jedidia
shoemaker without legs
Ok, usually I can identify my problems pretty well. This time I'm not quite sure.
For some time now, it happened that my Desktop made some clicking noises with the PC speaker immediately after turning it on. After that would follow the confirmatory beep, followed by the logo of the motherboard on the screen and "press del to enter Bios". So the clicking was really pretty much the first thing the machine did.
The clicking goes click-click, with two clicks in succession, but clearly distinguishable, then a break of about five seconds, then it comes again.
It happened that the bootup was delayed, I.E. instead of the beep and the board logo the clicking would repeat for some time, until finally the computer booted up, almost as if the computer had to try a few times to get its bearings.
Recently, it happened that the computer wouldn't get his bearings at all. Turn off and on again, and he might. The instances where he might rapidly reduced from "every other time" until finally today to "never".
So I started searching for the cause, because so far I was to lazy and I don't use that computer for actual work, so I could live with it.
I started removing component by component, starting with the disks, continuing with Soundcard (yes, I still have a removable soundcard, not because the board is that ancient, but because the card is so good
), followed by the graphics card and finally arriving at RAM.
The symtoms never changed until I removed the RAM. Then I got the expected frantic "got no RAM"-beeping from the board. Removal of the graphics card did NOT prompt the expected beebeep - beebep - beebeep that usually indicates a lacking video card, but this is probably because the board just reverted to the onboard GPU by itself.
So that's the situation: Board does recognise and protest when there's no RAM, but other than that it just goes on clicking with the PC speaker. All fans are running, no problem with power distribution. No additional devices are connected.
So the question essentially is: RAM, board or CPU? which one is most likely the culprit?
(the board is at least 6 years old, which is about the longest time I've ever ran a board, so I would not actually be very surprised if it gave out on me).
EDIT:
I noticed an occasional inconsistency: The board has 2 paired ramslots, both of which are supposed to be occupied. I always get a missing RAM message when slot2 is unoccupied. However, if only slot1 is unoccupied, sometimes I get the beeping, and sometimes not. Sounds like a faulty RAM-socket to me. In that case, good-bye board (and CPU and RAM, since I certainly won't find a board to accommodate the old chip).
For some time now, it happened that my Desktop made some clicking noises with the PC speaker immediately after turning it on. After that would follow the confirmatory beep, followed by the logo of the motherboard on the screen and "press del to enter Bios". So the clicking was really pretty much the first thing the machine did.
The clicking goes click-click, with two clicks in succession, but clearly distinguishable, then a break of about five seconds, then it comes again.
It happened that the bootup was delayed, I.E. instead of the beep and the board logo the clicking would repeat for some time, until finally the computer booted up, almost as if the computer had to try a few times to get its bearings.
Recently, it happened that the computer wouldn't get his bearings at all. Turn off and on again, and he might. The instances where he might rapidly reduced from "every other time" until finally today to "never".
So I started searching for the cause, because so far I was to lazy and I don't use that computer for actual work, so I could live with it.
I started removing component by component, starting with the disks, continuing with Soundcard (yes, I still have a removable soundcard, not because the board is that ancient, but because the card is so good
), followed by the graphics card and finally arriving at RAM.The symtoms never changed until I removed the RAM. Then I got the expected frantic "got no RAM"-beeping from the board. Removal of the graphics card did NOT prompt the expected beebeep - beebep - beebeep that usually indicates a lacking video card, but this is probably because the board just reverted to the onboard GPU by itself.
So that's the situation: Board does recognise and protest when there's no RAM, but other than that it just goes on clicking with the PC speaker. All fans are running, no problem with power distribution. No additional devices are connected.
So the question essentially is: RAM, board or CPU? which one is most likely the culprit?
(the board is at least 6 years old, which is about the longest time I've ever ran a board, so I would not actually be very surprised if it gave out on me).
EDIT:
I noticed an occasional inconsistency: The board has 2 paired ramslots, both of which are supposed to be occupied. I always get a missing RAM message when slot2 is unoccupied. However, if only slot1 is unoccupied, sometimes I get the beeping, and sometimes not. Sounds like a faulty RAM-socket to me. In that case, good-bye board (and CPU and RAM, since I certainly won't find a board to accommodate the old chip).
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