Bad processor or bad power supply or what?

Hi!

A PC that I built many months ago for a family member and has worked fine up
until now, has the following new problem, which occurred at the peak of a
recent heat wave:

- Most of the time, it will successfully go through the entire "post" process,
but then hang at the bottom of that screen, right before the boot process. No
other messages at all. This happens when I boot to Floppy, CD-ROM or Hard Drive
(and I've tried that while only having that device installed and removing the
other two).

- Once in a while (like 1 out of 20 times), the boot process will start, but
then hang partway into the process. This has occurred twice during Windows
boot, with the PC hanging with just the wallpaper showing, but also once during
bootup from CD-ROM (partway into the Maxtor diag program startup on that
bootable CD). However, note that most of the time, the boot process doesn't
even start.

My guess is either the power supply or else the processor were partially
damaged due to overheating during the heat wave. I've also considered the IDE
chip, but I'm under the impression that the floppy boot doesn't use that, so if
it were the IDE chip, then it would boot fine from the floppy.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? If it does, it might help me to only buy
the part that was most likely to be the damaged one.

PS I've also tried clearing the CMOS and setting to the "failsafe" BIOS
settings, but that didn't help (and it seems unlikely that that would be
affected by overheating). I also tried removing all boards other than video
and the drive that is booting, and that did not help. During my testing, the
sides of the case are removed, so it is no longer overheating - that was only a
possible condition during the period immediately preceding the initial failure.

Thanks for any help!

H

What are the system component specifications ??? (which MB, memory, CPU, PS,
etc....)

Have you been able to boot at all ??

Have you tried to boot/run memtest ??

Have you inspected the capacitors on the board for damage/leaking/bulging??


"Hep Dude" <hep_dude DeleteThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:mmv0kvcs3jel8k5gedj2f62h64gji1v3dq@4ax.com...
 > Hi!
 >
 > A PC that I built many months ago for a family member and has worked fine
up
 > until now, has the following new problem, which occurred at the peak of a
 > recent heat wave:
 >
 > - Most of the time, it will successfully go through the entire "post"
process,
 > but then hang at the bottom of that screen, right before the boot process.
No
 > other messages at all. This happens when I boot to Floppy, CD-ROM or Hard
Drive
 > (and I've tried that while only having that device installed and removing
the
 > other two).
 >
 > - Once in a while (like 1 out of 20 times), the boot process will start,
but
 > then hang partway into the process. This has occurred twice during Windows
 > boot, with the PC hanging with just the wallpaper showing, but also once
during
 > bootup from CD-ROM (partway into the Maxtor diag program startup on that
 > bootable CD). However, note that most of the time, the boot process
doesn't
 > even start.
 >
 > My guess is either the power supply or else the processor were partially
 > damaged due to overheating during the heat wave. I've also considered the
IDE
 > chip, but I'm under the impression that the floppy boot doesn't use that,
so if
 > it were the IDE chip, then it would boot fine from the floppy.
 >
 > Does this sound familiar to anyone? If it does, it might help me to only
buy
 > the part that was most likely to be the damaged one.
 >
 > PS I've also tried clearing the CMOS and setting to the "failsafe" BIOS
 > settings, but that didn't help (and it seems unlikely that that would be
 > affected by overheating). I also tried removing all boards other than
video
 > and the drive that is booting, and that did not help. During my testing,
the
 > sides of the case are removed, so it is no longer overheating - that was
only a
 > possible condition during the period immediately preceding the initial
failure.
 >
 > Thanks for any help!
 >
 > H
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->