End of Life of my 3yrs old machine?

[gary4gar]

My 3year old desky is seems giving up its strulle to live. now every now then i am presented with wierd issues.

1) i can't install arch Linux on it, i get some wierd error related to libata, perhaps sata port is fying slowing but windows is still working without issues.

2) the sceen is black with Graphics adapter plugged in, i am removing it for a while untill i found a solution.

3) The boot time has increased due to some unknown reason, the BIOS hangs for about 8-10secs with a msg "verifying DMI pool Data....".

4) wonder how, but it burned my HDD due to some wire shorting. thanks to Seagates No-Questions-asked return policy, i got a new drive.

5) sometimes POST screen is shown with corrupted graphics.

6) every now and then system refuses to boot, gives me two LONG BEEPS.
then i have to remove-clean-inseart the ram module. it becoming more frequent day by day
AMD ATHLON 64 3000+
MSI K8MM-V
1GB DDR RAM
80GB SATA-II HDD
Nvidia Geforce 6200 128mb
BenQ 1655 DVD writer "Old WIne"

Thouhts on Buying a new Rig,
Well, my work on this machine is limited to email,blogging,forums etc.
so, i am not yet into buying mode.

Please suggestion solution to above problems, if there are any.
else i would have to dump this and stick to my notebook

 

[W i d e S c r e e N]

dump this and stick to my notebook

+1

 

[pimpom]

All those symptoms could be caused by a single source. My suggestions:

1. Check or replace the CMOS battery
2. Clean all dust inside the cabinet, including the heatsink
3. Remove and reinsert all connectors
4. Disconnect all drives except the DVD drive and run Memtest86

 

[MetalheadGautham]

According to my calculation, your rig should live another 2 years minimum. Period.
Do what pimpom said and see if it helps.

Look at my rig in my siggy and tell me if its not weaker than yours. I bought it in Q3 2005. But its perfect even today. Yours is much better than mine in terms of power. It also has better components. When my rig itself looks like its going to last till next year June, why can't yours last for an year more than mine ?

 

[iMav]

@pimpom +1. Check mobo.

 

[Faun]

My 3year old desky is seems giving up its strulle to live. now every now then i am presented with wierd issues.

I share the same story. Your motherboard BIOS is bad and SATA controller is going bad. Its one of the reason why HDD are going bad in my PC.

Some bunch of bad coders left BIOS bug and made controller badly designed.

So just change the mobo to save other parts.

See if changing Mobo helps.

 

[MetalheadGautham]

Is that CPU AM2 ?

 

[pimpom]

According to my calculation, your rig should live another 2 years minimum. Period.
Do what pimpom said and see if it helps.

Look at my rig in my siggy and tell me if its not weaker than yours. I bought it in Q3 2005. But its perfect even today. Yours is much better than mine in terms of power. It also has better components. When my rig itself looks like its going to last till next year June, why can't yours last for an year more than mine ?

I agree, unless it is proven that there is something wrong with the mobo. It's easy to be influenced by all the hype we read everyday. As long as an older system does everything we want, there's no need to get a new system just to keep up with others.

That said, I think you'll notice a pleasant increase in performance if you put in another 256 or 512 MB, Metalhead.

Is that CPU AM2 ?

I wouldn't think so. Judging from the mobo/chipset used, it's probably a single-core socket 754, and it's plenty fast. Except for video rendering and hardcore gaming with a powerful graphics card, I doubt if anyone will notice any difference from using an X2 6000+ or a C2D.

 

[MetalheadGautham]

I agree, unless it is proven that there is something wrong with the mobo. It's easy to be influenced by all the hype we read everyday. As long as an older system does everything we want, there's no need to get a new system just to keep up with others.

And thats why I keep my computer even now, without any upgrades. It does the job beautifully, and I need nothing more, since I myself along with my OS have adopted to the environment.

That said, I think you'll notice a pleasant increase in performance if you put in another 256 or 512 MB, Metalhead.

Thats what everyone else says too. And I too think I need 1GB. Mainly because linux is more RAM driven than CPU driven.

But at the end of the day, I am stuck with this system since I never get time to buy a stick of ram

SP Road is far away from my house, and hence I can go only on holidays. But each time, something stops me from going. Be it an examination, a sickness or a visitor. Sometimes, when I am fully prepared, its some state holiday or there is some violence related issue.

 

[pimpom]

But at the end of the day, I am stuck with this system since I never get time to buy a stick of ram

SP Road is far away from my house, and hence I can go only on holidays. But each time, something stops me from going. Be it an examination, a sickness or a visitor. Sometimes, when I am fully prepared, its some state holiday or there is some violence related issue.

I wish such obstacles were the only kinds I face. Why don't you just order them? Like from Computer Warehouse in your city? Their current price for Transcend 1GB DDR400 is 1.8k.

Me, I live in a small city in one of the most remote parts of the country. The nearest major city is 500+ km and Rs.4k away by air, and three times that distance and at least 3 days by surface transport.

