Intermittent boot failures

[Chris Comly]

I've been having a problem with booting up my system for the past year. Like other people who have posted problems here, my PC powers up, the power supply and CPU fans are running, but I get no beeps and no video.

The first time this problem occurred, I'd just downloaded and installed Flash 4.0. I thought this may have created a video conflict that my PC was rejecting, so I deleted Flash. Then my boot problem went away.

Within a month, my boot problem returned. Sometimes it would boot up but then my keyboard would type the wrong characters (unplugging and plugging the keyboard back in would fix it). I reinstalled Windows 98, and the boot problem was gone again.

My PC was good for about six months, but then last week, it crashed (black screen; no blue screen of death) several times when I went on line. This coincides with a new problem where I will be on line and suddenly be unable to navigate to other web sites or use my "Back" button. The only way I can fix this glitch is to log off and dial up my internet connection again.

Now my PC might finally boot up after repeated attempts to power up and power down. Eventually, I get lucky, and the machine boots.

After reading the other posts at your site, I'm leaning toward my motherboard being my problem, but do you have any other thoughts?

Could my boot problems and Explorer problems be somehow related?
Have you ever heard of Flash 4.0 causing problems with a system's settings?
Could my system have a virus?
Motherboard or hard drive failure?

Forgive me for being wordy, but I'm frustrated. Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated.

My system's notable features: AMD K62 350MHz processor; 64M RAM; built in 3D AGP graphics; 8G Bigfoot HD.

[herbert]

It's not a J-530BF motherboard by any chance?

X had a machine with one of these in it (AT,100MHz, onboard AGP graphics, onboard sound) and a very similar experience to yours. Intermittent freeze-ups and boot problems, becoming worse with time, so the story goes.

When it reached me, the machine wouldn't boot at all. Not a beep from it. And no video.

Looking at the jumpers, I found that the processor (Cyrix333) was overclocked at 4.5x83 whereas 3.5x75 was indicated on the chip. I'm surprised it ever worked at all. I set the jumpers properly and hoped that might fix it. It didn't.

I plugged an ISA video card in. The machine then usually started with something like
--------------------
AWARD Boot Block BIOS
BIOS ROM checksum error
Searching for ATAPI device
Insert system disk
---------------------
displayed.

An ISA video card is needed because the Boot Block BIOS, being simple, can't talk to PCI.

I thought: He's flashed the BIOS with an overclocked processor, made a mess, and won't admit it!

It failed to read the floppy well enough to boot to DOS so I was unable to try re-flashing the BIOS. Sometimes it would detect the floppy media as 1.2M!

Was it true. Was it the BIOS? The behaviour was erratic.The randomness suggested it might not be merely a mal-programmed BIOS.

So I started testing. Disconnected everything unnecessary. Tried a different processor, checked the DIMM in another machine, removed the motherboard to look for damage, tried another power supply....

I was left with the motherboard. What was wrong with it?

X was in a hurry. Told X the motherboard needed to be replaced. He agreed.

When I got the new board I took the BIOS chip out and tried it in the old board. It booted normally.

So it WAS the BIOS chip.

I installed the new board and gave X his machine back. I've not heard any more from X so I assume it's still working.

I've still got the old board.

I've since tried the chip in another machine and got the same behaviour. I need to boot to DOS to flash it. I tried booting a machine and taking the BIOS chip out after it's been copied to ram. You can do this but I ABSOLUTELY don't advise it! The machine works off the ram copy. Then I plugged the bad chip in and tried to program it, but the flash program didn't recognise the chip.

The chip is almost certainly defective.

I contacted JetWay for a replacement and they'll let me have one for a "Twenty US dollar travellers check"

[Chris Comly]

Since I posted my problem about 2 weeks ago, I've left my PC running 24-hours a day. After the last time I got it to turn on, I was afraid to turn it back off again.

It hasn't crashed during this time. If I have a motherboard defect, shouldn't it have crashed by now?

Also, I have some friends who say that computers are not meant to be turned off and that they perform better and longer if they're left on all the time. Is there any truth to this?

[Paleo Pete]

Actually, your computer should be rebooted every few days, mainly to clear out the memory if nothing else. I leave mine running 24/7 and have no problems, and I know several people who shut down every night before hitting the sack. I haven't seen any real difference. I reboot mine every 2 or 3 days, let it clear the memory and press on. The only time I fully shut it down is when I need to open the case, or when thunderstorms are in the area.

I suppose it's mainly a matter of preference, whichever you like will work. I've left every one of my computers running for months at a time with no problems, even the XT machines running DOS. (I have screensavers so the old CGA/EGA monitors don't burn in)...I've also shut them all down every night, except for this one, and they all seem to run fine either way.

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Soon as I come up with all the answers...they change the questions!!

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