posting problem

[Osage]

Can anyone recommend what tree to bark up?

I have a four year old win xp system. Gigabyte 7dx mobo, 256 MB ram, xp1500+ processor, small vidio card, and sound on MB.

System ran super well until six months ago when it would not post. I replaced cmos battery and all was well again. Then two weeks ago same thing. Replaced cmos battery and the bios reset. Never could get the ps2 mouse port working--ended up having to place the mouse on a usb port. But other wise system ran as before. Now today, again no post. At system start one can see drive lights flash for about 1/4 second, fans turn about 1/3 of a rev, and everything shuts down. So turn off power, wait a few seconds, and try again. Only took about 20 tries to get it to go past post. It booted up normally and will run stable as long as I keep it powered up. If I shut it down for a few hours, I will have a problem getting it past post.

What should I do to trouble shoot this problem? I do not believe any cables are loose.

any help appreciated.

 

[pat]

capacitors leaking.. check for trace of failing capacitors by looking for residue on top of them, rounded top(should be flat)...

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[Osage]

First, Pat thanks for a prompt response.
Because I am away, I have not yet been able to check to see if I can see a bad capacitor.

But given the fact that if the computer does go past post, it runs very stable with never any resets. Can I rule out that I have problems with.

1. Power supply.
2. Processor.
3. Memory.
4. Hdd.
5. Some bad bios settings where maybe I should just remove the cmos battery for ten minutes and do a bios reset.

While a capaccitor might account for my problems--given its that--is it best to hire an electronic whiz to attempt repair or just get new Motherboard.

Thanks for any info--always a curse to diagnose an intermittent problem.

 

[Crashman]

Capacitors are easy to replace, but good parts with the proper values are very expensive in small quantities (around $2 each). And you don't need a large quantity.

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[pat]

I had a motherboard that needed many attempt to post and even boot, but when booted, it was running stable. Well, mostly stable. There was a total of 19 bad capacitors on it....

But it might be a lot of other cause, such as PSU failing,.. so I'd say take this oppotunity to upgrade!

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