BOXX computer failing to start

CGough88

CGough88

CGough88

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Joined
6 Jan 2018
Posts
15
Hi all,

I’ve been having some problems with an old BOXX work computer I’ve had for a few years after my work place upgraded.

It worked perfectly well but started blue screening after say an hour, then it would progressively crash faster and faster till now all it does is spin up the fans (not the CPU fans however) and cut off after a second, there’s no BIOS beeps, I am sure the PSU is fine as I’ve tested another with the system.

I feel the motherboard might be the issue, it’s a Tyan Tempest i5000XL S2692, oddly the Power and fans will not even start for a second when the 6 pin CPU power is plugged in, when it’s removed however the fans will start and spin for a second.

I can’t see anything like blown capacitors and to be honest I can’t quite understand why it would have progressively blue screened if any component had broken to cause this.

It does feel like overheating to have caused the faster crashes but it’s clean and well ventilated, no dust in the heat sinks etc.

The pc now does nothing more than “spin up” for a second before turning off, the LAN light is on though so there must be power to some extent.

Does anybody have any clues? It’s not an incredible computer but it’d save me 300 or more buying a new comparable machine.

Please feel free to ask for more information, I can do my best to provide help and many thanks for reading.
 
I did see the CPUs when I removed the motherboard to check the rear, the thermal paste was indeed worn away, two sections of paste on each cpu had came away with the heat sink, that also makes sense with the overheating idea. I might even have the same CPUs in a render node I have floating about so I can try replacing them and the thermal paste.

I’ll post a picture soon as well, it’s indeed very busy but not massively overcrowded.

Many thanks for the help so far.
 
Hi all,

I did try another PSU and there was no real change, I would only get the same result as the original PSU, though there is every chance the new PSU I tried wasn’t perfect but it was 700 watts, the same as the original.

I tried swapping out the CPUs for ones I have in an old render node, there was no change either.

The CPUs looked fine, no discolouration on them or the board beneath or the capacitors(?) on them

Will I need to upload pictures to a hosting site or can I upload on here?

Either way it does look like it’s not POSTing, but for what reason I’m not sure, I’m also a little hesitant to take it to a shop as I fear I’ll get some dingbat that’ll only tell me what I already know.
 
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I will upload some pics, can always put links to a google drive.

I found a tyan i5000 S2692 on eBay but it’s the smaller one, I have the XL and the smaller one doesn’t quite have the extra slots I’d need. It’s a bit much anyway when I could call it quits and get an HP Z600 for £200 and use parts from this BOXX to kick it into gear.

The LAN light is the only thing that comes on on the MOBO, the CPU fans don’t start when the other fans do but that makes sense as when the CPU power is plugged in on the mobo nothing starts or spins up.

There was, for a short time a loud pained beep coming when the fans spun for a moment, that might well have been the beeper sending some last ditch message, I couldn’t see it on the motherboard Beeps list though. That “screech” has since stopped though.
 
Yeah I replaced the mobo battery, I can buy a new BIOS chip on eBay for a fiver I think but I don’t think it’d be the BIOS if it doesn’t even POST.

There are jumpers on the MOBO but not sure what I’d be jumping, I do feel the MOBO might be dead, it’s just a shame not really knowing what’s the issue.
 
b1eYU6
 
Yeah it must be near 10 years old? Those are intel xeons I believe, it’s a server board or whatever you’d call it so it uses Error Correcting memory too, so very little of this thing is easily sourced, the RAM still sells for a bit too.
 
It sure was.

I think I might have “broke” it when I installed windows 10 on it, I used it to play some games a for a month and do some 3D work I do(hence why I got it from work) till it started BSODing and declining, maybe I’d screwed the BIOS settings up with the new OS and it just went downhill from there.
 
Yes, quite the jump from XP. I must have taken it for granted as it was such a powerful machine I didn’t think much on the subject. There’s every chance as these machines are overclocked and so forth that they were finely tuned and after it was wiped at work running it a new everything was reset to settings that weren’t optimal.
 
I read up on that capacitors page, the caps look fine on the board but I can’t quite tell with the bottoms. There is one cap at the back near the GPU that is bulged but not broke open.

Oddly now after leaving it unplugged for a day the fans will spin up for a few seconds if I hold the power button down.
 
It’s a thought but it has been off for months before now, it’s like it’s hyper sensitive, a colder day today and it’s alive for a few seconds more.
 
It depends on how much of a bulge is a bad thing, should they always be totally flat? As this one is rounded but no break in the x score marks on the top.
 
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