When do you know to give up on fixing a weird problem

[visuvius]

I've had this weird problem that's happenened recently on my computer and the fix may be a simple one, but I still can't figure it out. It's a self built system, rather simple on a Soyo mobo with a celeron processor under 1 gig. The first symptom was my monitor would hibernate, but wouldn't come back on when you scroll the mouse so I'd have to restart everytime. It's gotten worse and after it boots up the screen shuts off on the mobo voice doctor says "check ide cable for proper installation". I don't see how the cables were wrong in the first place, but I've tried taking everything apart and putting it back together, or just leaving the hdd and floppy connected, and I'm still getting the same response. Is the problem really the ide cables? I don't know, but this is very frustrating and I'm about ready to just give in and build another system. If I go that route my only priority would be to save my audo files.

Any further tinkering suggestions or should I give in and start from scratch?

Overall the oldest components by a few years is the hard drive and zip drive. Everything else is new (cd-rom, floppy, cd-r) withing the last 1-2 years

[classicsoftware]

IDE cables are cheap. Try a new one. Also while you are at it, download the diagnostics for the hard drive form the manufacturers web site. Let us know what happens....

[rond36]

You may want to check for bad capacitors on the motherboard.
See this thread (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25482)

[visuvius]

Well, as far as new ide cables go I did try using some extra ones that were new and came with any hardware components I bought, but it didn't seem to help. I will buy some new ide cables anyway and try them . As a matter of fact I read somewhere in the forum on another post about checking the capicators. None of mine show symptoms of leakage, or bulging, but I did notice just a few were fairly loose. Almost like a tooth loose enought to just pull right out. Are they supposed to be that way? Also, I booted my hdd diagnostic disk and apparently it doesn't recognize (or find) any ide devices so it wouldn't perform a diagnostic test. Hmmm.....

[classicsoftware]

I would think either the drive is bad, not likely but possible, or the motherboard is kaput....

[visuvius]

My worst fear is the hard drive being bad, but if it were that doesn't mean that you can't go buy a new one and transfer the files from an existing even if it's bad, right?

[classicsoftware]

It depends on how damaged the drive is. I still think it is not the drive.

Does the drive spin up. You should be able to put your hand on top of the drive or take it out of the system and hold it in your hands while the system boots. you can feel the drive spin up.

I lean towards the motherboard as the cause of the problem.

[visuvius]

Although it's extremely tempting to go back to Best Buy and buy that new WD 80 gig HD for $24.99 (after rebate) just for the heck of it I must admit that it seems my drive is working fine. Is it the mobo? I don't know, but I think it's reasonable to question the mobo, and wether it is indeed the mobo or not I think the probability that I would still have this pesky problem with a brand new mobo is slim. I've wasted enough time with it and I just gonna replace the mobo. Maybe I'll take this opportunity to try a completely different system, like an AMD or something. Thanks everyone for the help. This is what makes this site outstanding!

[jabarnutcase]

Just a couple of extra observations.....first, hibernation can be a bit flaky even on a system that's running great.

Most of my Systems I have the Monitor ONLY set to power down after an Hour or so, but I have hard Disks, Standby and Hibernation set to "NEVER" under Power Option properties.

I've seen many a system fail to come out of hibernation for one strange reason or another.

Secondly, it never hurts to check the system memory. Bad ram can cause some pretty weird problems too.

Download the Windows memory Diagnostic from the link below. (There are a lot of similar programs, but this one works as well as any).

Boot the Computer from the Floppy or CD you make and run a basic Memory test.....at least you rule out faulty Ram as a problem for now and in the future.

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

[deddard]

I'd go along with jabarnutcases first comment here - hibernation can be extremely flaky, with hangs, BSDs etc being commonplace. As you have seen other errors such as the IDE cable, Id suspect that the HAL is tripping over it's own feet when it tries to wake up - the system effectively shuts everything down, and then tries to wake up and can't remember where it left it's slippers. it promptly puts it's foot in the nearest sock drawer, and screams because it doesn't seem to fit. (this is a technical appraisal of the hibernation system :D )

Try adjusting the power settings so that not all devices are switched off when powering down - disable the hibernation for now, and re-introduce the shut down options one at a time. see how it goes.

[Paleo Pete]

I agree with the above comments about Hibernate, same for Suspend.

Also, check your settings closely, if you have a screensaver set to start AFTER Power Management shuts down the monitor, or AFTER any other PM events, that could be your problem. I've seen a bunch of computers running win98 and ME with really flaky problems caused by Power Management turning on Suspend BEFORE a screensaver comes on...Haven't seen it do far with XP, maybe I've been lucky...or my customers have :rolleyes:

If you must use a screensaver at all, (unnecessary because contemporary monitors do not "burn in") make sure it comes on BEFORE any other Power Management events start. I set it to turn my monitor off after 15 minutes, everything else to NEVER. Works perfect, no screensaver needed, they're nothing but eye-candy.

[visuvius]

OK, these are things I haven't tried yet let alone thought of. Great tip, I'll give it a try and see how it goes!