Problems you describe sound like having too much broken hardware. P4 and pccchips motherboards are especially bad examples, they are broken by default.

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-02-12, 08:00:

Problems you describe sound like having too much broken hardware. P4 and pccchips motherboards are especially bad examples, they are broken by default.

It's kind of you to reach out to me on this, but the P4 wasn't broken when it was bought new, not to mention the QDI explorer - not really helpful unless you can list some well known case-by-case examples. 😊

I assume you tried every combo of HDD/CD-ROM, FDD/ZIP, IDE, RAM so we can rule out faulty hardware.
I'm guessing you have good motherboards that will gladly work with items that don't in these "faulty" mobos you are talking about.

Can you confirm?

Nexxen wrote on 2023-02-13, 01:26:

I assume you tried every combo of HDD/CD-ROM, FDD/ZIP, IDE, RAM so we can rule out faulty hardware.
I'm guessing you have good motherboards that will gladly work with items that don't in these "faulty" mobos you are talking about.

Can you confirm?

Hi, i think i've single-handedly fumbled my way into fixing the pent4 using a bios upgrade that i'll write about in my scaleo 400 thread.
This is a probable indictor that BIOS/CMOS bugs are a prime suspect for computers not reading certain types of volumes/file systems, which in the case of the D1420 mobo, this bug lurking in the BIOS was likely triggered by a malware infection.

Thanks, and i hope my research will help you on your own hardware repair quests...

Vic Zarratt wrote on 2023-02-13, 02:03:

Hi, i think i've single-handedly fumbled my way into fixing the pent4 using a bios upgrade that i'll write about in my scaleo 40 […]
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Nexxen wrote on 2023-02-13, 01:26:

I assume you tried every combo of HDD/CD-ROM, FDD/ZIP, IDE, RAM so we can rule out faulty hardware.
I'm guessing you have good motherboards that will gladly work with items that don't in these "faulty" mobos you are talking about.

Can you confirm?

Hi, i think i've single-handedly fumbled my way into fixing the pent4 using a bios upgrade that i'll write about in my scaleo 400 thread.
This is a probable indictor that BIOS/CMOS bugs are a prime suspect for computers not reading certain types of volumes/file systems, which in the case of the D1420 mobo, this bug lurking in the BIOS was likely triggered by a malware infection.

Thanks, and i hope my research will help you on your own hardware repair quests...

Yes, please, do report about it.
Here every bit helps (pun intended 😀)

Yes, I put the "reflash BIOS" and "on a new chip" in my troubleshooting list.
List is now long.
BIOS corruption is something I believe to be not uncommon after some decades.

Nexxen wrote on 2023-02-13, 03:32:

Yes, please, do report about it. Here every bit helps (pun intended :)) […]
Show full quote

Vic Zarratt wrote on 2023-02-13, 02:03:

Hi, i think i've single-handedly fumbled my way into fixing the pent4 using a bios upgrade that i'll write about in my scaleo 40 […]
Show full quote

Nexxen wrote on 2023-02-13, 01:26:

I assume you tried every combo of HDD/CD-ROM, FDD/ZIP, IDE, RAM so we can rule out faulty hardware.
I'm guessing you have good motherboards that will gladly work with items that don't in these "faulty" mobos you are talking about.

Can you confirm?

Hi, i think i've single-handedly fumbled my way into fixing the pent4 using a bios upgrade that i'll write about in my scaleo 400 thread.
This is a probable indictor that BIOS/CMOS bugs are a prime suspect for computers not reading certain types of volumes/file systems, which in the case of the D1420 mobo, this bug lurking in the BIOS was likely triggered by a malware infection.

Thanks, and i hope my research will help you on your own hardware repair quests...

Yes, please, do report about it.
Here every bit helps (pun intended 😀)

Yes, I put the "reflash BIOS" and "on a new chip" in my troubleshooting list.
List is now long.
BIOS corruption is something I believe to be not uncommon after some decades.

Here we go:
Re: Scaleo 400 = 2002 gaming on a budget (full log)

Good work ! Isn't the D1420 / Scaleo a Fusitsu/Seimens brand ? Should be a good board, just watch out for caps starting to bulge as all older good boards do at some time....

Last few years I've found myself "touching up" a few Winbond I/O controller chips whose solder connections had gone dull and suspect looking. Possibly their factory supplied "tinned" leads tend to degrade the assembly solder or something (Various mechanisms, tin pest etc) and hitting them with heat and flux and a dab more solder if necessary sorts them out.

Horun wrote on 2023-02-13, 04:14:

Good work ! Isn't the D1420 / Scaleo a Fusitsu/Seimens brand ? Should be a good board, just watch out for caps starting to bulge as all older good boards do at some time....

Yes it it from a fujitsu siemens scaleo 400 micro atx tower, it's a truly nostalgic item that my mum has given to me years after it got busted by a web virus.
These machines would have a different mainboard depending on the year it was purchased. mine is from late 2002 and has the D1420, but a later scaleo 400 will likely have an LGA775 of some description.