My Computer Died...then Came Back To Life. Help!

Okay, so I'm seriously freaked out here.

A few days ago I started getting a problem with my computer dropping to a Black Screen and hanging. Basically, the problem occured while working on the desktop in Win2k - the screen would suddenly turn black, and the monitor would drop to standby mode (the light turning amber). The computer, however, would still be running. Fans, disk drives...they were all still on.

While it looked like standby mode, I couldn't 'wake up' my computer, so to speak. Warm booting had no effect; I had to hit the reset switch.

Sometimes, it booted right back up. Other times, I had to power off and then wait a few seconds. When it finally rebooted it took an irregular amount of time to load my desktop icons.

At first I thought it was a heat issue. I moved my computer into a well-ventilated area, and made sure it was cool. The issue still occurred.

Then I thought it may have something with power settings. I made sure that any auto power save settings were off both in the BIOS, and in the Windows monitor settings.

I then thought it was a problem with my GeForce4 - so I swapped it out for an old 16mb RIVA TNT2. It looked like that was it. Everything worked perfectly. No problems. I talked to the Visiontek people and they told me to put it back in to run some troubleshooting. I did. For an entire day, there was no problem with the GeForce4.

Today, the black screen happened again. So, I took out the GeForce and put in the TNT2 once more. Everything was fine again...but then, the computer spontaneously rebooted....and then again and again and again. This was strange since I know for CERTAIN that the "automatically reboot" on BSOD option wasn't checked.

I booted in safe mode and made sure the startup and recovery settings were checked as I remembered. They were. I got suspicious and ran a virus scan. The scan said it found a worm/malware and cleaned it. It scanned until somewhere in C:/Program Files when the PC Speaker beeped for about 2 seconds. Then it beeped again. Then it kept beeping and wouldn't stop.

When I rebooted, it said "OS not found." Nearly s**tting my pants, I put in my Win2k CD and it said "hard drives not found - can't install or repair."

I was thoroughly freaked. I figured everything was lost and the worm wiped it all out. I disconnected my computer and waited.

Just for the heck of it, I triple-checked all the connections and PCI cards, and even dropped a friends 32mb ATI card in there just to be sure.

After five minutes I rebooted and went into the BIOS. Lo and Behold, it recognized both of my drives. Interesting...

I tried to start Windows. Everything booted fine.

?!?!?!?!

What in the world is going on?? I did another complete virus scan and came up with nothing. What should I do? What's going on??

My Sys Config:

Dual Athlon 2000 processors
Tyan S2460 mobo
1GB DRR-RAM
SB Audigy
Multisync FE 950+ 19"
Win2k pro, SP2

I have two drives - one ibm 40gb (sys) and a wd 100gb

Just an update - from the event viewer:

Quote:

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Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7026
Date: 6/6/2003
Time: 9:15:13 PM
User: N/A
Computer: ADMINISTRATOR
Description:
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
OMCI

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Quote:

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Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7003
Date: 6/6/2003
Time: 9:14:56 PM
User: N/A
Computer: ADMINISTRATOR
Description:
The DHCP Client service depends on the following nonexistent service: SYMTDI

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I tried to Google this but came up short. Anyone know what this means or how to fix it?

SYMTDI appears to be related to Norton AntiVirus - the only thing I could find on it was HERE

The only thing I found on OMCI was third party software as well. I don't think that these sound related to your problem with disappearing harddrives, though. Sound more like a hardware failure.

If I had to make a quick guess, both drives missing from BIOS would put them on the same IDE channel, correct? I've seen where one drive goes bad, and it causes problems like this with the other drive on the same channel until the bad one is removed. My first guess would also point to the WD as the culprit, but that's only from my personal experience.
I would start with backing up all important data, and move your non-OS drive to the other IDE channel, which is best practice anyway.


Oh, and welcome to VirtualDR!

Also, what size of power supply do you have on that monster?

First of all - thanks a bunch for your help. :)

The power supply is 350w antec.

As for both drives being on the same IDE channel - this is a BIOS setting correct? I have to plead a little ignorance here as I'm not sure how to check if this is true, and how to alter it.

thanks again

Not a BIOS setting, but how they physically are connected to the motherboard.

Most boards have 2 IDE connectors, and each connector can have 2 drives connected to it by a ribbon cable. Those 2 drives are designated as Master and Slave set by jumpers on the drive's case.

If both drives are connected to one ribbon cable, you might move the one that doesn't have the operating system on it. Just check that if there's something on the other channel to set the jumper correctly (Master or Slave, it really won't matter which way you set them as long as they're different) and note that Windows may have moved drive letters around when you do this, too.

Also, your harddrive manufacturer might have some diagnostic software to test them for problems.

Did some het monitoring. Came up as follows:

CPU1 - 38-41C; fan 5818rpm; 1.7820V
CPU2 - 52-54C; fan 6026rpm; 1.7650V

CPU2 seems a bit hot, but within the operating range of the Athlon.

On visual check, all the fans are spinning. The three chassis fans (one front, two rear) are running at an average of 2500 rpm.

After I ran the hardware monitor (in tyan's 1.04 bios) the black screen came back. I shut down for a few minutes and then set the boot.ini to run on CPU1 only. Running fine now.

Looks like a heat issue with the second proc, maybe?

Yeah, that could be too, I didn't think about that. 52-54 is slightly on the high side, but not by much . I've had an Athlon running at 50c before without trouble. However with #1 running that much cooler, there might be something there.
Looks like you're on the right track for troubleshooting this, though. (I didn't even know you could disable a CPU with boot.ini :-)

Hey man, I just want to say thanks for the help - I found the problem. It's the ATX connector. Completely fried onthe 5V end. Turns out this is a VERY common problem with the Tyan S2460 Tiger mobo.

Sigh.

Check out these threads. Smelting...burning...it's pretty hideous. Still, thanks again!

Quote:

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http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.ph...light=burn+atx
http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.ph...light=burn+atx
http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.ph...light=burn+atx
http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.ph...light=burn+atx
for all sorts of gory details.

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