Posted on 03/25/2002 7:47:32 AM PST by Phantom Lord
Ok, I have a problem with my home computer that I have never seen or heard of before. I can not find anyone else who has ever seen or heard of this problem before either. So here is whats going on. Please excuse my lack of technical and proper computer language and terms.
When I turn on my computer it enters the "memory test." Normally i can hit ESC to get out of it and it starts right up. Or I can hit DEL and enter "Set Up." I always just hit ESC, though it rarely enters the memory test when I start it. Well, recently something very strange started happening. When the computer turns on, after several seconds it starts making a horrible whinning sound from the internal speaker. It starts the "memory test." Hitting ESC or DEL does nothing. The keyboard is 100% inoperable. The memory test keeps rolling on. It will reach the end of the test at 524K and then start over! It will go through it 3 times, all the while the speaker is still making that horrible whinning sound.
After it completes the "memory test" for the third time a screen will pop up offering me several choices, one of which is "Safe Mode." I have 30 seconds to choose. Being that the keyboard is inoperable I can make no choice and have to let the time expire. At this point it attempts to start in "Safe Mode." It goes to that Windows screen with the scroll thingy on the bottom for just a couple seconds and then back to the above described "choice" screen. After about 10 seconds it goes back to the Windows start up screen with the scroll thingy on the bottom. The scroll thing just keeps rolling across the bottom and never stops or locks up. Remember, the whinning sound is still coming from the internal speaker. The computer will not advance past this screen.
I will turn it off and then on over and over and it does the same thing. Very rarely will it actually boot in safe mode. But when it does I can select "restart" from the "Start" menu and it usually will boot up just fine. And then it will lock up and start making the horrible whinning noise again when I start typing something. One reason I thought it could be the keyboard.
Now here is where it gets fun. My keyboard was old and I have kept it because my hands like it. I thought that maybe the Keyboard had a problem and was interfering with the startup of the computer. My computer geek brother-in-law actually suggested it to me. Or that another device was causing problems, like the daisy chain of my scanner, printer, ZIP, and the such.
I went and bought a new keyboard to give it a try. Plugged it into the machine, turned it on and BINGO! The computer started perfect. No problems. Everything worked perfect. Well, less than 24 hours later they keyboard WOULDNT WORK. I could not type and on the rare occasion that pushing a key resulted in the display of a character it was not the one i pushed! I would hit a letter and get a number or a charachter that would need the shift key to also be hit.
At this point the computer reverted right back to what the original problem was. Its like it attacked the keyboard and rejected it or destroyed it.
I am at a total loss and no one I know has ever heard of such things happening. My computer geek brother in law, who built the machine 4 months ago is at a loss and suggests that it is possible a defective mother board. It is under warranty and a new one can be gotten with no problem. But I do not want to take it out, ship it and then get a new one back just to have the same problem occur afterward.
Anyone out there have any clue as to what the hell is going on and how to fix it???
All I can tell you is that it has an AMD processor 1.4 Ghz, 40 gig hard drive, 526 of memory and the Motherboard is an ABIT KT7A-RAID (23757).
Gonna take it to a computer repair guy tonight if i cant fix it. I spoke to them and described the problem and they had never heard of it before. I also brought it in to turn it on and show them what it was doing. Well, it worked perfect when they turned it on. Thats why I thought the new keyboard would fix it. And it did for 1 day.
HELP!
However, I'd be willing to bet that your mother board is squirrely --get it replaced while it's under warranty.
Why my system occasionally locks up under Windows 2000 without any error message and keyboard no responding? (KT7A/KT7A-RAID V1.0/1.1/1.2)
We do a BIOS fix on latest official release BIOS 3R to solve this issue. If you are using 1200(133), 1333(133) and 1400(133) Athlons on KT7A/KT7A-RAID boards with version V 1.0/1.1/1.2 and experience occasional OS lock-up, update to BIOS 3R please.
This is from the FAQ for your motherboard. Get the BIOS update here. Good luck!
Oh, and turn off the blamed speakers!
I don't think it's a driver problem. He's having problems with it during POST while it's still counting memory. At that point it doesn't even know what OS it's going to be running yet, much less which KB drivers to load.
Getting it replaced under warranty is not a problem. Can the keyboard port be fixed or replaced without replacing the entire Motherboard?
I disconnected everything before restarting with the new keyboard. Started up fine so i plugged back in the printer to use it but not other devices. Then in under a day it was back to the old problem. So i think it is a mother board issue from what others have said.
I know nothing about computers so i have to take others advice since I dont have the ability to figure out problems on my own.
Write down all your cuurent bios/cmos settings......Then discharge your bios/cmos via the little jumper next to the mobo battery...... Then start up your computer and go into the bios/cmos and use the fail safe settings. If your computer is then working well again go to more optimum settings and settings you were using before. But add them a few at a time
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