cpd2009 Wrote:You should have purchased one of those motherboard tester things that plugs into a PCI slot. They aren't always accurate, but they give you a basic idea on what is up with the motherboard.
Those diagnostic cards won't work. They only work with certain motherboards, and I'm pretty sure Biostar boards doesn't support it.
cpd2009 Wrote:How old is Clementine's motherboard? Motherboards tend to last beyond 10 years at times, as evidenced with the early Apple II computers. What usually causes them to fail are bad capacitors, which can be easily replaced if you have knowledge of a soldering iron.
Well, Clementine received this motherboard from Helen when I migrated Helen to use an Asus motherboard sometimes back, I think it has something to do with Operation: Phoenix Rise III.
Iirc this board was bought back in '07-'08 (iirc, Operation: Phoenix Rise, to replace Helen's dead A7V8X-X, and reincarnate her as a Media Center PC). It hasn't been a good board to begin with, when I first installed it in Helen, it too had boot troubles (though unlike the current issue, the fan of the PSU did spin up, but nothing is displayed on screen). I eventually fixed the problem.
Then came the time when I had to upgrade it's BIOS because I need VT-x support for VirtualPC (long story), and that turned out to be a PITA. I eventually managed to flash in the BIOS using the DOS flasher. That was when I became distrustful of flashers built into the BIOS itself.
And then there's the time when the PSU went kaboom last year (oddly enough, it was quite a good brand PSU, too).
And then of course the 8400GS died earlier this year, forcing me to install a LeadTek-WinFast-NVidia GeForce GT520 into her because of the difficulty involved in getting a BioStar-NVidia GeForce card.
Bad caps? I don't think so. One of the reason I picked this board out was because it uses "solid caps", the selling point is that these caps are not electrolyte-based and won't rupture, and that they last multitudes longer than regular caps.
cpd2009 Wrote:Did you notice any strangeness with Clementine before the motherboard stopped responding?
None. She was just fine the last time I booted her a few days ago.
I'm just going to take the PSU off to a computer store to have it tested. If it fails, well, I'm going to have to cough up money for a new PSU. I decided that I want an Antec this time around. Problem is, between this, the Wii U and more ponies (specifically, a FurReal Friends Butterscotch My Show Pony, which somehow costs a whopping 900 Malaysian Ringgits despite costing roughly only a hundred US dollars- a crazy 300% mark-up), I'm not sure I can afford it. I can't even afford the other stuff right now!
But if it passes, then I'm in even deeper crap. It means that I need to technically build another new PC >.<