[clue] [hardware] Erratic boot behavior

[YES NOPE9]

Try a new power supply .... I have some you can experiment with.
Try swapping the memory.  Try putting in different memory.  I may have memory that fits.
Try a different CPU    I may have one that fits.
What is your time worth ?  Upgrading can range from $50 to $1000
99guspuppet

> On Jul 7, 2011, at 3:28 PM, chris fedde wrote:
> 
> Try a new power supply.  If that does not solve it then you're pretty
> much on target for a new system,  If you have to go for a new
> motherboard/cpu/ram you'll need a new power supply anyway.
> 
> JMHO
> chris
> 
> On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Matt Gushee <matt at gushee.net> wrote:
>> Hi all--
>> 
>> Hope everybody is well!
>> 
>> I am having an issue with my desktop Linux box--though I think it is
>> really strictly a hardware or firmware problem. Anyway, before I go out
>> and spend a bunch of money based on my guesses, I thought I'd check with
>> you knowledgeable folks and see if anyone has encountered this before.
>> 
>> First of all, the computer in question is, hmm, less than
>> top-of-the-line. And it's quite old. The case is a Gateway mid-tower
>> that I bought used about 7 years ago, and I think it was made in about
>> 1998. AFAIK the power supply is original equipment. The motherboard is
>> an ECS model that I got for cheap (closeout, I think) at MicroCenter.
>> Cheap, but the reviews I read said it was good for the money. AMD Athlon
>> 1.8Gig CPU, SiS chipset (forget the model #). So maybe it's time to
>> upgrade anyway. But if there's reason to believe that the problem is
>> something else, then I'd like to take care of that something else first.
>> 
>> So anyway: the machine is now having serious trouble booting up after
>> being powered off. This started a long time ago, but it was just a mild
>> nuisance at first, gradually developing into a major problem. The
>> behavior has also been very inconsistent: sometimes the system will boot
>> on the first try. But when it doesn't, here's how it goes, more or less:
>> 
>>  * I hit the power button.
>> 
>>  * LEDs light up on the front of the case. The power-on LED will be
>>  steadily lit, and the CD-RW drive LED
>>   starts to flicker, as does the hard drive LED. Sometimes the DVD-RW
>>   drive LED will start to flash
>>   and/or there will be disk-spinning noises. These are good signs,
>>   usually predicting a successful
>>   bootup.
>> 
>>  * Usually, the ViewSonic parrots appear at the upper left of the
>>  monitor, then disappear--followed by
>>   the words "No Signal" at the center of the monitor.
>> 
>>  * Sometimes the keyboard LEDs flash. That's also a good sign.
>> 
>>  * After a period of time (maybe 10 seconds, maybe 5 minutes), the POST
>>  screen appears. Then, if I'm
>>   lucky, the 2 hard drives are listed on screen. Often, the POST screen
>>   will just flash on and off,
>>   and it all starts again. The general trend is that it is taking
>>   longer to get to the POST screen,
>>   and it flashes on and off more times before a successful boot.
>>   Sometimes it won't POST at all. In
>>   those cases the CD-RW LED and the hard drive LED just keep steadily
>>   flickering, there are no sounds
>>   of moving parts, and pressing and holding the power switch fails to
>>   turn the machine off. So my only
>>   recourse is to cut off the power by switching off the power strip or
>>   pulling the plug (yikes!).
>> 
>> Now, a couple of facts that seems significant here are that (a) once
>> Linux is booted, the system runs very reliably, with no random failures;
>> and (b) as far as I can remember the system has never failed to boot
>> once the hard drives are detected. At least, I am assuming that when the
>> POST screen displays the hard drive info, that means that the drives
>> have just been detected. If that is the case, it seems likely that the
>> problem has nothing whatever to do with the OS.
>> 
>> BTW, In case it matters, I have upgraded the primary hard drive at least
>> once, probably twice, or maybe even thrice. As far as I can remember
>> those upgrades had no effect on this problem.
>> 
>> So, anybody have an idea about this? Any clues greatly appreciated.
>> 
>> --
>> Matt Gushee
>> matt at gushee.net
>