Back in the summer I could power off my computer and come back hours or days later and turn it on with everything being fine. A month ago, maybe when the weather started getting cooler, the system beeped at me when I turned it on. I found that the fan speed monitor was set for a fan speed higher than what was running and that the changing the fan speed lower limit to allow it to spin slower would keep the warning beeps quiet. If figure that this is OK since the hottest thing in my system, even during the summer, is only 44C. After saving my change in my BIOS all was well, that is until weeks later when I shut down for a couple days again. The beeps were back and my BIOS seemed to need to be rewritten, and all was OK again, or so I thought. I shut the computer off while out of town for the weekend. Now it won't power up again. This time it won't even activate the monitor, so I can't get to the BIOS. Help? What can I do? My system motherboard is an ABIT AV8-3rd Eye running an Athlon 64-X2. Thanks..... -- PLEASE post a SUMMARY of the answer(s) to your question(s)! Show Windows & Gates to the exit door. Unless otherwise noted, the statements herein reflect my personal opinions and not those of any organization with which I may be affiliated.

nobody@tek.com (Kevin the Drummer) wrote in news:slrnfhpf0n.g3e.nobody@lwe128481.central.tektronix.net: > off while out of town for the weekend. Now it won't power up again. > This time it won't even activate the monitor, so I can't get to the > BIOS. > Does the cpu cooling fan do anthing when you power the system up? If the BIOS has a setting to require a minimum CPU fan rpm before startup (ABIT NF7's have such a setting) and if that setting is enabled then you may never get to the bios screen if the fan is dead or disconnected. If the CPU Fan setting is disabled, then something should happen but only for a few seconds until the CPU temperature hits the shutdown point. At that point an NF7 will beep like crazy but otherwise play dead. I suspect that an AV8 may do the same. regards, mungo ------ The backhoe is the natural predator of the fiber optic cable

Mungo <reallydontmail@me.com> writes: >If the CPU Fan setting is disabled, then something should happen but only >for a few seconds until the CPU temperature hits the shutdown point. I guess you mean that the fan is disabled. It may take a few seconds if there is no heat sink attached. However, with a heat sink it will take several minutes until the CPU overheats. As an example, take my first-generation (i.e., power-hungry) Athlon 64 3200+. It recently hung before reaching 35 degrees Celsius, so the CPU fan was not spinning (I had set fancontrol to turn the CPU fan on at 35 degrees C). After about 20minutes I noticed it. The machine had not shut itself down, but on reset it did, and when I started it again and entered the BIOS, the temperature was 83 degrees C; quite hot, but apparently below the emergency shut-off. However, that was with the CPU frequency clocked down to 800MHz (and the appropriate voltage reduction), when running at full speed it would have reached such a temperature much faster, but still in the range of minutes rather than seconds. As for the OP, if I understand his problem correctly, he will have to lower or turn off the BIOS CPU fan alarm, or use a faster-spinning fan. - anton -- M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at Most things have to be believed to be seen http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html

buck <buck@private.mil> wrote: > On 22 Oct 2007 15:05:23 GMT, nobody@tek.com (Kevin the Drummer) wrote: > >Back in the summer I could power off my computer and come > >back hours or days later and turn it on with everything being > >fine. A month ago, maybe when the weather started getting > >cooler, the system beeped at me when I turned it on. I found > >that the fan speed monitor was set for a fan speed higher than > >what was running and that the changing the fan speed lower > >limit to allow it to spin slower would keep the warning beeps > >quiet. If figure that this is OK since the hottest thing in > >my system, even during the summer, is only 44C. After saving > >my change in my BIOS all was well, that is until weeks later > >when I shut down for a couple days again. The beeps were > >back and my BIOS seemed to need to be rewritten, and all was > >OK again, or so I thought. I shut the computer off while out > >of town for the weekend. Now it won't power up again. This > >time it won't even activate the monitor, so I can't get to the > >BIOS. > > > >Help? What can I do? > > > >My system motherboard is an ABIT AV8-3rd Eye running an Athlon > >64-X2. > > You probably should not have relied on the 44C. I'm not sure what you're getting at. Do you think that the system could be giving me invalid info on the temperatures? > Try jumpering the CMOS setup to clear it. Read your MoBo > manual. OK. > If the computer still fails to POST, then you can try removing > and reinstalling all the pieces (RAM, CPU. cards, Etc) trying > first to get a boot with nothing (including HDs) other than CPU > and RAM. When the parts really are OK, I have had decent luck > R&Ring the CPU. Divide & conquer. Sounds like a plan. I'll try that. > But it sure sounds like you fried something. Drag. That's maybe what you meant by not relying on 44C. Is there some way to verify system temperatures? Thanks for the advice.... -- PLEASE post a SUMMARY of the answer(s) to your question(s)! Show Windows & Gates to the exit door. Unless otherwise noted, the statements herein reflect my personal opinions and not those of any organization with which I may be affiliated.

