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-   -   motorboating power (http://www.win98banter.com/showthread.php?t=52231)

J. P. Gilliver (John)[_3_] January 11th 20 07:55 PM

motorboating power
 
About a month ago, I turned on my Windows 98/XP desktop machine, for the
first time in ages (possibly a couple of years).

The mouse lit up, as did the power and other (disc access?) LED, and
fans started - then they went out again. Then they came on again - then
they went off again. They do this on about a two second cycle. Nothing
is coming down the monitor lead - I turned the monitor off and on again,
to fool it into not being in standby, and nothing appeared on screen.

Cycling the mains power switch on the back (which had been on all the
time) didn't seem to change things - well, on switching back on, it
stayed in standby, until the power button was pressed, when the
motorboating started again.

I've discovered that the 5VSB seems OK - at least, some Christmas lights
I plugged into it (front panel USB socket) stayed on; I've just
discovered that having those plugged in when switching on at the back
(they come on) prevents _anything_ happening when I press the power
button. (No, I didn't have them plugged in when I first encountered this
behaviour.)

I'm guessing a power supply fault, but thought I'd ask here before
changing it (I have spare supplies), in case anyone'd encountered such
symptoms before and knows it isn't that.

I can't remember what the motherboard is, but it was moderately fancy -
I remember it had some features only accessible by loading from the
accompanying CD into XP (which I never played with - it was built as a
'98SElite machine, with XP only added much later). Not a bees' knees
gaming one, but not a budget make either.

Machine will be no great loss - I'm sure I can read what is on the (40
or 80G I think) HDs that are in it; was just surprised when it didn't
come up.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Air conditioned environment - Do not open Windows.

Computer Nerd Kev[_2_] January 11th 20 10:53 PM

motorboating power
 
In microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote:
About a month ago, I turned on my Windows 98/XP desktop machine, for the
first time in ages (possibly a couple of years).

The mouse lit up, as did the power and other (disc access?) LED, and
fans started - then they went out again. Then they came on again - then
they went off again. They do this on about a two second cycle. Nothing
is coming down the monitor lead - I turned the monitor off and on again,
to fool it into not being in standby, and nothing appeared on screen.

Cycling the mains power switch on the back (which had been on all the
time) didn't seem to change things - well, on switching back on, it
stayed in standby, until the power button was pressed, when the
motorboating started again.

I've discovered that the 5VSB seems OK - at least, some Christmas lights
I plugged into it (front panel USB socket) stayed on; I've just
discovered that having those plugged in when switching on at the back
(they come on) prevents _anything_ happening when I press the power
button. (No, I didn't have them plugged in when I first encountered this
behaviour.)

I'm guessing a power supply fault, but thought I'd ask here before
changing it (I have spare supplies), in case anyone'd encountered such
symptoms before and knows it isn't that.


I'm pretty sure that I've encountered that with a faulty PC PSU
before. Something's not working proberly and causing a part inside
to overload as the various parts power-up, so the power supply's
control circuitry is detecting this and shutting itself down. Then
it forgets any of that ever happened and tries to power itself up
again.

Given the reference to 5VSB though, I gather that it is an ATX
supply, not an AT one where the front power button/switch switches
the mains directly. In such case it's certainly possible that the
motherboard has an issue that is preventing it from signalling the
PSU properly. The "signalling" is just shorting a pin on the
motherboard power connector to GND though, so probably less likely
to go wrong like this than the PSU is itself.

--
__ __
#_ |\| | _#

J. P. Gilliver (John)[_3_] January 11th 20 11:08 PM

motorboating power
 
In message , Computer Nerd Kev
writes:
[]
I'm pretty sure that I've encountered that with a faulty PC PSU
before. Something's not working proberly and causing a part inside
to overload as the various parts power-up, so the power supply's
control circuitry is detecting this and shutting itself down. Then
it forgets any of that ever happened and tries to power itself up
again.


Sounds very plausible.

Given the reference to 5VSB though, I gather that it is an ATX
supply, not an AT one where the front power button/switch switches


Oh yes, not _that_ old! (Though I think I still have an AT supply or two
in the pile. [I remember the original IBM PCs with the real heavy-duty
red lever switch on the side of the case - no doubt that _those_ were a
real switch!])

the mains directly. In such case it's certainly possible that the


No, little rocker switch on back of PSU did that.

motherboard has an issue that is preventing it from signalling the
PSU properly. The "signalling" is just shorting a pin on the
motherboard power connector to GND though, so probably less likely
to go wrong like this than the PSU is itself.

I reckon so, i. e. most likely PSU fault. I'll change the PSU - though
it might not be this year (-:
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Linux is a car kit and Mac is a car with the hood welded shut - Mayayana in
alt.windows7.general, 2015-12-4


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