Great value P4 mobo needed please!

xKratosx

xKratosx

xKratosx

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6 Jun 2005
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188
I believe my friend's motherboard is completely knackered, it's not recognising the DVD/CD drives even after I switched the cable around (the socket on the board seems dead) and it seems to be causing problems in Windows too; it's hanging for a few minutes at a time, as in, just stops doing anything, but the mouse etc moves around fine.

She has:

Intel (r) Pentium 4 CPU 2.40Ghz
256MB DDR RAM

To be honest, she's not a heavy PC user at all and the person who uses it most in the house is the 7 y/o kid, so the cheaper the better! Onboard stuff would be nice too, since I don't think she has separate sound or graphics.
 
You're really going to struggle to get a S478 motherboard for that processor. It's very old technology now. They are still made, but OcUK don't sell them, and neither do very many other retailers. Sorry.
 
Still a lot of them around used, what direction are you searching for ( brand, chipset, overclock ability... )


Prices range between 10 and 40 quid depending on model...
 
There is still retailers that have new P4 motherboards. A quick look and I found Asrock P4I65G i865G, S478, AGP 4x/8x, DDR 266/333/400, SATA I, uATX, On Board VGA for ~£30 inc vat.

So there is still some not sure for how much longer. Also there should be some 2nd hand ones that you might get cheap.
 
Ah excellent, cheers guys! Think I'll get that one; there are a few on Ebay that come to £35~ delivered which sounds good, I might opt for a second hand one but they could be hard to get hold of :(

Do I need to buy any other parts btw?
 
xKratosx said:
Excellent thanks.

Just out of interest, is that anyway at all that it won't work? I'm so angry I got roped into doing this tbh x_x
Click to expand...

Well, it could be a software install issue. Then it wouldn't be any better. You could buy a Prescott/Northwood only motherboard and yours turns out to be a Willamette. It could be a RAM issue. The HDD could be borked.

I'm afraid there are quite literally dozens of ways it might not work, not including the fact that your new motherboard could also be a bad 'un.
 
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Hmm, I think, or rather I hope, that it's the motherboard that's gone; as a result I've just gone ahead and bought this motherboard; but I've just had a horrible feeling that the Dell in question has some weird CPU cooler that's sorta huge and slants to the edge of the case where it outputs the air.

As a result I think I may need a new one, something cheap if possible, would this suffice?
 
let me know how you get on with that, i'm buying the exact same one tomorrow, purely because I want an 800fsb board that I can run safely with an x1950 pro AGP or maybe just to murder(OC to Death) my 2.4B northwood with....... :eek:
 
Ebay can be a good place to get older, second-hand components. All the new stuff is generally overpriced, but if you are willing to take the risk and get older stuff, you may be able to get an identical motherboard to replace it and avoid any re-installation issues.
 
Bah. After much messing around managed to fit the new motherboard (the cables going from the front panel to the motherboard for power/reset etc wasn't long enough etc) and get it set up what I believed was just right.

Tried powering it up; nothing. Well I say nothing, the front LED comes on and the CPU fan tries to spin but goes incredibly slowly for a millisecond then just does nothing.

Have tried re-fitting the CPU and heatsink, taken out the ram, unplugged the IDE etc all without any luck. Absolutely no idea what to try next. Any suggestions please? :(
 
Regarding the specifications...
Motherboard: ASROCK P4I65G-M-ASR
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.40Ghz
RAM: 256MB DDR
PSU: ... err, just checked and it says DC Output: 200W - But I guess that's wrong?! :)

Also, when I say it 'does nothing' I mean the fans don't spin, but the LED on the front of the case does stay on, and it takes the usual 5 seconds of holding down the power button to shut it off again.
 
It's a Dell - that's the problem. Dell use custom wired PSU ATX connectors that aren't compatible with the proper ATX specification. Google for something like "Dell ATX" and you'll see. This leaves you with 3 options:

1). Get a new PSU - might be tricky since Dell PSUs aren't often normal ATX size.

2). Get a Dell PSU to ATX adapter. These exist, though I've only found them on US sites.

3). Find the pinouts of ATX and Dell's 'ATX' and splice an adapter together yourself.
 
Huge thanks for the reply, I'll try the first one; a new PSU and see how I get on with that. Well, before buying one I'll see if I can get an older spare one from work, fingers crossed it'll fit okay!

If it doesn't then I guess it's a case of looking into the other two, although the second sounds potentially costly and the third sounds tricky! :)
 
Have tried connecting it up to my Antec Sonata's TruePower PSU too, this time at least the PSU and case fans were spinning, although still no luck with the CPU fan, this time it wasn't even trying to spin at all. Didn't have a proper chance to test it though, was rushing before coming into work this morning, plus the only accessible monitor just had DVI and no VGA!
 
I apologise for keeping on, but...

I've worked out what the problem is now, even using the uber lame 200W PSU the fan is spinning fine with the motherboard outside of the case, or even when it's not screwed in properly; so I guess it's definitely shorting.

What kind of things can cause this? I'd of thought it'd be something underneath the board but can't see a lot; the only thing I can think of is the screw placement thingys below the CPU/heatsink - I'm using a new base now which doesn't have screws, but there's no metal contact so I'm not sure if that's the problem. I can't get rid of them either, I've tried using pliers on all four and none will budge not even in the slightest, bah!

Any advice on how to unshort this thingy would be absolutely fantastic, thanks!
 
Latest update: Fixed the shorting problem by laying some... weird material than a guy from work had. Anyway, the fans are spinning just fine now, the HDD, CD drives, keyboard etc are all receiving power, but it still isn't booting up.

It occasionally beeps three times which I believe is a memory problem, but we tried three sticks of memory, all of varying speeds, without any luck on any of them. Also tried a new PSU and have re-fitted the CPU and heatsink. Tried unplugging everything too and again had no luck.

To be fair, the guy who I was working with really knows his stuff, but we just couldn't find the problem. The only thing we can think of is that it's possibly the CPU, but we're really not sure. Any suggestions would be very welcome, or it won't be long before I'm on the hunt for a second hand PC to replace it which will really suck as I'll obviously have to pay for it myself since I've pretty much b0rked her PC :P
 
Really, really sorry to keep on, but I'm honestly completely at a loss with this now; I've tried everything I can think of and she keeps ringing me to see if it's fixed yet which is kind of awkward :P

It's still doing the same thing, sometimes three beeps, sometimes nothing. Either way the CPU fan, hard drive, CD drives etc all have power, but it's really inconsistent as to whether it's 3 beeps or nothing. Tried changing the memory once more to the stuff I use in this PC, exactly the same thing, sometimes 3 beeps, sometimes nothing.
 
OK - how badly have you borked it?

Did you wipe a hard drive? Probably not. Have you binned the original components? Probably not. In theory, you shoul dbe able to put all the old parts back in the case and give it back (admittedly still not perfect) as it was. Then, just admit that it was beyond you and advise her to take it to a workshop.

Horrible, yes, but significantly smarter than sourcing a new PC at your own cost.
 
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