intermittent failure to boot, award bios audio code is -..
in [Home Built PC]
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From: b_crowell67 on 29 Mar 2007 14:31 I have a three year old homebrewed machine that I'm very happy with in most ways, but it has intermittent problems booting. I think the problem developed within the last year, so maybe it indicates something has been damaged by a power surge or something...? Most of the time it boots fine, but maybe one time out of three, it fails with a -.. (long-short-short) audio code. If it fails once, then typically it fails a bunch more times before getting out of its rut and booting successfully. The bios is Phoenix-Award BIOS 6.00 PG, and apparently -.. is "video adapter failure." The mobo is an ECS L4VXA2, and the video card is a GeForce2. The power supply is a pretty good quality Antec 380 W supply (80 PLUS), and the machine only only draws a peak power of 169 W during booting, so I don't think that should be the issue. (I recently upgraded from a cheap 300 W supply to the more efficient 380 W supply, and it doesn't seem to have had any effect on the problem.) Am I right in interpreting this as a problem with the video card? If so, is there anything I can do other than just replacing the video card? I'm interested in keeping power consumption low, and don't do any gaming, so I don't want to get the latest, greatest video card. Actually, if I can't solve this problem, I'm thinking of building a new, lower-power-consumption system with a mobo that has integrated video. TIA! -Ben
From: MacGyver on 29 Mar 2007 16:02 On Mar 29, 2:31 pm, b_crowel...(a)hotmail.com wrote: > I have a three year old homebrewed machine that I'm very happy with in > most ways, but it has intermittent problems booting. I think the > problem > developed within the last year, so maybe it indicates something has > been > damaged by a power surge or something...? > > Most of the time it boots fine, but maybe one time out of three, it > fails with a -.. (long-short-short) audio code. If it fails once, then > typically it fails a bunch more times before getting out of its rut > and booting successfully. The bios is Phoenix-Award BIOS 6.00 PG, > and apparently -.. is "video adapter failure." The mobo is an ECS > L4VXA2, and the video card is a GeForce2. The power supply is a > pretty good quality Antec 380 W supply (80 PLUS), and the machine only > only draws a peak power of 169 W during booting, so I don't think that > should be the issue. (I recently upgraded from a cheap 300 W supply to > the more efficient 380 W supply, and it doesn't seem to have had any > effect on the problem.) > > Am I right in interpreting this as a problem with the video card? If > so, is there anything I can do other than just replacing the video > card? I'm interested in keeping power consumption low, and don't do > any gaming, so I don't want to get the latest, greatest video card. > Actually, if I can't solve this problem, I'm thinking of building a > new, lower-power-consumption system with a mobo that has integrated > video. > > TIA! > > -Ben Sounds like it's the mobo, my first suggestion would be to clear the CMOS, and go from there. If it's doing "long-short-short" it doesn't sound like it would be the memory. Could be processor or video. See if you can find a video card that is cheap but will work. You can generally find these for nearly $50 or lower. If you end you with a new card and the system still doesn't work, you'll at least be one part up on the new low power machine! ;) Jeff
From: Ben Crowell on 30 Mar 2007 00:17 > Sounds like it's the mobo, my first suggestion would be to clear the > CMOS, and go from there. If it's doing "long-short-short" it doesn't > sound like it would be the memory. Could be processor or video. See if > you can find a video card that is cheap but will work. You can > generally find these for nearly $50 or lower. If you end you with a > new card and the system still doesn't work, you'll at least be one > part up on the new low power machine! ;) Hi Jeff, Thanks for the advice! Ben
From: Ed Medlin on 30 Mar 2007 09:04 "Ben Crowell" <crowell07(a)lightSPAMandISmatterEVIL.com> wrote in message news:460c8f68$0$1398$4c368faf(a)roadrunner.com... >> Sounds like it's the mobo, my first suggestion would be to clear the >> CMOS, and go from there. If it's doing "long-short-short" it doesn't >> sound like it would be the memory. Could be processor or video. See if >> you can find a video card that is cheap but will work. You can >> generally find these for nearly $50 or lower. If you end you with a >> new card and the system still doesn't work, you'll at least be one >> part up on the new low power machine! ;) > > Hi Jeff, > > Thanks for the advice! > > Ben Your PSU can give errors and intermitten problems too. That would be my next move after the video. (actually it would be my first move because I have good PSUs around, but no video cards..........:-) Ed
From: Ben Crowell on 31 Mar 2007 16:38
Ed Medlin wrote: > "Ben Crowell" <crowell07(a)lightSPAMandISmatterEVIL.com> wrote in message > news:460c8f68$0$1398$4c368faf(a)roadrunner.com... >>> Sounds like it's the mobo, my first suggestion would be to clear the >>> CMOS, and go from there. If it's doing "long-short-short" it doesn't >>> sound like it would be the memory. Could be processor or video. See if >>> you can find a video card that is cheap but will work. You can >>> generally find these for nearly $50 or lower. If you end you with a >>> new card and the system still doesn't work, you'll at least be one >>> part up on the new low power machine! ;) >> Hi Jeff, >> >> Thanks for the advice! >> >> Ben > > Your PSU can give errors and intermitten problems too. That would be my next > move after the video. (actually it would be my first move because I have > good PSUs around, but no video cards..........:-) > > Ed > > I recently replaced the power supply (just to get more efficiency), and it didn't affect the problem. |