot proof". And the OS that ships with one is tied to that motherboard (most off the shelf machines are the same).

[novicetoday]

I was able to get the new motherboard running. I had to disassemble my work computer (for the case) reinstall the entire mess into one of my smaller cases at home. I was able to get my work computer going without a hitch. You may think easy stuff! not for me. I am a first timer going in this deep. So now back to the machine that was not working. I managed to get it to accept the XP CD to rewrite over the existing material in the harddrive,remember the samsung? Well it came to the point of rebooting and it wanted to reinstall the XP again. So I shut the darn machine off and now it won't turn on again. The power supply comes on but it won't boot up again nothing happens. I am baffled. I have the new motherboard the ECS K7S5A The AMD 1700 CPU. I was unable to hook up the case led lights and the switch I am not sure which pins to put them on. The case power switch has two wires. I also tried disconnecting the power and moving the jumper on J4 to reset the CMOS, this did not help. It was working to the point of pure satisfaction. Now depression. Thanks and Merry Christmas.

[Budfred]

I am not understanding why you shut it off when you XP was offering to install again. Could you explain more about what you meant by that?

Also, when you say it won't boot, do you mean you don't get a BIOS beep at all or it doesn't get past the opening screens? If you don't get a BIOS beep, it is almost certainly a hardware problem, but if you don't get a boot into Winodoze, it is probably software. Let us know more about what actually happened.

As for the connectors from the case, the manual for the K7S5A is wrong and you need to download the correct copy from the ECS website. This makes it a lot easier to work with. I am using that board right now as I am setting it up for my sister at her house and everything seems to be working fine.

Until you get the manual:
On FP1 the HDD LED is on pins 1,3
Reset is on pin 5,7
Power LED is on pin 2,4
Power button is on pin 6,8
I think pins 1 and 2 are labeled on the board and you count back from them. If the LEDs don't come on, just turn them around the other way. The power and reset switches are the important ones anyway.

Good luck,
Budfred

[novicetoday]

I turned the power off at the power supply. Because I was stuck in a loop. The computer would boot from the CD. I tried to have it boot off the HDD but would not. The XP would cycle through its opening pages and then store some programs. then it would prompt to restart. restart and cycle again. If I ejected the Xp-cd the computer would not boot to the operating system. Only the first couple screens where you can read the computer general information. at no time did the windows screen come up. No there is no beeps. no nothing. the system or case fans do not even come on. Thanks for the info for the case switch.

[novicetoday]

The equipment being used is the new motherboard and cpu case is bigger with a 250 watt Deer. I have not installed a sound or modem card. I have a generic video card same one that was in the HP when it was alive.The Samsung HDD and a 1.44 floppy with the HP cd-rom.Thanks

[novicetoday]

Thanks for all the help. I have the machine up and running. The power supply went dead. I replaced it again. I could not get the samsung HDD to work (XP would not let me bootinto windows. It kept asking for a password of which I had never installed). I installed a different much smaller HDD as the primary, installed XP and put the samsung HDD as a slave. I can get into the samsung put can not use it to boot up with. It still has all the software on it.
Next question which video card would be a good fit with the features of the ECS K7S5A. I was thinking the NvidiaForce4 MX-400 SDR 64 MP AGP.
Iam also going to install the DDR ram and use the old ram in my machine. Thanks for the help and Happy New Year. Later Dave

[Budfred]

I'm glad to hear you got it running. I believe Deer is one of the power supplies that have a dubious reputation, so hopefully you replaced it with something else.

As for video, I believe that board can handle up 4x AGP, so whatever you can afford with that spec. I know very little about video cards, however, so you might want to start another thread to ask some of the more expert types in that area. Let them know what price range you can handle.

As for the Samsung HD, it seems likely that you should be able to use it and it is probably just a configuration problem. If you want to make it primary, I would probably back it up (since you can apparently access it) and then zero it out to start fresh. Remove any other HD and set jumpers to be Master, reinstall and load your Windoze on it. Post back if you need more ideas for how or why to do this.

Budfred

[mjc]

Samsung drives tend to be a bit flaky if they are set to CS and have a second drive on the same cable. Mine never would work right until I set it properly Master/slave.