Bad motherboard?

[jevans64]

Now I've got 6 hours to decide on THIS. It's the deluxe version of this mobo. Everything that currently plugs in will work. Hmmmm. $41 plus shipping....

I did see that mobo when I looked for it on eBay. I did the exact thing when I needed a replacement for my dad's machine that ALSO had an Asus mobo that died. That mobo started to show symptoms, like loss of Ethernet and USB ports. The IGP finally died. I'd go for it as long as you checked for a working CPU fan, and pulled the drive & memory and tested them in another machine. Worst case is you will now have a backup board as the board WILL eventually fail if the caps expand and leak. The cheap Chinese caps Asus uses don't last 5 years. Asus isn't alone though since 80% of the mobos are made at Foxconn using the same cheap Chinese crap.

 

[. Raine]

Try reseating the processor. Some MB's when they sit corrode on the pins a little and do that. Just pull it and pop it back in and see if it starts. reseat the memory, too.

 

[mike123abc]

I have had a few motherboards go bad, I suspect it was the capacitors eventually failing... Usually after 7-9 years of use. In each case it was not worth really attempting repair since the computer was so old.

 

[navychop]

17 mins to go and there's more bidding. I don't have another machine so old as to test the RAM. Fan OK. Yes, I reseated CPU and RAM. But with the PS disconnected and no voltage to speak of, it's a gamble that the PS did not take the mobo with it. But that's why I bought PC P&C PSes. I've never known one to fail and take the mobo with it.

I think I'll take my chances. The 20-24 adapter arrives Friday, so I'll know soon enough. If this fails, maybe I'll see another such good deal, or bite the bullet on converting a laptop. Still need to explore dual boot options.

 

[navychop]

Winning bid was $61, over $73 with shipping. At that amount, I'd go with this "BRAND NEW ASUS A8NE-FM SOCKET 939 MOTHERBOARD" for less than $62, shipped, using everything else that I have on hand, or invest $200-$300 for a much more capable system down the road. Just can't see putting too much into a single purpose Linux box. Of course, once I had it up and running, who knows, I might like it as my main machine.

Frankly, I can spend about $80 for 8GB RAM and for about $110 get this motherboard and this CPU. And for less than $20, get a DVD burner. Use my on hand 250GB HDD. So for about $225 out the door, tax included, and using some of my current equipment, I can have a MUCH more capable system, assuming Linux Mint recognizes it all. And I'll bet it does, although I have no idea how much Linux uses dual or quad core CPUs or even RAID support. This is Plan C or D.

All the same, I'm hoping the 20-24 adapter and some fiddling gets the current system back to work. Although I do know someone with an old unused PC I might wangle for free.

Funny how you have to complete a couple of projects before you can start the project you actually want to do.

 

[navychop]

I just realized I have a couple of unused 1TB drives laying around. But it looks like for Linux, especially Mint, RAID implementation is problematic.


Questions, after Googling, assuming I actually "buy up" into a fancier machine, previous post:

1. It looks like I can easily drop to 4GB from 8GB RAM (1GB is the recommended minimum). For my intended project, reading Dish EHDs and printing contents lists, I would think the difference would be negligible. Of course, if I start using it to surf, I commonly keep 100 or even 200 FF tabs open, which may demand more RAM. Any comments on this?

2. Dual and Quad core support also appears hit or miss. Any value in going from a duo to a quad core CPU? Especially if there is a chance it will only see the first core on a 64 bit install?

3. I do have a project on hold to convert video on SDHC cards to DVD or BD, but I plan to do that under W7. Or is there a super duper Linux product that might make this easier or faster?

 

[dangue]

I just realized I have a couple of unused 1TB drives laying around. But it looks like for Linux, especially Mint, RAID implementation is problematic. Questions, after Googling, assuming I actually "buy up" into a fancier machine, previous post: 1. It looks like I can easily drop to 4GB from 8GB RAM (1GB is the recommended minimum). For my intended project, reading Dish EHDs and printing contents lists, I would think the difference would be negligible. Of course, if I start using it to surf, I commonly keep 100 or even 200 FF tabs open, which may demand more RAM. Any comments on this? 2. Dual and Quad core support also appears hit or miss. Any value in going from a duo to a quad core CPU? Especially if there is a chance it will only see the first core on a 64 bit install? 3. I do have a project on hold to convert video on SDHC cards to DVD or BD, but I plan to do that under W7. Or is there a super duper Linux product that might make this easier or faster?

My one suggestion is, if you go the more powerful system route, make it a dual boot machine so that you can access Linux programs you need for your project and then still take advantage of the better hardware you're putting in if you do want a machine to do the rest.

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[Bob2011]

I just realized I have a couple of unused 1TB drives laying around. But it looks like for Linux, especially Mint, RAID implementation is problematic.


Questions, after Googling, assuming I actually "buy up" into a fancier machine, previous post:

1. It looks like I can easily drop to 4GB from 8GB RAM (1GB is the recommended minimum). For my intended project, reading Dish EHDs and printing contents lists, I would think the difference would be negligible. Of course, if I start using it to surf, I commonly keep 100 or even 200 FF tabs open, which may demand more RAM. Any comments on this?

