Another Hardware Question

[z_man93]

I'm assuming that someone will have an idea about whats wrong since we seem to have a very intelligent group here, but if not,does anyone know of any good chat rooms, bulletin boards, or websites that might help.

Here's the problem - currently have a P2 333 w/ gigabyte MB. Got a celeron 500 w/ adapter and put it in. Everything is set for default, no overclocking yet. The computer will start, monitor is on, but everything locks-up when it goes to load peripherals. I don't understand??? I'd think that if it wasn't going to work then it just wouldn't start, I didn't change anything with any peripherals.

Anyways, what do ya all think? or where could I go to get some answers? Thanks in advance

[Kintoun]

Hmm what exactly do you mean "when it goes to load peripherals"? Are you trying on a fresh install of windows and are refering to the loading of win drivers?

[z_man93]

I appologize for being too general. I'm not very IT literate. What I mean is right when I start the computer, it does the BIOS thing, checks memory, and then says loading CD rom and other stuff - thats what I meant by peripherals. So I guess that is loading drivers like you said. But that is when it locks-up on me.

I was wondering if anyone knows of any bulletin boards relating to motherboards or for people that do a lot of performance oriented stuff. I'm sure that this can be done and I'm sure that someone knows why this is happening, I just don't know who that someone is.

[Indigo]

you put a new cpu in.. but didnt change the mother board right.? is your bios set to stop on all errors? does it beep funny at anytime? It sounds to me like it is not seeing your hard drive.. make sure you check your cables..the red stripe is pin 1.. you should see a pin number on the drive near where the connecter connects to the hard drive. Make sure all your ribbon cables are plugged in right, and seated well.. that failing....
There is a slim chance that when you changed stuff that the motherboard did not reassign the irqs properly, there should be a switch in your bios to reset all the irqs and reload them. ..usually you can get into bios by holding down del..unless you have a compaq or ibm..then you are on your own..
if it gets passed the bios, and starts to load your cd rom driver and then quits does it ever get to a point for you to load windows in safe mode? You might try holding down f10 I believe right after the beep and that should take you to the windows load menu.. If you can get it to do that.. pick step by step confirmation and find out where it drops the ball..That will take you through the autoexec, and the config sys and most of the windows drivers..

If it wont get that far use a startup disk in a: to get to the dos prompt, make sure the computer sees drive c by typing in cd c: if the prompt changes from a:\ to c:\ then it isnt the drive... and at that point you might try reinstalling windows.

If all that fails post again or email me at pkatt@pacbell.net I can talk you through just about anything when it comes to crashing computers:).. heaven knows Ive crashed enough of mine:)

[Dogmeat]

While installing my Athlon/mainboard yesterday (the one that was broken, returned it and got a new kit under warranty) my power supply mysteriously died. I think. All the jumpers/connections are intact. But it won't power on heh.

Computers hate me.

[Indigo]

what kind of connectors do you have going to the mother board? make sure you arent one pin off or have them switched around. In most power supplies there is a hidden fuse inside the power supply box.. it may have popped.. on the mb itself .. make sure your stand offs, those things that hold the mother board off of the floor of the computer are all matched up to holes in the motherboard.. it only takes one rogue to short down things.. Ps.. is it plugged in? .. ar ar.:)

edit... also check your motherboard jumper settings.. some of the newer ones just do it on the bios but some still require you pick what type of powersupply you are using.. And..make sure that you didnt inadvertently switch to 220 on the power supply (little red switch .. usually near where you plug it in.)

[Edited by Indigo on 05-31-2001 at 11:42 PM]

[z_man93]

OK, heres the update. It locks up when loading my Soundblaster card, not the hard drive or CD ROM they load fine. It says "Initializing Plug and Play Cards...then my model # of sound blaster" and thats it.

I went into BIOS, then into "PNP/PCI Configuration" which is where the IRQ settings were. There were 2 main options "Resources controlled by" which was set to default of "manual" the other option is "auto" , and the other seeting was "Reset Configuration Data" with default of "disabled" with option of "Enabled"

Was that what you were saying I could reset. I didn't want to play with my BIOS without consulting you first, because I knoe if I screw that up then I'm really screwed.

[z_man93]

I saw you were on the boards so I wanted to post that real quick, now to answer your other questions:

It shouldn't have anything to do with other devices like power supply or HD connectors because it works fine when I have P2 333 in there, I only have the one computer and it's what I'm using right now. 10 minutes ago I had the Celeron in it, and now I'm back to the P2 again.

Again, I think the problem revolves around my Soundblaster card, thats where it locks-up. Sorry if I misled you earlier.

[Indigo]

yes enable that switch and see what happens.. if it still fails try the f10 thing and when it comes to load your sound card say no.. and see if it will load all the way to windows

edit.. once you enable the reset.. it will automatically return to its default.. you dont have to turn it off again... also it might not be your sound card.. usually what loads in the autoexec.bat is a dos setting for dos based programs and has nothing to do with windows at all..

[Edited by Indigo on 06-01-2001 at 12:06 AM]

[z_man93]

Which switch, there are 2? should I change both of those options or just one? Sorry, don't mean to be anal, just don't want to mess-up my comp.

[Indigo]

reset configuration data.. is the one you want...

[z_man93]

OK, hopefully I'll be back in a couple minutes running at 500, if ya don't hear from me ever again you'll know I screwed something up.

[Indigo]

This should not screw anything up.. it will just reset your irqs and make the computer reassign them.. another thing you can check for me... does your bios have a cpu section? and it is very weird to handle your resources manually unless you know what you are handling... but that aside.. check the bios for a cpu section and make sure you are set up right there.. I assume you have some documentation with the kit.. and if you still think its the sound card.. try unplugging it from the computer and see if it will start up.. if you can get into windows once then you can try putting it back into a different slot.. all reset config will do is the same thing the bios would do for a new plug and play device.

[z_man93]

OK, just reading your last post now. Previous to that I had no success. I did the IRQ thing in the BIOS and no success. I tried to f10 to do the step by step thing but f10 did nothing. I'll try to unplug the sound card and see what happens. I really do think that its the sound card because everything else seems to load fine and seems to be recognised. I'm also going to go to soundblaster website and see if there are any compatibility issues with a celeron processor or if I may need to change the jumper settings on the sound card. Being that its a plug and play card I'd think that I would leave it alone. Oh well, thanks for the help Indigo hopefully I'll get this working.

[Indigo]

if you still think its the sound card just pop it out of the box for a sec and retry... it might be trying to share a resource that the motherboard needs now.. I have my doubts though


give me the name of your kit.. two surfin for answers might come up with an answer..I have nothing else to do tonite:)

[z_man93]

Hey Indigo, thanks for the help. Sorry I didn't get back to you last night. I gave up after testing the sound card. I unplugged it and the computer still locked-up at the same place.