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PowerMacG4
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2002
- Messages
- 141
For some reason lately my computer has been having very much trouble when booting up after sitting off for a couple hours. Once the computer is up and running, everything is perfectly fine, but sometimes it can be a real pain trying to get the system to boot properly.
When booting I hear all my drives / fans that are on 4-pin molex connectors spin up and then spin down... and then I hear my hard drives / motherboard clicker / something go "clickclickclickclickclick".
At first I thought I was having hard drive issues, as the problem first manifested itself in my 80GB Seagate Barracuda IV. However, the problem quickly spread to all of my hard drives (40GB 'Cuda IV). I tested an unrelated drive (Maxtor 8GB) and after a few boots, it was exhibiting the same problems as well.
I quickly ruled out the hard drives as the source of the issue, so I cleared my motherboard's CMOS, which didn't help much at all.
Not having any idea of the problem, I decided to check my voltages.
My +5V line was wavering at around 4.3V!! This voltage was read within the BIOS. The other voltages were much closer, but all of them were generally lower than they should be.
The power supply I am using is an Antec TruePower 380W, and it has not exhibited these problems (to my knowledge) in the past. I believe the voltages have always been a little shitty, but not to this extent.
Another possibility is that my motherboard is somehow crapping out. I have an Asus A7N8X 1.xx board flashed to the 1004 BIOS. These problems first started to occur after I flashed to the 1007 BIOS, so I flashed back hoping to solve the issue. The motherboard hasn't given me any problem in the past, so I am doubting the possibility for the motherboard to only crap out on boot.
I have run some tests within Windows (it takes about 20-30 minutes for the computer to successfully boot... after that it is fine for that session)
The red circles are showing the same period of time. The +5V line fluctuates with CPU usage! I had heard my fans change speed according to CPU usage when my computer was changing from heavy to light to heavy load quite a while back, but I assumed that was a feature of the motherboard, or maybe PSU. However, "QFAN" or whatever it is called is disabled in the BIOS, and none of my fans are connected to the power supply's "Fan Only" connector.
I feel like I should buy a new power supply (from a different company) and maybe a new motherboard.
It has been quite a long time since I last looked at a good comparison of hardware (especially PSUs), so I am unsure of what exactly to purchase. I have my eyes on the Vantec line of power supplies, but I do not know how quiet they are. I am looking for a quiet power supply (my TruePower's fans barely make any noise at all), but with VERY stable voltages. I would rather have all of my equipment overvolted a little bit, than having all of my equipment be fighting over a strained power source.
The issue is not my RAM, or processor, or anything because once I successfully boot the computer, I can run test after test and benchmark after benchmark with no issue.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
When booting I hear all my drives / fans that are on 4-pin molex connectors spin up and then spin down... and then I hear my hard drives / motherboard clicker / something go "clickclickclickclickclick".
At first I thought I was having hard drive issues, as the problem first manifested itself in my 80GB Seagate Barracuda IV. However, the problem quickly spread to all of my hard drives (40GB 'Cuda IV). I tested an unrelated drive (Maxtor 8GB) and after a few boots, it was exhibiting the same problems as well.
I quickly ruled out the hard drives as the source of the issue, so I cleared my motherboard's CMOS, which didn't help much at all.
Not having any idea of the problem, I decided to check my voltages.
My +5V line was wavering at around 4.3V!! This voltage was read within the BIOS. The other voltages were much closer, but all of them were generally lower than they should be.
The power supply I am using is an Antec TruePower 380W, and it has not exhibited these problems (to my knowledge) in the past. I believe the voltages have always been a little shitty, but not to this extent.
Another possibility is that my motherboard is somehow crapping out. I have an Asus A7N8X 1.xx board flashed to the 1004 BIOS. These problems first started to occur after I flashed to the 1007 BIOS, so I flashed back hoping to solve the issue. The motherboard hasn't given me any problem in the past, so I am doubting the possibility for the motherboard to only crap out on boot.
I have run some tests within Windows (it takes about 20-30 minutes for the computer to successfully boot... after that it is fine for that session)
The red circles are showing the same period of time. The +5V line fluctuates with CPU usage! I had heard my fans change speed according to CPU usage when my computer was changing from heavy to light to heavy load quite a while back, but I assumed that was a feature of the motherboard, or maybe PSU. However, "QFAN" or whatever it is called is disabled in the BIOS, and none of my fans are connected to the power supply's "Fan Only" connector.
I feel like I should buy a new power supply (from a different company) and maybe a new motherboard.
It has been quite a long time since I last looked at a good comparison of hardware (especially PSUs), so I am unsure of what exactly to purchase. I have my eyes on the Vantec line of power supplies, but I do not know how quiet they are. I am looking for a quiet power supply (my TruePower's fans barely make any noise at all), but with VERY stable voltages. I would rather have all of my equipment overvolted a little bit, than having all of my equipment be fighting over a strained power source.
The issue is not my RAM, or processor, or anything because once I successfully boot the computer, I can run test after test and benchmark after benchmark with no issue.
Thanks in advance for your advice.