Dammit, dammit, dammit! (W98 box just crapped out) \ VOGONS

Dammit, dammit, dammit! (W98 box just crapped out)

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First post, by Anonymous Freak

Posted on 2016-10-21, 04:52

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I got my W98 box all nicely built up. But it was crashing every so often. So I swapped out the 1 GB RAM (dual 512MBs) for one 256 MB RAM. A little better, but would still crash occasionally under load. Okay, this mobo doesn't officially support Tualatin, so swap out my P3S for a 1 GHz CuMine. Nice and stable.

Then the floppy drive stopped working (BIOS gives a "floppy failure" error.) Sheesh. Okay, disable floppy drives. LS-120 and DVD drive started acting flaky. Okay, disable THEM. Then it just powered off. Front panel power light still on, but nothing else. No spinning devices, no other lights.

AAAARGH!

Reply 1 of 9, by keenmaster486

Posted on 2016-10-21, 04:59

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Hate it when that happens 😵

MB I assume? You can just swap it with another one, right?

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 2 of 9, by Anonymous Freak

Posted on 2016-10-21, 05:59

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Haven't had time to diagnose yet - I hope it isn't the MB, it took me quite a while to find this one! (Asus P3C-L, i820 chipset, ISA slot, onboard NIC.)

Reply 3 of 9, by Evert

Posted on 2016-10-21, 06:48

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Are the capacitors on your motherboard okay? They might need replacement.

Reply 4 of 9, by Anonymous Freak

Posted on 2016-10-21, 07:15

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Yeah, they look fine. It just stopped. Probably a random short somewhere.

Reply 5 of 9, by Evert

Posted on 2016-10-21, 08:35

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Could be a broken trace too. Maybe you should remove the motherboard and put some high resolution photos or scans of it on the forum so we can have a look. There are some seriously clever people on this forum who could help you find the problem.

Reply 6 of 9, by SW-SSG

Posted on 2016-10-21, 16:31

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It sounds like it could also be a flaky PSU. Not totally sure though.

Reply 7 of 9, by Anonymous Freak

Posted on 2016-10-22, 02:28

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Something happened to the LS-120 drive. Unplugged it, everything works fine. Plug it in, nada. Even just power. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, no LS-120 drive. The Teac dual-floppy and the DVD drive both stopped working, too. Floppy drives don't even register, DVD drive spins, ejects, disks don't mount.

I'll have to dig through the spare parts cabinet and hook new items up. (Sadly, that was my only conventional 5.25" floppy drive.)

Reply 8 of 9, by shiva2004

Posted on 2016-10-22, 22:32

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If I was you, before doing anything else I'll test the power supply, perhaps it's frying your components one by one until there's nothing left and then it will laugh 😎 , now seriously, check the power supply as soon as you can.

Reply 9 of 9, by candle_86

Posted on 2016-10-24, 13:00

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Yes check that power supply unless you want more dead parts

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