CPU Problem?

lee87 · 6 Jun 2006 at 18:08

Hi, I've got a problem with my pc and could use some help on fixing it.
Sometimes when I turn my pc on it will crash on the bios screen. On the Auto Detecting HDD/CD drive bit or it will display a 'Floppy Controller Failure' error.

Sometimes it won't display anything, just stay on a black screen with no beeps. To get a display again I have to unplug the power lead from the PSU and plug it in again.

Sometimes it will work and load up windows.

I have tried changing the Motherboard, PSU, RAM, Graphics Card, Hard Drive, and the Floppy Drive.
This means the cpu must be the problem but when it does load windows it is stable, I even ran prime95 for 3 hours without any problems. The temperature of the cpu is at 52c load. Nothing is overclocked

The original spec and the parts I swapped it with
AthlonXP 3000+
PC Chips M848A / different pc chips board (can't remember the model)
1GB kingston value ram / 1GB Corsair Value
Geforce FX5200 / Geforce 6600
Maxtor 80GB / Western Digital 20GB
Generic 400W psu / Antec SmartPower 400W

Does this sound like a cpu problem and is there anyway of fixing it?
Thanks

Joe42 · 6 Jun 2006 at 20:53

It doesn't sound like a cpu problem really.
Pc chips boards are the worst there are, replacing one with another pc chips board doesn't really eliminate it, they could easily all have this problem.
I suggest you try a proper board and see if that helps first.

senorstealth · 6 Jun 2006 at 22:12

Doesn't strike me as a CPU problem, it is more likely to by motherboard related

Global_Inferno · 6 Jun 2006 at 23:46

Try disconnecting all the non-essentials CD/DVD drives, all non-bootable HDDs, PCI cards and floppy drive and see what it does..

luminous · 7 Jun 2006 at 01:15

Flashing a new bios onto my mates pc chips(cheap as chips!) board solved his random reboots.A good clean of cpu/hsf and repaste might do trick as well,hows the athlon chip,not looking brown/scorched?

lee87 · 7 Jun 2006 at 08:23

Global_Inferno said:
Try disconnecting all the non-essentials CD/DVD drives, all non-bootable HDDs, PCI cards and floppy drive and see what it does..

Thanks but i've tried that and it still crashed.

The cpu looks fine but the rubber pads in the corner do look like they have been breaking up.
I'll try doing a bios update later if I can get into the bios without it crashing.
Unfortunatly I can't afford another motherboard to try out so i'm stuck with these two pc chips boards.

Jay_t · 7 Jun 2006 at 09:54

I work for a legal firm with about 70 pc's. My current project is tracking down all the pc's with PC chips boards and replacing them.

Some of these things are so bad that they need to be underclocked just to even work. :rolleyes:

Yes, I also see loads that go crazy if two optical drives are connected, but I havn't seen your specific problem before.

lee87 · 7 Jun 2006 at 17:29

Jay_t said:
I work for a legal firm with about 70 pc's. My current project is tracking down all the pc's with PC chips boards and replacing them. Some of these things are so bad that they need to be underclocked just to even work. Yes, I also see loads that go crazy if two optical drives are connected, but I havn't seen your specific problem before.

I didn't think they were that bad, i've been using the pc chips board for 2 years and this is the first problem i've had.

I've looked at their website and I already have the latest bios. Is it safe to reinstall the bios to the same version?
I'm trying to boot from the floppy disk now to update it but it keeps crashing before it loads up. Must have tried about 20 times now.