• motorboating power

    From J. P. Gilliver (John)@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 11 18:55:23 2020
    XPost: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

    About a month ago, I turned on my Windows 98/XP desktop machine, for the
    first time in ages (possibly a couple of years).

    The mouse lit up, as did the power and other (disc access?) LED, and
    fans started - then they went out again. Then they came on again - then
    they went off again. They do this on about a two second cycle. Nothing
    is coming down the monitor lead - I turned the monitor off and on again,
    to fool it into not being in standby, and nothing appeared on screen.

    Cycling the mains power switch on the back (which had been on all the
    time) didn't seem to change things - well, on switching back on, it
    stayed in standby, until the power button was pressed, when the
    motorboating started again.

    I've discovered that the 5VSB seems OK - at least, some Christmas lights
    I plugged into it (front panel USB socket) stayed on; I've just
    discovered that having those plugged in when switching on at the back
    (they come on) prevents _anything_ happening when I press the power
    button. (No, I didn't have them plugged in when I first encountered this behaviour.)

    I'm guessing a power supply fault, but thought I'd ask here before
    changing it (I have spare supplies), in case anyone'd encountered such
    symptoms before and knows it isn't that.

    I can't remember what the motherboard is, but it was moderately fancy -
    I remember it had some features only accessible by loading from the accompanying CD into XP (which I never played with - it was built as a '98SElite machine, with XP only added much later). Not a bees' knees
    gaming one, but not a budget make either.

    Machine will be no great loss - I'm sure I can read what is on the (40
    or 80G I think) HDs that are in it; was just surprised when it didn't
    come up.
    --
    J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

    Air conditioned environment - Do not open Windows.
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Computer Nerd Kev@21:1/5 to G6JPG@255soft.uk on Sat Jan 11 21:53:02 2020
    XPost: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

    In microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion "J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
    About a month ago, I turned on my Windows 98/XP desktop machine, for the first time in ages (possibly a couple of years).

    The mouse lit up, as did the power and other (disc access?) LED, and
    fans started - then they went out again. Then they came on again - then
    they went off again. They do this on about a two second cycle. Nothing
    is coming down the monitor lead - I turned the monitor off and on again,
    to fool it into not being in standby, and nothing appeared on screen.

    Cycling the mains power switch on the back (which had been on all the
    time) didn't seem to change things - well, on switching back on, it
    stayed in standby, until the power button was pressed, when the
    motorboating started again.

    I've discovered that the 5VSB seems OK - at least, some Christmas lights
    I plugged into it (front panel USB socket) stayed on; I've just
    discovered that having those plugged in when switching on at the back
    (they come on) prevents _anything_ happening when I press the power
    button. (No, I didn't have them plugged in when I first encountered this behaviour.)

    I'm guessing a power supply fault, but thought I'd ask here before
    changing it (I have spare supplies), in case anyone'd encountered such symptoms before and knows it isn't that.

    I'm pretty sure that I've encountered that with a faulty PC PSU
    before. Something's not working proberly and causing a part inside
    to overload as the various parts power-up, so the power supply's
    control circuitry is detecting this and shutting itself down. Then
    it forgets any of that ever happened and tries to power itself up
    again.

    Given the reference to 5VSB though, I gather that it is an ATX
    supply, not an AT one where the front power button/switch switches
    the mains directly. In such case it's certainly possible that the
    motherboard has an issue that is preventing it from signalling the
    PSU properly. The "signalling" is just shorting a pin on the
    motherboard power connector to GND though, so probably less likely
    to go wrong like this than the PSU is itself.

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From J. P. Gilliver (John)@21:1/5 to not@telling.you.invalid on Sat Jan 11 22:08:22 2020
    XPost: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

    In message <qvdg3u$1c2i$1@gioia.aioe.org>, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> writes:
    []
    I'm pretty sure that I've encountered that with a faulty PC PSU
    before. Something's not working proberly and causing a part inside
    to overload as the various parts power-up, so the power supply's
    control circuitry is detecting this and shutting itself down. Then
    it forgets any of that ever happened and tries to power itself up
    again.

    Sounds very plausible.

    Given the reference to 5VSB though, I gather that it is an ATX
    supply, not an AT one where the front power button/switch switches

    Oh yes, not _that_ old! (Though I think I still have an AT supply or two
    in the pile. [I remember the original IBM PCs with the real heavy-duty
    red lever switch on the side of the case - no doubt that _those_ were a
    real switch!])

    the mains directly. In such case it's certainly possible that the

    No, little rocker switch on back of PSU did that.

    motherboard has an issue that is preventing it from signalling the
    PSU properly. The "signalling" is just shorting a pin on the
    motherboard power connector to GND though, so probably less likely
    to go wrong like this than the PSU is itself.

    I reckon so, i. e. most likely PSU fault. I'll change the PSU - though
    it might not be this year (-:
    --
    J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

    Linux is a car kit and Mac is a car with the hood welded shut - Mayayana in alt.windows7.general, 2015-12-4
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)