I have two computer issues that are driving me NUTS!!! (1 Viewer)

[Max Leung]

Hmmm. Now I remember when I couldn't get my PC to post (it is a rev 1.3 Asus A7N8X Deluxe - utter piece of crap for reliability compared to the excellent A7N266-C), I had to remove the motherboard battery, and use a jumper to short two points to erase the BIOS settings. Reinserting the battery a minute later and rebooting fixed it.

 

[McPaul]

Wow, sorry guys, haven't been around to check the thread. I'll try to respond one by one.

First of all, I'll say that the internet is working perfectly on it's own. dunno what happened, but it was probably at my ISP.

Keith - Interesting point. I will try taking everything out that I can. I'm not sure if I'm totally comfortable with everything but I can start. I have 4 USB devices plugged in now. Thanks!

Seth - that makes sense, definitely, but unfortunately I can not boot from floppy or CDROM, so I can't boot off my XP disk.

Chester... dude! thanks dude, that kinda makes sense, although after all this time, I don't want to be the dude that makes an ass of himself because the dude had an unplugged cable... I'll check it dude! Is the power supply cable easy to spot? Thanks dude!

John, thanks, but again, I can't boot from CD. Very frustrating.

Max... we've already been looking into that actually. There's one that Tiger Direct sells for $35. I suggested to my friend last night that we check costco too. funny you should mention! Thanks!

Cary... unfortunately, I don't know what "posting" is. could you explain? Again, can't boot off of CD unfortunately. Yes, XP has a dos prompt you can use, and one of my options is to boot using safe mode with command prompt, but of course it just resets the computer, as I mentioned in post 1. Frustrating, huh?

Sam... yes, I hear one beep. I think the beep comes once the BIOS screen has sat there for a second. I'm not sure though. I'll try it again. I (thought) the beep was normal, but maybe not?
The pc is not networked with a laptop.
I'm thinking it's not a virus. I keep my Norton updated constantly... wouldn't be a first though.
sorry, no, I can not boot from a CDROM.

Max... I will try the battery, but really don't know where that is. is it hard to find?

(you guys might be able to tell, I'm not the most computer savvy around! *L*)

I'm leaning towards the power supply, as max said, the power has been weird here lately, and that's the obvious culprit. I'll try the cable, the battery, the USB's, and if it comes down to it, removing everything else that's not absolutely needed and see if it works. I might get some help with this - a friend will be visiting later this week who's a genius with this stuff.

many thanks!!

 

[Max Leung]

The APC battery backup system is in the obvious place in Costco...the computer section where they sell the mice and stuff.

 

[Chester II]

Paul dude,

Yeah, dude, the power supply leading to the motherboard is usually a wide connector (mine is white) with perhaps a dozen wires leading into it. Dude, I know you don't want it to be the cause of your problem (the idiocy factor) but then again you kind of WANT it to be the cause of your problems, right dude? Let us know what happens bro....


Dude,

Chester

 

[sam_canavo]

Hi Paul

Yes one beep is normal, it is rather odd though that
you can't boot to the cd rom, what message do you get when
you try this?

If you get to dos prompt in safe mode you could try
to run set up from your cd drive but if I remember correctly
xp won't run in dos mode but worth a shot.

 

[McPaul]

Interesting, thanks for the pinpoint location, Max! We're going to join Costco this week I think. I'll be sure to pick one up.

Anyways, my laptop died on me a few days ago, and I've had no access to the net outside of work lately. The main computer is fixed. I had a buddy come over to look at it. In fact it was NOT posting. The cable wasn't an issue, the entire power supply is dead. I went to memory express to buy a new psu, and ended up buying a new case too (shiny things are so distracting, aren't they?) Anyways, I now have a RAID MAX Scorpio 868 in black with a 420W psu. My friend and I moved everything over today to the new case, and had to format the HD and reinstall XP, and over time I'll have to reinstall everything else. So problem solved, and it only cost $105! (bought some compressed air too).

The laptop is not my responsibility, but it is a pain having to go down a floor to our contact center just to use a desktop for the week! Hopefully it'll get fixed by tomorrow.

Thanks for all your help guys!!

 

[Max Leung]

Great work Paul! Keith was on the money about the PSU, although it could have been anything. Computers are great huh?

"He's not breathing!"

"Maybe he needs a new brain?"

"No, let's try swapping his kidneys, see if that works!"

"Try taking out the pancreas, the liver, and the other nonessential organs and see if that clears up the problem."

 

[Keith Mickunas]

I'm glad you got it fixed. I've run into a few PSU problems and they are frustrating. The symptoms vary so much, and it's not like I have extra ATX power supplies lying around, and swapping them is a bitch. You pretty much got to eliminate everything else until nothing is left but the power supply.

 

[McPaul]

yeah it was quite a pain to wrestle with but well worth it! I'm lucky I have every one of you guys at the HTF, and a friend who is as comfortable with tearing apart the insides of a computer as I am with tearing apart the wiring of a theater to troubleshoot.

Thanks again!

 

[McPaul]

one more question

I know there's a way to turn windows messenger completely off, but it still shows up whenever I load Outlook Express.

I have gone into tools-options-preferences and unchecked
run when windows starts
and
allow program to run in the background

can someone tell me to get rid of this irritating thing?

thanks!

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Control Panel/Admin tools/component services. Find messenger, right click - properties and disable it.

You think they buried it that deep for a reason?

GLenn

 

[Kelvin Tucker]

Just in case you don't want to totally disable Messenger from ever being started, then Start Outlook Express, and...

Tools -> Options -> General
Uncheck "Automatically Logon to Windows Messenger"

This way it will only start when you want it to? Well, don't hold me to that one!