I agree it sounds like a bad power supply.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 3:28 PM, chris fedde <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chris@fedde.us">chris@fedde.us</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Try a new power supply. If that does not solve it then you're pretty<br>
much on target for a new system, If you have to go for a new<br>
motherboard/cpu/ram you'll need a new power supply anyway.<br>
<br>
JMHO<br>
<font color="#888888">chris<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Matt Gushee <<a href="mailto:matt@gushee.net">matt@gushee.net</a>> wrote:<br>
> Hi all--<br>
><br>
> Hope everybody is well!<br>
><br>
> I am having an issue with my desktop Linux box--though I think it is<br>
> really strictly a hardware or firmware problem. Anyway, before I go out<br>
> and spend a bunch of money based on my guesses, I thought I'd check with<br>
> you knowledgeable folks and see if anyone has encountered this before.<br>
><br>
> First of all, the computer in question is, hmm, less than<br>
> top-of-the-line. And it's quite old. The case is a Gateway mid-tower<br>
> that I bought used about 7 years ago, and I think it was made in about<br>
> 1998. AFAIK the power supply is original equipment. The motherboard is<br>
> an ECS model that I got for cheap (closeout, I think) at MicroCenter.<br>
> Cheap, but the reviews I read said it was good for the money. AMD Athlon<br>
> 1.8Gig CPU, SiS chipset (forget the model #). So maybe it's time to<br>
> upgrade anyway. But if there's reason to believe that the problem is<br>
> something else, then I'd like to take care of that something else first.<br>
><br>
> So anyway: the machine is now having serious trouble booting up after<br>
> being powered off. This started a long time ago, but it was just a mild<br>
> nuisance at first, gradually developing into a major problem. The<br>
> behavior has also been very inconsistent: sometimes the system will boot<br>
> on the first try. But when it doesn't, here's how it goes, more or less:<br>
><br>
> * I hit the power button.<br>
><br>
> * LEDs light up on the front of the case. The power-on LED will be<br>
> steadily lit, and the CD-RW drive LED<br>
> starts to flicker, as does the hard drive LED. Sometimes the DVD-RW<br>
> drive LED will start to flash<br>
> and/or there will be disk-spinning noises. These are good signs,<br>
> usually predicting a successful<br>
> bootup.<br>
><br>
> * Usually, the ViewSonic parrots appear at the upper left of the<br>
> monitor, then disappear--followed by<br>
> the words "No Signal" at the center of the monitor.<br>
><br>
> * Sometimes the keyboard LEDs flash. That's also a good sign.<br>
><br>
> * After a period of time (maybe 10 seconds, maybe 5 minutes), the POST<br>
> screen appears. Then, if I'm<br>
> lucky, the 2 hard drives are listed on screen. Often, the POST screen<br>
> will just flash on and off,<br>
> and it all starts again. The general trend is that it is taking<br>
> longer to get to the POST screen,<br>
> and it flashes on and off more times before a successful boot.<br>
> Sometimes it won't POST at all. In<br>
> those cases the CD-RW LED and the hard drive LED just keep steadily<br>
> flickering, there are no sounds<br>
> of moving parts, and pressing and holding the power switch fails to<br>
> turn the machine off. So my only<br>
> recourse is to cut off the power by switching off the power strip or<br>
> pulling the plug (yikes!).<br>
><br>
> Now, a couple of facts that seems significant here are that (a) once<br>
> Linux is booted, the system runs very reliably, with no random failures;<br>
> and (b) as far as I can remember the system has never failed to boot<br>
> once the hard drives are detected. At least, I am assuming that when the<br>
> POST screen displays the hard drive info, that means that the drives<br>
> have just been detected. If that is the case, it seems likely that the<br>
> problem has nothing whatever to do with the OS.<br>
><br>
> BTW, In case it matters, I have upgraded the primary hard drive at least<br>
> once, probably twice, or maybe even thrice. As far as I can remember<br>
> those upgrades had no effect on this problem.<br>
><br>
> So, anybody have an idea about this? Any clues greatly appreciated.<br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Matt Gushee<br>
> <a href="mailto:matt@gushee.net">matt@gushee.net</a><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br>