BleepingComputer.com: Blower that BLOW

Hello,

My friend sent an old Compaq AMD Athlon-2000 to me for dust cleaning of his PC.

Yeap I cleaned the dusty CPU, Fan and motherboard but next I realized that I had blowed up the box.

I try to switch on the CPU, its made 3X beep beep beep and die.

I watch carefully, power up -> power supply fan spinning but the CPU fan do not. Beep beep beep and die.

On again, upon the CPU fan want to spin I took a pen spin the CPU fan. CPU fan spinning at last and the PC booted and went to XP.

Shutdown.

Try again, beep beep beep die.

Now before power up, I knock the power supply box, power up, ok booted to XP.

Restart the PC, ok booted back to XP.

Shutdown.

On back, beep beep beep die.

on back , spin the cpu fan with a pen, ok booted to XP.

Thought of spoil power supply box, I bought a new but still the same.

Blower that blow......

wow,

Some older compaq's will not boot if the CPU fan does not register an RPM within the specified range within a specified time.

You may need to replace the CPU fan with another one and once again retest. It's very possible that all of the dust blowing around went up inside the cpu fan motor itself and has now caused it to stall out completely.

Your thoughts on power supply are probably not too far off either. Being an older compaq box the power supply is probably tired and cannot drive everything to it's maximum. I would suggest keeping your new power supply and replacing the CPU fan then retest.

Hope this helps,

Tq ->techextreme

Ok I will change the cpu fan tomorrow

In the Amibois cmos

CPU Temp : 86 C/188 F
System Temp : 47 C/116 F
CPU Fan Speed : 1406 RPM
System Fan Speed : 0 RPM

Tq.

CPU Temp : 86 C/188 F

That CPU temperature is WAY too high....

It is possible that you will continue to have problems with this machine even after replacing the CPU fan but you will have to try it first.

After change to new CPU FAN

CPU Temp : 59 C/138 F
System Temp : 31 C/87 F
CPU Fan Speed : 3515 RPM
System Fan Speed : 0 RPM

1. Failed to boot -> PC restart
2. Failed to Safe Mode ->PC restart.
3. Last known good -> missing "vgaoem.fon" repair use CD setup.

Run with cd setup xp home

1. Blue screen -> acpi.sys , page_fault_in_nonpage_area

Change memory & install video card.

- Blue screen - config_initialization_failed.


Change new Power supply

1. Start windows normal -> sometime run until windows logo and restart and sometime just reboot.
2. Last known good - missing vgaoem.fon or just blank screen.
3. Safe mode - missing vgaoem.fon or reboot or hang after list wmilib.sys
4. run setup cd - BSOD - a problem has been detected - shut down please


wowwwwww..

Let's try running some tests now.

Let's run Check Disk first.

• Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
  Note:Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
  
• When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
  Note:If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
  
• When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
  
• At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following then press Enter:
  
  chkdsk /r
  
  
• Allow this to run UNDISTURBED until completed (45 min or so)
  
• Report any errors

Next let's test your memory.

Before running this test make sure you try reseating your memory in your motherboard.

Go to Memtest.org and download the precompiled iso in zip format.

Burn the iso image ( once unzipped ) to a CD. Reboot your computer with this CD in the drive and boot from the CD. You will see a screen similar to:



Let memtest run a full and complete test on your memory.

Let us know what the results of each test are.

I can't run Check disk because I can't boot.

I can't run via Cd setup because it never reach "Welcome to Setup" = BSOD (page_fault_in_nonpage_area)

I made a disk boot (DOS) but can't access the C drive. (Format : Create an MS-Dos Startup)

Made startup = copy ntldr, Ntdetect.com, boot.ini - failed to boot.

actually how ? to make a bootable disk via dos to access my C (NTFS) drive, so that I can go to c:\i386 folder and run the "WINNT.EXE" to reinstall back my windows.

Let talk about the memory, here i have 2 sticks of PC2100 (hynix 128mb) and (kingston 1GB).

I done testing by installed at good PC, no problem, it work fine, can used to install photoshop and run its.

I installed memory from good PC into this PC, still failed to start.

Memtest86 v3.4 ;

Used 2 stick - error halting during test #7
Used Kingston 1G installed at slot 1 - halting during test #7
used kingston 1G installed at slot 2 - passed test #7 but hang at #8 (not halting)

so is it the memory controller problem.





techextreme how to make a dos boot disk to access my C drive.

tq. happy holiday

As I suspected, I think your overheat troubles have "cooked" your processor. You will probably need to replace the processor next before going any further.

Your original temps were 86 C/188 F. As you can see from here, the maximum temperature for most 2000+ Amd Athlon's is 85C.

So it would be very safe to say that your processor has overheated and will not be reliable for any further testing of the machine let alone reloading the Operating System.

Your memory: If it is testing good in one computer and not this particular computer, then as I said, the root cause is most likely the CPU.

I would replace it before going any further. I would not recommend trying to access your hard drive in this computer with this CPU and if you would like to access the data, I would recommend pulling the drive and installing it as a slave in your other computer.

Hope this helps,

Pity me,

Looking at the rusty capacitors, my dust blowing is a great mistake. Next time better use brush

Lost about $250 for parts (bought 1GB pc2100 memory, power supply and cpu fan)

But thanks Techextreme for your time.

bye.