you tried setting the bios to default ?

Davros wrote:

you tried setting the bios to default ?

Hi Davros,

Unfortunately there is no "default" setting. It's a pretty locked down interface. (Here's a screenshot from the main page of the very-similar Inspiron 4000.)

The only user-configurable CPU settings are under power management (a "power management" section which seems to be for pre-ACPI OS's and is disabled and Enable/Disable Intel SpeedStep - of which I've tried both options).

I suppose I could disassemble it and yank out the CMOS battery.

Bad caps or faulty northbridge? Even caps which aren't bulging could be faulty in a system of this era.

That's sort of what I was afraid of, feipoa.

Is there anyway to "test" capacitors that don't show obvious signs of having expired?

I confess I have never come across an obviously FUBAR'd capacitor in my time with computers - including ancient ones (outside of PSUs that is). From what I've deduced online, it seems I've either been insanely lucky or I've had & seen bad ones that just didn't produce symptoms.

Remove the CMOS battery, unplug the battery (power) and hold the power on button.
That will reset the CMOS settings.

To test bad caps which look OK, you need to remove them from the motherboard. Usually start with a capacitance meter, if the capacitance of the capacitor is out of its rated tolerance (usually +-20%), the cap is bad. If the capacitance is within its tolerance, you need to use some kind of ESR measurement, usually done with a pulse waveform in a voltage divider style circuit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESR_meter

Alternately you can aimlessly replace all the caps on the board with new pieces. With the time and effort it takes to remove each cap for testing, it is often just as well to replace them all.

I am also working on a similar problem right now. I was at a stage where I would get memory errors in MemTest at the end of Test #5, and only Test #5. I tinkered around in the BIOS, with different DIMMs, graphic cards, etc, but couldn't get the errors cleared up. I eventually replaced some caps on the board with some old ones I had in a bin. Now it takes 8 hours of loop testing in MemTest to get 2 errors on Test #5. That's about 28 passes before an error comes up. If I have the memory set for CL2 instead of CL3, I get the error in 2 passes. I am using CL2 memory. I'll probably set the board aside and order a new set of low ESR caps whenever I put in a new order.

I think a lot of P3-era boards had bad caps, although your issues may still not be capacitor related.

OK, I obtained an identical motherboard and swapped CPU, RAM, HD, etc. And the problem disappeared. So it's definitely something on the board and not some weird configuration problem. (this may be obvious but I felt the need to reassure myself). So it's definitely a capacitor or northbridge problem as noted above.

I have never replaced capacitors before, indeed my soldering knowledge is well...nill. I've since bought some solder and a soldering gun and suppose I will now embark upon the new realm of capacitor swapping.

Am I right to believe that non-electrolytic (tantalum?) capacitors have a (much) longer lifespan than the aluminum electrolytics? Can these be swapped out in place of the electrolytics so this doesn't happen in the future (or at least not for awhile)? (My apologies if this is a silly question!)

I do not think you'll find through-hole tantalum or cermaic capacitors with a high enough capacitance at a reasonable price. From my experience, the higher capacitance caps usually go bad, like in the 200-2000 uF range. I've had tantalum caps catch fire, while electrolytic caps usually bulge and fizz, however I have had electrolytic caps catch fire too.

EverythingOldIsNewAgain wrote:

The idea that there are other folks out there that get sexual pleasure (OK maybe not to that extent) from old PCs and old games makes me quite happy.

Sexual pleasure? 😀
The only one i know ever was luckybob that got a stiffy from someones S3 4mb vlb card (what was actually even a more stiffy 8mb vlb card) 😉

Could be caps. I have seval 486 boards and even those caps were in perfect shape. But it could be so indeed.
I suppose there might not be an original bios fitted or flashed.
Or maybe the boards was zapped with esd sometime, hard to fix that.

About that 100fsb issue, there are none cut traces or damaged on the front or the back of that mobo?

Edit : its a laptop right?, ok sorry dont mentíon it.

EverythingOldIsNewAgain wrote:

The idea that there are other folks out there that get sexual pleasure (OK maybe not to that extent) from old PCs and old games makes me quite happy.

That only happens for me if I get something at a stupidly low price or if I win a sniper war at the end of an auction to get something. Paying full price for something has to be done once in a while but you don't get the same thrill from it like getting a bargain or beating out a bunch of other people in the last few seconds.