Strange (something for you hardware gurus)

[Jupp]

Hi folks,

i hope that some of you hardware gurus can explain this to me.

System specs:

Asus P3-BF/Bios 1006
Intel P3-700E Coppermine CPU
256 MB PC100 CAS2 Ram (1 stick)
G400Max/Bios 1.9-33/PD6.20
Sony GDM-400PS 19" as primary monitor
Medion 15" TFT Flatscreen as secondary monitor (for those germans out there: Aldi)
SB Live+Hoontech Digital I/O Board
2 x Adaptec 2940
2 x IBM DDRS34560
1 x Quantum Atlas II
1 x Pioneer DVD 303
1 x Teac CD-R50S
HP Scanjet 4p
3COM 3c905X-TX 10/100 mbps Combo Nic
FAST Movie MachineII Mjpeg Capture Board with TVTuner and hardware overlay
300W idon'tknowwhatbrand power supply
Logitech wireless keyboard & mouse
Operating systems: 98SE/Win2K prof/Suse Linux7 (KDE2/XFree4.01)

Clean IRQ configuration, except the G400 sharing IRQ11 with the 3Com Nic.
System definetly is rock stable, runs Q3 for hours so this is not a problem.

Yesterday evening i did some mpeg2 rendering with Tmpeg while surfing the web and designing some html pages. I had numerous windos open, using the Matrox Multi-Desktop and Dualhead. To be precise, Tmpeg was rendering on desktop 2 on the second monitor. Outlook 2K was wating for email on desktop 2 on the primary monitor. Proton (nice html/php editor) was open on the second monitor on Deskop 1. Numerous IE5.5 windows were open on both screens on desktop 1. Quit a heavy load for this tiny system running 98SE at that time. I was using 98SE, because of the excellent Dualhead support.

Anyway, i worked like this for about 4 to 5 hours, when suddenly my mouse movements
became extremely jerky (battery level was ok), my keybord didn't react anymore. Just the usual stuff when 98SE is about to crash. I managed it to shutdown all apps using the mouse and initiated the sutdown process. No surpise, system hung on shutdown.

After 5 minutes i decided to push the reset button and the weirdness began to start:
1. No video signal on boot
2. No beeps
3. Both adaptec leds were on

I opened the case and pulled the Max, the ram stick and keyboard. Usually this should force the comp to do at least some bios beeps. Nothing. I decided to leave it like this and went for another beer (burp) and did something else.

Today I did some more stuff: exchanged the ram stick, pulled out most of the cards, ... . However, with no memory on board and the following cards inserted: Fast MMII, 3com Nic,Sblive I suddenly recognized a shy beep. I did some more card swapping and finally ended up in the same configuration as yesterday and the machine is running again (stable as before).

Now my question:
What the f*ck happened here?
Can anybody explain this?

Sorry for the long post and
cheers,
R.

[Technoid]

I repaired an Athlon based machine at my work that did the same thing.
The Mobo was broke, it had an 280W PS

Then we actualy has a Athlon Machine standing as a Demomacine running 3Dmark2K in a loop and that one has to be cmos cleared sometimes to boot. (its completly dead, the PS wont start, no beeps, lights etc etc)


------------------
Intel PIII-800/133MHz MSI 6337
G400Mill 32MB SGRAM + RRG
SBlive Value (oldest piece of equipment in my can ! )
256 MB RAM CAS2
58GB HDD Space!(Actual 60GB) (30+30 IBM DTLA 30GB drives)
Pioneer 104S DVD 10x CD 40x SLOT IN
SONY CRX140E 8/4/32 CDRW

[MultimediaMan]

1) Check your CMOS battery.

2) Sometimes this sort of thing is the only warning a power supply gives you before becoming a Roman Candle or lagging fire within your computer case.

3) The fact you are running so many device, particularly the SCSI cards and the HDDs begs to ask the question: How many watts is your Power Supply rated for? A GOOD 300 Watt power supply should considered the bare minimum for your system.