[wplug] Since we're off topic

[Brandon Kuczenski]

On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Benjamin Slavin wrote:

> If the video card isn't onboard, you may want to try switching it with 
> one known to work.
> 
> Onboard or not, strip everything (including the hard drives) from the 
> board and try to boot with only the motherboard, processor, and RAM (and 
> video card, if an add-on). If you have the parts, try to swap the RAM or 
> processors, too, though they'll usually initiate beep codes if they're 
> the cause of the problem.
> 

The problem with this problem is that it's so intermittent.  For example, 
my regression testing this evening went like this:

1) unplug CD-ROM IDE cable - try to boot.  Blank screen, no POST.
2) unplug HDD IDE cable - try to boot.  BIOS POST, no IDE devices, "Insert 
system disk and press enter"
3) reattach HDD IDE calbe - try to boot.  Successful.

I then began composing this message and the computer utterly froze.  No 
warnings or anything, no bluescreening (this is a Windows box) - just a 
halt.  

So I powered down, re-unplugged the HDDs and tried again.  I repeated
maybe half-a-dozen times.  To date (since this evening, when I started) I
have not seen the computer fail to POST when the hard drives are
unplugged.  But holy mother of crap is it bad news if my HDDs are failing.  
First of all, I am paralyzed at work and school without software I have
installed on this machine, and second of all, etc., etc.  You know, data
loss and stuff.

Since the problem seems to be correlated to the *first time* I try to 
power up the machine after n hours, I will wait for awhile and try again 
with the HDDs not plugged in.  If I see it fail even once without the 
HDDs, then it's probably the motherboard (there isn't anything else here 
except for a wireless NIC).  If not, then I'm in data recovery hell and 
will probably prevail upon the list again soon.

Hell, why wait?  Is there anyone who would be able to provide a host 
machine that I could use to ghost my old drive? (assuming I can get it to 
power up for awhile).

-brandon