 

[IronManForever]

@MetalheadGautham;
Oh common! Don't fuss like a baby; just go out there and take the plunge.

(Edited)

 

[MetalheadGautham]

I wish such obstacles were the only kinds I face. Why don't you just order them? Like from Computer Warehouse in your city? Their current price for Transcend 1GB DDR400 is 1.8k.

Me, I live in a small city in one of the most remote parts of the country. The nearest major city is 500+ km and Rs.4k away by air, and three times that distance and at least 3 days by surface transport.

Looking at your plight, I feel like mine is nothing at all
I seriously pity you.

@MetalheadGautham;
Oh common! Don't fuss like a baby; just go out there and take the plunge.

(Edited)

its not as easy as you think. finding free time in non holidays for 6 hours at a stretch to travel and make a purchase can be a pain for a student like me.

 

[gary4gar]

Did everything, now i am able to use my PC via windows Xp. no plans to mess up further.

problems still exists

1) System takes long time to boot

The boot time has increased due to some unknown reason, the BIOS hangs for about 8-10secs with a msg "verifying DMI pool Data....".

^^^
what is this thingy?

2) how do i make sure its my sata port which is dying?, can it be repaired?

I share the same story. Your motherboard BIOS is bad and SATA controller is going bad. Its one of the reason why HDD are going bad in my PC.

Some bunch of bad coders left BIOS bug and made controller badly designed.

So just change the mobo to save other parts.

See if changing Mobo helps.

Can you say more on your story?
how is the BIOS buggy?, and do you have the same mobo?

 

[MetalheadGautham]

tried using another sata port for hdd ?

 

[gary4gar]

Is that CPU AM2 ?

its 754pin mobo

tried using another sata port for hdd ?

this happens on both sata ports
Here is a weird observation.
I am not sure if its the SATA port,software & drivers part, or HDD. more over the problem is random. so troubleshooting it difficult
The sata errors happen only when i use Linux, the system hangs can i get a msg
"ata2.00: status: {DRDY ERR}
ata2.00: error: {UNC}
ata2.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata2.00: DMDMA stat 0x5
ata2.00: cmd c8/00:08:06:fd:6e/00:00:00:00:/e2 tag 0 dma 4096 in".

Its random and mostly happens during heavy I/O.
XP also hangs sometimes, but no error message.


Sometimes in Post screen and i get corrupted graphics(green & yellow lines).

 

[Psychosocial]

Your rig will cut it. Change the CMOS battery and do a little dusting. Check your temps. and see if your RAM is faulty. Otherwise it would cut it. If my system can work till next two years, then yours can surely. Happy computing.

 

[pimpom]

The boot time has increased due to some unknown reason, the BIOS hangs for about 8-10secs with a msg "verifying DMI pool Data....".

^^^
what is this thingy?

Could be your master boot record is corrupted. If you have a DOS boot disk, boot with that and at the command prompt, type fdisk/mbr and press Enter.. That will restore the master boot record. Now remove the boot disk and boot normally again and see if there's any difference.

Also, if your BIOS has a RAID/Non-RAID option for SATA, set it to Non-RAID.

how do i make sure its my sata port which is dying?, can it be repaired?

I doubt it, except perhaps at the motherboard company's service center.

how is the BIOS buggy?, and do you have the same mobo?

Have you cleared the BIOS? I forgot to include that in my first reply.

If all of these (restoring MBR, setting to Non-RAID and clearing the BIOS) do not make any difference, do a surface scan of your C: partition.

 

[gary4gar]

*My HDD is brand new, just 2days old, so corrupted MBR is remote possibility. made partions just yesterday using xp cd. spend many hrs to setup xp(drivers,programs & customizations). i don't want to format again
also, it pauses for a while(7-8secs) and boots. if there was a corrupted MBR then is would simply refuse to boot.
*there is no choice RAID/Non-raid mode.i have to use a Floopy disk to install XP.
*taking it to service center is a option but i find it very hard to explain them my problem. i tried a month back but at service center is ran perfectly fine.
its all random.
*no, i haven't cleared the BIOS yet, will go it after i finish buring a few dvds

Your rig will cut it. Change the CMOS battery and do a little dusting. Check your temps. and see if your RAM is faulty. Otherwise it would cut it. If my system can work till next two years, then yours can surely. Happy computing.

RAM is relatively new in my system, purchased it year back.
also i have checked up with MEMTEST86, no errors


ps: what do you mean by cut it?

 

[Psychosocial]

By cut it, i meant it will easily last for 2 years.

 

[pimpom]

ps: what do you mean by cut it?

He probably means that your config is still good enough, not yet ready for the scrap heap. Remember you mentioned dumping it in your first post.

Another thing: how dry or wet is Jaipur? (I'd guess dry, seeing that you're close to the Thar Desert). Many people experience strange symptoms with their computers in the rainy season, especially with older systems. The accumulated dust retains moisture which in turn provides electrical leakage paths. This can cause havoc with a system.