Re: I have an old computer that has a problem
- From: don@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Don Klipstein)
- Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 04:36:33 +0000 (UTC)
In article <1122613084.245468.61970@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Brian / rosemontcrest@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>Thanks for all the suggestions so far.
>
>1) There are no errors or warnings displayed on the BIOS boot screen.
>One single beep during POST, which appears to be normal.
>
>2) It's been quite some time since I reinstalled Windows and all the
>apps. That's not something I enjoy spending my weekend doing. Perhaps
>it is time.
>
>3) It hasn't been unusually warm here during the time I've experienced
>this problem. When I go to the BIOS setup screen for Power Management,
>the CPU temp is 63C (145F) and the MB temp is 44C (111F). The reported
>Power Supply voltages are okay. I've checked the temp when the system
>is running fine, and immediately after it misbehaves. It's always
>within a degree or two.
>
>4) The CMOS battery: While I admit that it is old, I would think that
>if it was low, the problem would be more repeatable. Perhaps not, but
>the RTC works fine.
I think this can easily be the CMOS battery. It is common for the CMOS
battery to go bad and cause minimal/subtle problems, although I expect the
main symptom will often (not always) be the the computer's clock losing
time while the computer is off. CMOS usually "freezes" without actually
forgetting anything when the CMOS battery voltage goes low, especially if
low but not zero.
Furthermore, if CMOS actually forgets things, you usually don't have
fatal errors if the computer ends up or defaults to auto-detecting drives
and any other hardware where it can forget any required settings other
than specific "usual" ones that a fair amount of hardware has.
If the clock does not lose time if the computer has been off a couple to
a few days, then more likely you have a motherboard problem other than the
CMOS battery. Second suspect of mine is the BIOS IC - to a little extent,
a replaceable item, although you may have to go to a few computer shows
with some vendors with older stuff to get a replacement if this is more
than a few years old.
Please consider that a lower end new computer nowadays only costs a few
hundred dollars (including RAM and a hard drive) and will outperform the
best available 8 or so years ago for 10x the price!
- Don Klipstein (don@xxxxxxxxx)
.
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