intermittent hardware issue on two machines

I have two machines on my bench right now that are giving me fits. Can someone shed some light?


Case #1 – Lashell

This PC was brought to me with a “noise” when the system is powered on and a black screen that eventually goes white when the system is left on in this state. The noise was a beep code (repeating). On a hunch, I removed the RAM and reseated it. This resolved the issue and the system booted to Windows. I looked in the manual for the motherboard, which confirmed that a repeating beep was indeed a RAM error. Though the manual stated that a fast short beep was power and a fast long beep was RAM. This sure sounded like a fast short beep to me. To reconfirm, I removed the RAM module and powered on the system. The same beep code was produced. I ran memtest on the RAM for several hours and no errors were reported.

I let the system sit powered off until the next evening. When I powered it back on, the video was corrupted and the system would reboot after the Windows XP splash screen. To eliminate the Windows installation, I booted to the UBCD4Win CD. The issue continued. To eliminate the monitor, I connected the system to another monitor. The issue persisted. To eliminate Windows altogether, I booted to Ubuntu. The video corruption continued. Still suspecting bad/incompatible RAM, I pulled the module and replaced it with a stick of the same speed that I had on hand. The issue went away. The video was clear and I was able to boot to the Windows desktop. I powered off and replaced the original RAM. The issues were still gone. I ran Prime95 all night on this machine and it was still running in the morning.

It is almost as if cooling down causes issues on this machine, rather than the usual issues of heating. I am not sure where to go next. Could this be a video issue? (this machine has on board graphics) If I can reproduce the error, should I try installing a video card and see if the issue persists? Could this be a motherboard issue that is impossible to diagnose?


Case #2 – Lynett

This was supposed to be a simple job. The client had complained about a blue screen error and sluggish performance. I ran WhoCrashed to see what I could glean from the dump files and noticed that she had had 6 in the past month, and each of them (supposedly) related to a crucial Windows system file. I figured I would just back up her data and reinstall Windows. First, I ran a full cycle of memtest, which brought back no errors.

When I went to install Windows, I had forgotten to unplug the front panel card reader, and as a result, Windows setup wanted to letter the system drive as H:. To avoid any possible issues, I like to make sure that Windows is installed in C:. So I turned off the machine and unplugged the reader from the motherboard and restarted setup. Windows setup would now crash with a weird error at the “press f6” prompt. I thought maybe something was left behind from the previous setup, so I attempted to boot from UBCD to use DBAN. None of the utilities on UBCD would expand into RAM. I was able to boot to memtest, and it immediately threw up 1000’s of errors. I then replugged in the front panel and everything was fine. Then, after unplugging, swapping with another front panel USB connector in all configurations, I was not able to reproduce the issue. I ran memtest for a while (but did not complete a cycle).

A friend suggested that perhaps the motherboard is cracked and applying the pressure of unplugging the header shook something out of whack. So I opened up the case to inspected the motherboard. I saw nothing visible. I pushed in the RAM to make sure it was secure. Then on the next POST, long beep….dead. My next thought was a bad stick of RAM. I arbitrarily pulled the right stick and noticed that the amount of RAM displayed in memtest did not change (512). I recall this being the amount of RAM displayed in all of the tests (at least after the initial test). I switched out RAM and slots and each time, boots fine. Now it is back to its original configuration, no beeps, all 1 gb of RAM displays, and memtest results no errors. I ran Prime95 on this machine as well overnight.

Motherboard again?

Coincidentally, these machines belong to sisters.

Thanks,

PK

 

Two machines, two problems, two threads! Please edit the above to one machine, one problem, and create a second thread for the 2nd.

Also, include needed information on the brand and model numbers of hardware and Windows versions.