On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 19:59:56 -0700, Tony Mayer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>This sounds very much like a defective video card. I'd recommend
>swapping in a known-good video card and seeing if the problem is still
>there. If that doesn't solve the problem, I'd try disconnecting the
>cd-rom drive and, lastly, swap memory with some known good.
>I'd put more money on the video card though :)
>
>Tony Mayer
>Sysop
>The Magic FunHouse BBS
>http://bbs.magicom.net
>
>
>Rob Cilia wrote:
>> Good Day Everyone, a friend of mine is having problems with a pc he bought @
>> 2 years ago. Unlucky for him the warranty has since expired (funny how
>> these things happen at the most undesirable times!). It's an IBM Netvista
>> A21i desktop pc. The pc's specs: 1.1 ghz Celeron, 128mb ram, 60gb drive, cd
>> drive,etc. It's not a monster performance pc but it's not a slouch either.
>> It was running WinXP Home edition. Apparently the pc experienced some
>> severe power surges which caused it to stop functioning properly. It went
>> from operating for a couple of hours to not operating at all. I can get it
>> a dos screen to perform some hardware diagnostics using the pc-doctor 2.0
>> software boot disk that ibm provided with the system but it doesn't report
>> any hardware errors. At first I thought it was a hard drive problem so I
>> reformatted the drive and reinstalled Win XP Home on it but the same problem
>> still exists, it freezes just as the Win XP screen loads up. I have
>> reformatted and attempted to reinstall Win2k Pro but the same thing happens,
>> while at the command prompt/dos mode, the system runs fine, allows you to
>> format the hd, perform diagnostics, install the os and runs for hours
>> without fail, etc. However when you try to start an OS as soon as it hits a
>> screen with graphics, ie. The Win2k or WinXP startup screen with the
>> scrolling indicator bar at the bottom, it either freezes entirely or causes
>> the pc to spontaneously reboot. I have scanned the harddrive with a
>> Logicube Solitaire Turbo 2000 cloning device I use at work which allows you
>> to clone drives and scan & repair drives but nothing showed up. I also
>> swapped drives from another pc that I know is working and the same problem
>> exists, the pc locks up during the bootup process at the same point each
>> time even with a new drive so I don't think it's a hd problem. I don't have
>> any equipment for testing power supplies or motherboards for component
>> failure but I'm thinking it's one or both of these areas that may be the
>> source of the problem. Have any of you ever seen a similar problem and if
>> so what did you find to be the cause of the problem? If you have any
>> comments or any suggestions, please reply back on this list. TIA... rob,wpg
>>
>> PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
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>>
>
> PCBUILD's List Owners:
> Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
> Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>
The video card for this system is OMB (on motherboard). I tried removing the existing 128mb dimm and replacing with some new memory but the same problems during windows startup happens. However "zigner"'s post does lead me to believe it may be a video card problem. This system does have some free pci slots open so I grabbed pci video card from an older system (this was a 1mb video card) and installed it. Unfortunately all of the systems here at work have OMB video cards so I have nothing else to test with. In "dos" mode the system runs fine but when you attempt to run win2k, the same problem occurs when the windows startup screen appears - it either locks up or reboots spontaneously. Does anyone else think it might be a video card problem? The pc-doctor software does a video card test and a pretty thorough one from what I can see so I'm wondering why the card doesn't fail during these tests. Oh well, if anyone has any other comments concerning this please feel free to reply. TIA....rob,wpg
PCBUILD's List Owners:
Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>
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