continuous rebooting - motherboard problem???

I built a system last christmas for my nephew:

abit sh6 mb
piii 667
128mb pc133 ram
20gb ata100 hd
etc.

He has ripped apart the system and put it in a new case, replaced the hard drive with a udma133, and added two sticks of ram (128mb pc133 and 64mb pc100). So, he gives it back to me complaining that it continuosly reboots itself before it loads windows...surprise surprise...

Upon opening the case, I find he is using the wrong cable for the hard drive AND its plugged in backwards...not to mention I didn't think this board would even support a udma133 drive. I also noticed he's mixing pc100 and pc133 ram. I updated the bios, put back in the original hard drive with a proper cable and took out the pc100 ram. I still have not been able to successfully load an OS on it because it still reboots itself. I managed to get Win98 installed, but it still reboots regularly.

Has he wasted the motherboard? Can anyone offer any other suggestions?

Please reply or email me at [email protected]

Thanks!!

Kids.... Probably a older one too like in his 20's..

Naw don't think it's the mobo, he just fiddled with the wron stuff.

1. PC133 will run with PC100 (at 100mhz) its backward compatible..

2. Data cable on backwards suprised it booted..

When you changed the hard drive you should:

a. Get into SETUP and do an autodetect so the BIOS can adjust.

b. Load system defaults as he probably screwed the CMOS settings and the BIOS doesn't know hwhat is going on.

c. Reboot with a good Win 98 boot disk and get to the A:\> prompt then type fdisk /mbr (hit <enter> )- will fix a corrupt master boot record.

d. If it still does it try getting into SAFE MODE (Hit CTRL key or F8 key -before Windows loads). If you get into SAFE MODE, then reboot normal.



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Murf
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Note:"Murf's Garage" under Major Renovation.