2. Dual and Quad core support also appears hit or miss. Any value in going from a duo to a quad core CPU? Especially if there is a chance it will only see the first core on a 64 bit install?

3. I do have a project on hold to convert video on SDHC cards to DVD or BD, but I plan to do that under W7. Or is there a super duper Linux product that might make this easier or faster?

I currently run Linux Mint 13 Maya on a Intel Celeron G540 dual core with 4 GB of ram. I have about 100 FF tabs open and 600 MB of RAM in use. Depending on what I am doing on a few of those web pages it will go up to about 1.5 GB at worst. My biggest issue with that many tabs open is that I can swamp both cores trying to play an online poker game or watching some streamed videos. It may be that the Intel HD graphics are not up to the task.

As for that 939 system I wouldn't even bother with replacing the motherboard as you can get a complete high end core 2 duo system for under $100 on ebay. Even the early quad cores are around $100 now.

 

[navychop]

My one suggestion is, if you go the more powerful system route, make it a dual boot machine so that you can access Linux programs you need for your project and then still take advantage of the better hardware you're putting in if you do want a machine to do the rest.

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That would be $99 for W8.1, which to me is akin to buying the rope they plan to hang me with. Or I could "creatively" install an unused W7 Upgrade package I have (I have two).

Never done a dual boot, except on an Apple laptop, so it would be educational for me.

 

[navychop]

I currently run Linux Mint 13 Maya on a Intel Celeron G540 dual core with 4 GB of ram. I have about 100 FF tabs open and 600 MB of RAM in use. Depending on what I am doing on a few of those web pages it will go up to about 1.5 GB at worst. My biggest issue with that many tabs open is that I can swamp both cores trying to play an online poker game or watching some streamed videos. It may be that the Intel HD graphics are not up to the task.

As for that 939 system I wouldn't even bother with replacing the motherboard as you can get a complete high end core 2 duo system for under $100 on ebay. Even the early quad cores are around $100 now.

More to consider. But I won't pursue further unless I can't resurrect the dead.

 

[Lone Gunman]

Never mind! I started this post before I realized this thread was 5 pages long and you'd already gone the power supply route. Sorry

 

[navychop]

We have ignition. Liftoff has failed

I replaced the power supply, used the 20 - 24 pin adapter, removed the HDTV Wonder card, reseated CPU (new thermal paste) and RAM, and cleaned out dust.

It is an Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz 2GB. Two optical drives, one a generic DVD reader, one a Sony DRU-500A.

Powered up fine. Went to Setup on it's own, so I guess the battery is toast. Filled in date, etc. Set boot sequence to CD-ROM first (& other variations). Booted to XP and said there were major HW changes and I needed to reactivate, so I plugged the LAN back in and did so. No problems.

Tried to boot from the 64 bit Mint DVD that I can boot from on another machine. I get the below, and it just sits there. Google implies it is a bad burn, but it is not, as it works fine on another PC.

Any ideas?

 

[navychop]

Well, 2 things. Might be both, as the mobo is 11+ years old. The bios might not support it properly. But I cannot read the bios rev on the boot screen, it flashes up so fast and I can't scroll it back. Nor does setup reveal the version. I might use some old utilities to read and update it - got nothing to lose.

But, per the below, the drive head might be dirty. After several repeated attempts in a row, I got it to the "automatically starting Linux in X seconds" screen, then the below:



No more time to fool with it now. Maybe later tonight, or more likely, tomorrow.

 

[avg1joe]

Since you were thinking about spending money anyway how about a new cpu? Double check to make sure this is compatible. There are lots of dual core 939 chips out there. This is the most cost effective one I could find.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Athlon-...5DD-/141194957023?pt=CPUs&hash=item20dfe010df

 

[navychop]

First, I need to get it working as is.

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[jevans64]

Dirty or defective ROM drive is a distinct possibility since it has been sitting for so long. Could also be that the boot disc just won't fire up on the older ROM drive unless the disc was actually created using the same drive. One of the reasons I try to stick with at least the same brand of burners in all my machines. I've had discs authored on my old Pioneer burners that won't read properly on my LG drives, but the LG drives are BDXL burners.

I doubt a machine that old will be able to boot from an external USB device, so the only option is to try another ROM drive from another machine. I've got several old ROM drives in the closet, so that is usually what I do when working on a client's machine and need to eliminate a bad ROM drive. ROM drives have their own error-correction hardware built-in along with their own firmware so they will generally work without any BIOS updates.

 

[navychop]

Well, I've got it to work, very slow to boot from DVD.

I'm checking the XP and updating it (very slow under XP and it was reimaged not long before I shut it down). Then I'll Belarc it and try for dual boot. If that doesn't work, well, I won't have lost much and I'll have the codes for Office etc.

 

[mike123abc]

Interesting not the mother board then... Are you planning to upgrade it to 8.1 after you get it working again?

 

[navychop]

Interesting not the mother board then... Are you planning to upgrade it to 8.1 after you get it working again?

Thas a joke, son, right?

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[mike123abc]

Thas a joke, son, right?

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I think windows 8.1 would be a perfect fit for an 11 year old computer...

Seriously though you have gone through a lot of work for a very old computer.