buck <buck@private.mil> wrote: > Yes, it is common for temperatures to be wrong. Sometimes one > can bend the part that is sensing so it more firmly touches > the part to moniitor. Also, there are different ways to > monitor - BIOS and software. The software way is notorious for > reporting a different temp than BIOS. Neither is necessarily > correct. Even a thermometer held against the part is somewhat > inaccurate, but if you have one that goes high enough you might > want to compare that to the reading given by whatever you're > looking at. I think any of the hardware/mechanical issues you mention might apply to my system. The software issue is a little different for my system. It's a "3rd Eye" version of an ABIT motherboard. That means that I have an LC Display that plugs into the board and gives me readouts on temperature, voltage, and fan speed of all the zones monitored on the board. That doesn't mean they're all right, but it's different. > Many systems "scream" when overtemp. Some shut down. Others > will not POST unless they sense the fans spinning. Some just > fry themselves to death. Clearing CMOS resets to a state VERY > likely to POST (in order to minimize support of brand new > MoBoards) if the hardware is OK. I didn't have time to work on it last night. Your suggestions are the first things I'll try. As for frying something in my system, I'm hoping that there's less chance of that because I added extra fans to my system. For the added fans I set them to run more slowly, normally around 760rpm. This causes my BIOS to complain loudly, even though there's more cooling than not having the fan in the first place. The reason for the extra slow speed fans is to have a quiet system. I don't overclock. But, I have considered underclocking to quiet my system even more. That "3rd Eye" thing gives me the option to run the system in normal, turbo, or quiet modes, and it changes the clock rate and fan speeds as one might expect. The machine always boots into normal mode, when it boots anyway. I usually put the machine into quiet mode. Thanks.... -- PLEASE post a SUMMARY of the answer(s) to your question(s)! Show Windows & Gates to the exit door. Unless otherwise noted, the statements herein reflect my personal opinions and not those of any organization with which I may be affiliated.

Marten Kemp <martendespamkemp@thisplanet-link.net> wrote: > Kevin the Drummer wrote: > > Back in the summer I could power off my computer and come back hours or > > days later and turn it on with everything being fine. A month ago, > > maybe when the weather started getting cooler, the system beeped at me > > when I turned it on. I found that the fan speed monitor was set for a > > fan speed higher than what was running and that the changing the fan > > speed lower limit to allow it to spin slower would keep the warning > > beeps quiet. If figure that this is OK since the hottest thing in my > > system, even during the summer, is only 44C. After saving my change in > > my BIOS all was well, that is until weeks later when I shut down for a > > couple days again. The beeps were back and my BIOS seemed to need to be > > rewritten, and all was OK again, or so I thought. I shut the computer > > off while out of town for the weekend. Now it won't power up again. > > This time it won't even activate the monitor, so I can't get to the > > BIOS. > > > > Help? What can I do? > > > > My system motherboard is an ABIT AV8-3rd Eye running an Athlon 64-X2. > > CMOS battery? I just looked at some links about CMOS battery failures that I found with a web search. One issue they have that I also have is an apparent intermittent failure to remember my last CMOS settings. And, it seems to be getting worse on me, which is just what a battery might do. I'll look into this. Thanks! -- PLEASE post a SUMMARY of the answer(s) to your question(s)! Show Windows & Gates to the exit door. Unless otherwise noted, the statements herein reflect my personal opinions and not those of any organization with which I may be affiliated.

Anton Ertl <anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> wrote: > As for the OP, if I understand his problem correctly, he will have to > lower or turn off the BIOS CPU fan alarm, or use a faster-spinning > fan. I've lowered the BIOS CPU fan speed alarm to minimum. It seems that my BIOS changes have not been permanent as of late, and I've had to repeat my change to that setting a couple of times. Another poster suggested my CMOS battery might be going bad. I'll look at that. Thanks.... -- PLEASE post a SUMMARY of the answer(s) to your question(s)! Show Windows & Gates to the exit door. Unless otherwise noted, the statements herein reflect my personal opinions and not those of any organization with which I may be affiliated.

Stefan Patric <tootek2@yahoo.com> wrote: > > My system motherboard is an ABIT AV8-3rd Eye running an Athlon 64-X2. > [difficult problem story trimmed] > > I suggest with your system to check the power supply first, the > cheapest thing to replace. You could have a bad RAM chip, bad > graphics card, etc. Hopefully, it's not a bad CPU. Last night I checked the POST code. It was 37, "Test DMA channel 1". Per the ABIT troubleshooting section in their manual, I tried resetting the CMOS. Still no joy. I replaced the CMOS battery. Still broken. I disconnected my internal 50-pin SCSI cable along with the power connectors for tape and CD drives attached to that cable. The system booted right away after that. Of course, it complained about a CMOS checksum and reloaded the defaults. But, other than that it was a normal boot. This is starting to look like a power supply issue to me. That could be because I've overloaded it, or it could be because it's a bit on the weak side for the load. My PCI slots are all full with ABIT's uGuru external display, two sound cards, serial port card, and a SCSI card. Of course the AGP slot is full, nVidia in my case. In the drive bays I have a CD burner, tape drive, DVD burner, floppy drive, and 3 hard drives. I also added two big fans to the system. My power supply is a Q Technology 460W unit. Did I over do it on the loading? Thanks.... -- PLEASE post a SUMMARY of the answer(s) to your question(s)! Show Windows & Gates to the exit door. Unless otherwise noted, the statements herein reflect my personal opinions and not those of any organization with which I may be affiliated.