Christopher Nichols Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 hey guys... wondering if you guys could give me your opinion as to what YOU think may be wrong. About 3 months ago, my wife had an issue with her computer and it froze up. she tried to reboot it and got no video and a long beep sound. Bascially a motherboard error. She knew that it may be a motherboard error so she powered down and opened the case. She claimed that the inside looked caked in dust. She cleaned it out really good and re-seated the ram. Computer booted up fine. It happened again today. She did not open up the computer to see if the dust bunnies were back, but after a few tries, got the computer back up. She has now powered down and it waiting for me to look at it when i get home. here is what she has... mobo SY-KT333 DRAGON Ultra (Platinum Edition) ram is some DDR333 cpu is a amd 2000+ with boxed fan. What do YOU think it could be? 1 - can dust really cause a mobo error? 2 - is the mobo faulty? if so, how do I check that? 3 - do i need a better heatsink? she has an amd 2000+ with the boxed heatsink and fan. 4 - could the ram be bad? how do I check that? 5 - maybe a bios update? just some ideas would be cool... plus I have not spoken with you guys in a while... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kainoa Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 Not sure how much this helps but...I had a Soyo Dragon (it was the KT-266 version though) a while ago and i believe i had the similar problems. It was intermitant until one day it failed to boot permanently. Luckily I sent it back to newegg.com and they sent me a shiny new one. However, not willing to take another chance on the Dragon, i opted to purchase a Gygabite board instead. It works like toyota ever since. As per your questions: 1 - Yes, but unlikely2 - Possible. The manual should a have chapter on error codes/beeps. Try stripping down the PC to only vital parts (cpu,video,ram,hd). Be sure that all the parts are functional, if so then it's the mb that's bad.3 - It should be sufficient.4 - Plug it into a machine that works and see if it boots.5 - Possibly, it definitely cant hurt. But it didnt help me in my case. [ October 23, 2003, 03:23 PM: Message edited by: kainoa ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgarcia Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 #4 - Run Memtest - one pass each test. If you get any errors - Ram is faulty. I'm not sure dust can cause motherboard errors. Dust can cause the CPU to overheat (clogged heatsink / fan) thus freezing the system, but that doesn't seem the cause here. I would check the ram and then the video card on another system and then try other different ram / video from another system in the Soyo motherboard. Last thing I can think of is power supply irregularity. Maybe Greg can shed some light on this for us. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Nichols Posted October 25, 2003 Author Share Posted October 25, 2003 Hey guys, thanks for your help. Believe it or not it WAS the dust. Well... indirectly. The dust from the first freeze a few months ago must have damaged the fan. When I opened the computer everyhting seemed fine, but when I turned it on with it open, I noticed the fan was sorta wabbely and making strange noises. I happned to have a Volcano 11 which i put on and it booted up fine. I tested the memory and it was fine too. I also updated to the latest BIOS and it did NOT boot up... did you knwo that some bioses can cause hardware incompatibilitis? Had to downgrade, but now it is fine. Again thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted October 31, 2003 Share Posted October 31, 2003 Dust to computers is akin to rust on cars. Dust... 1) Acts as an insulator. If it covers heatsinks or electrical components, it will both insulate the material and prevent heat disappation...If this reaches a certain extent...components will begin overheating. 2) Because of 1, dust has the uncanny ability to destroy power supplies. If a psu goes, its quite possible other system components will go with it. 3) Dust also weighs down fan blades, which puts stress on motors, eventually frying the fan. Combine these three...and you've got flux'in electrical signals, overheating components, and fans which aren't spinning as fast as they used to, or working as efficently. When your spring cleaning your house...make sure to take the computers outside and give them a good compressed air blow out . Charcoal front filters, and keeping your computer off the floor also help prevent dust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgarcia Posted October 31, 2003 Share Posted October 31, 2003 Hmmm...good to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kid Posted October 31, 2003 Share Posted October 31, 2003 Dust is bad eh? I'm heading for trouble then. I look through the whole in the back of my tower and it looks like shag pile carpet in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted November 12, 2003 Share Posted November 12, 2003 Ya dust is bad mmmmmkay! The worst type of floor for a dusty environment is the unfinished concrete in a basement. Of course that also seems to be where lots of people put their computer rooms because... 1) Its isolated from the rest of the house. 2) Its cooler down there. Just remember, if your computer starts acting futzy...check all the cables, and blow out all the dust before flipping out. Especially with all these high density copper heatsinks now...removing dust is a must. (If those fins get clogged up, airflow won't reach the base any longer). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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