VOGONS


Stability problems

Topic actions

First post, by cj_reha

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I have an old computer with a Celeron 400 on an ECS P6EXP-Me S370 motherboard. Recently it has become very unstable and I'm pretty sure it's a capacitor issue. I'd just like to get some other opinions on it before I either part the system out or recap it.

So, it's a:
ECS P6EXP-Me S370 mATX motherboard
Celeron 400, 128K L2
128MB PC100 SDRAM
Trident 3DImage 9850 4 MB AGP2X video card
ESS Solo-1 PCI Audio card
Quantum Fireball 20,5 GB HDD
Creative CDRW and CDROM
Mitsuko 250Watt PSU

Recently it has become very unstable, some things include:

-Hanging at BIOS HDD autodetect
-Hanging at Windows 98 boot screen (clean install just done today)
-Giving a CMOS checksum error with an almost new 2032 battery
-Giving a no-VGA beep or nothing however reseating graphics card sometimes helps

I'm really on my wits' end with this thing, I'm almost sure it's the caps but unsure if the board's worth it.

Thanks 🤣

Join the Retro PC Discord! - https://discord.gg/UKAFchB
My YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDJYB_ZDsIzXGZz6J0txgCA

Reply 1 of 2, by deleted_Rc

User metadata

How are the caps? The problems are to diverse for something else.

Bios and boot problems could be ram
No vga beep usually means broken card test with another to confirm.
Cmos battery problem could be jumper or solder damage.
Boot prole could also be broken mobo test with another.

Although I suspect some bad caps, you either need a capacity meter or desolder them and measure them with a multime meter.

Reply 2 of 2, by SW-SSG

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
cj_reha wrote:

Mitsuko 250Watt PSU

Never heard of this brand. Maybe some bad caps in there?