IBM help

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Older IBM backup machine on the fritz.

Came into the puter room last night and noticed the back up machine in sign in mode. I thought this odd since I always leave it on.

Thought maybe the power had been off but checked and it had not, so I signed in and it came to my desk top and powered off.:|

Tried again and same thing.:|:| Just shut itself off, wait a minute and comes back to sign in screen.

Oh yea, each time the scan disk screen would come up also looking for problem.

Running ME, yea I know, let me have it.:'(

I started it up in safe mode and same thing, it just keeps cycling itself through this.:^

 

[tommays]

Re: IBM help

The scandisk is normal when it shuts down incorrectly

I would think it has a hardware problem with the power supply as a good WAG OR a bad CPU fan ect

I run ME on two machines that need and older OS and dont really have problems with it


Tommays

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: IBM help

Thanks Tommays. First problem I've had with this machine in a long time.
Think 2 or 3 year ago, had to have IBM replace the hard drive, but other than that, n/p's.

 

[ndemge]

Re: IBM help

I've gotten into this old loop on a win98 machine.... Has anything new been installed at all?

A last known good registry config might take care of your problems...... may require a reload if windows is hosed.

The problem I had when this happened was my cpu fan got dirty, was heating up and corrupting data, then the wrong piece of windows got corrupted and it went in this crazy loop.

 

[WillyBWright]

Re: IBM help

Do a thorough scandisk. The one that comes up on boot is an abriged version. That is assuming that ME has a scandisk. I have 98 and XP. 98 does, XP doesn't.

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: IBM help

WBW, that's the thing, it won't stay on long enough to do anything, not even in safe mode.
As soon as I enter my PW and it comes onto my desktop, it kicks off and goes through it again.:'(

 

[KaGee]

Re: IBM help

Time for a new power supply. Hopefully your IBM uses an ATX compatable PS. If not, you are going to get screwed by IBM.

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: IBM help

Time for a new power supply. Hopefully your IBM uses an ATX compatable PS. If not, you are going to get screwed by IBM.

Not me, I will toss it out before I spend any big money on it. It is old, think 8 years or so.

 

[ndemge]

Re: IBM help

So is it a time thing, or only once logged in?

Will it sit there an hum away forever with the login box displayed?

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: IBM help

So is it a time thing, or only once logged in?

Will it sit there an hum away forever with the login box displayed?

Will hum away with login screen up but as soon as log in it starts.
Even in safe mode, as soon as desktop comes up or I sign in, it closes and starts back up.
Me thinks it's trying to recycle.:^

 

[dolluper]

Re: IBM help

Did you try a wrong password>>>> shock it in to working

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: IBM help

Yep, even not use a password, same thing, comes to the desktop and bingo, there it goes.:%

 

[dolluper]

Re: IBM help

Maybe go here and grab a boot disc
http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml

 

[i386]

Re: IBM help

It can be hard to diagnose those problems. Power supply is the number one thing but if you can predictably reproduce the problem it's probably something else.

Check your CPU fan and make sure it spinning. It doesn't take long to heat up a Pentium II or higher.

Bad RAM will do this. If you have 2 sticks in it's easy to test. Just run with one stick at a time to see if you can reproduce the problem. Obviously this won't work if your RAM must be ran in pairs.

Here's a free memory test utility I use sometimes: Memtest86

Safe mode pretty much rules out a video driver problem, but it could still be the card. If you have another known good card to swap out that would be a good test.

You could try removing each piece of hardware one at a time to see if you can reproduce the problem.

Yet another thing would be to boot up a bootable "live" linux CD and run with that for a while. If that works ok then there may be a problem with your Windows installation or hard drive. That's just a quick way to take Windows out of the equation without having to take the time to install another operating system. It runs from the CD so there's nothing to install. It won't touch the data on your hard drive. In fact, you can even unplug the hard drive if it makes you feel better.

It may be tempting to throw every fix-it program you can find at it, but you could end up with spyware or worse if you get a bad one. It's best to properly troubleshoot the problem if at all possible.

If you don't find the problem using those tests, it usually ends up being the motherboard or processor. I don't have a good way to test those.

Dropping a bad processor in a known good motherboard will kill the board in 1 second. Dropping a good processor in a bad motherboard can kill the processor in 1 second.

If anyone has a good method to test motherboards and processors (other than on-board diagnostics or expensive test equipment) I'd love to learn about it. It's been a thorn in my butt for years.

Good luck and happy troubleshooting.


Oh yea, here's a little industry humor...

IBM stands for "It'll be more". Another one is "It'll be Monday" if you need parts/service.

Now those are just jokes. Their stuff IS pricey but it's well engineered (perhaps even over engineered) and built like a tank in most cases.

Another industry saying is "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM".

And last one...

I comes after H, B comes after A, and M comes after L hmm...

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: IBM help

I thought it stood for International Brotherhood of Moneymakers.

EDIT: Un-solicited reboots could also be a variant of the old Blaster worm. That was one of the symptoms.

 

[i386]

Re: IBM help

EDIT: Un-solicited reboots could also be a variant of the old Blaster worm. That was one of the symptoms.

It's never a bad idea to scan for virus infection. Having said that, blaster only affected Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP (NT variants).

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: IBM help

Oops, didn't know that. Never used Win 9x. I went from Win 3.1 to NT and essentially bypassed the windows 9x craziness. I do remember Blaster giving us a fit for a while, but we were all NT.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: IBM help

Id assume you have a hosed OS, when you cant boot with no networking something's really a miss, not a cpu issue nor a vid or nic card, If the bios is capable you can run a mem test after that youve pretty much eliminated most of the possiblitie's, There is a remote chance the cpu fan is not working but those old p2=3's could run with no fan, vey unlikely a psu there kinda on or off in that era.

 

[KaGee]

Re: IBM help

The re-booting is a classic symptom of a power supply gone bad.
I think you're spinning your wheels with all the other stuff.

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: IBM help

Puter geek, says processor going south along with the mother board.
As soon as I told him what it was doing he said stop, I know what it is.
So, I think I will find a tower to put my hard drive in and go from there.