IT'S ALIVE! (sort of)

Well, spent half the day getting my system pulled apart, tested and put back together. I spent $81 (+$30 shipping) on:
Mobo
1GB RAM
420 PSU
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card
P4 3.2 GHz CPU

Not bad, considering most people want over $100 just for this model mobo.

Ok, here's the rub. It wont retain the BIOS settings when powered off. If it remains plugged in but off, it thinks it got a new CPU when turned on every time. If I turn off the power at the PSU or unplug it, if forgets everything and is at factory defaults. I swapped out the battery and the BIOS from my old Mobo. Same. I used my PSU, same. I don't know what is wrong with this thing ( This is why I hate buying used equipment off of ebay)
If I use only the RAM I got with the mobo, it works fine, comes up with 400 MHz bus speed. Same if I use just the RAM I had as well, but together, the system boots up with them at 320 MHz. I forced the issue in the BIOS to make them 400, so easy fix there.

SO, a few inconveniences come with this thing, but no BSOD. I got my AV back up and running without a hitch and played 13 waves as well, something I haven't been able to do in a very long time.

I'm now waiting on the vid card I bought for her. Thought it would have come by now, but not the case. It's supposed to be new and tested good, so we will see.

So, what would you give the seller? Negative, neutral or positive feedback?

Flak Monkey wrote:

Well, spent half the day getting my system pulled apart, tested and put back together. I spent $81 (+$30 shipping) on:
Mobo
1GB RAM
420 PSU
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card
P4 3.2 GHz CPU

Not bad, considering most people want over $100 just for this model mobo.

Ok, here's the rub. It wont retain the BIOS settings when powered off. If it remains plugged in but off, it thinks it got a new CPU when turned on every time. If I turn off the power at the PSU or unplug it, if forgets everything and is at factory defaults. I swapped out the battery and the BIOS from my old Mobo. Same. I used my PSU, same. I don't know what is wrong with this thing ( This is why I hate buying used equipment off of ebay)
If I use only the RAM I got with the mobo, it works fine, comes up with 400 MHz bus speed. Same if I use just the RAM I had as well, but together, the system boots up with them at 320 MHz. I forced the issue in the BIOS to make them 400, so easy fix there.

SO, a few inconveniences come with this thing, but no BSOD. I got my AV back up and running without a hitch and played 13 waves as well, something I haven't been able to do in a very long time.

I'm now waiting on the vid card I bought for her. Thought it would have come by now, but not the case. It's supposed to be new and tested good, so we will see.

So, what would you give the seller? Negative, neutral or positive feedback?

Give me the URL of the listing.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rt=nc&nma=true&item=300511385755&si=eI%252FFcm0wy8HwiZx%252BiHdfokjGFx8%253D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT

He does mention that there is no issues with any of the parts...but I beg to differ on the mobo, the most important part of my purchase. The memory and the CPU were a bonus for sure... So I got a deal with all that I got.

Flak Monkey wrote:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rt=nc&nma=true&item=300511385755&si=eI%252FFcm0wy8HwiZx%252BiHdfokjGFx8%253D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT

He does mention that there is no issues with any of the parts...but I beg to differ on the mobo, the most important part of my purchase. The memory and the CPU were a bonus for sure... So I got a deal with all that I got.

That is the problem. Contact the seller and see what he says. You can always pick up another board-I saw a couple under $50.00.

Well, I don't have the money to do anything right now. Paycheck got messed up (along with everything else the last 2 weeks) So I'm short for at least 4-14 days.

But I guess I will contact the seller before I do anything.

I feel your pain. I bought a refurb system from Dell outlet and when I got it, the video card was bad. I have replaced the card and contacted Dell. Dell has yet to respond, despite the computer being under warranty.

he he ....hunt him down and place the MB where the sun don't shine lol

but seriously sounds like power from the battery doesn't get to the bios eeerrrr wait nor does it from the PS i'm thinking that the trace is scratched and thats the issue, but never turn puter off and not issue!

I just read the listing, if he did not do a power down and reboot he would not of seen/known the issue with the MB

dom60 wrote:

I just read the listing, if he did not do a power down and reboot he would not of seen/known the issue with the MB

As usually, as is and no guaranties.

We had the exact same problem with a 750I INTEL 775 DDR2 , after 2 rma's and a lot of phone tech, we ended up with an interesting issue. Seems the cpu we were using (E6500, fresh out of the box) , though listed as being supported, was not. We did a BIOS roll back to an earlier release, plugged in a Pentium D 3.4 I had in my machine and it ran like a dream. Purchased a E7500 duo and updated the bios upon install and it has run w/ no glitches for over a year.
Perhaps check that your cpu is truly supported, or barrow a different one from someone for a bench? Or do a BIOS roll back to 1016 (I see from one of the screen shots on ebay that it is 1017). They are available from the ASUS. I couldn't find one on the Alienware site.

Here is an interesting quip found in a forum:
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=19613

Now this is going to be stupid. I'm so out of practice, it's pathetic. He told me to reset the BOIS. Well, I knew resetting the BIOS wasn't going to work, as it wasn't retaining it to begin with. Nothing in the BIOS that I know of would do this. Anyway, it was in the right direction. the CLEAR BIOS jumper was missing all together. So I placed one on and PRESTO! It has a memory again. Where that jumper went to is beyond me. So all is good. 3.2 GHz and 2GB RAM, I'm happy. And I can play again.

Wife's Vid card came yesterday, so I installed it early this morning and got that up and running. So, we are all back to normal (Abby Normal) She is happy she has her machine back, and I'm glad mine doesn't croak every time I try and do something.

Next step will be to build us new rigs, but with all the catch up bills we have to pay on, that's way on down the road.

Sweet brother! Glad it was that easy!

Flak Monkey wrote:

Now this is going to be stupid. I'm so out of practice, it's pathetic. He told me to reset the BOIS. Well, I knew resetting the BIOS wasn't going to work, as it wasn't retaining it to begin with. Nothing in the BIOS that I know of would do this. Anyway, it was in the right direction. the CLEAR BIOS jumper was missing all together. So I placed one on and PRESTO! It has a memory again. Where that jumper went to is beyond me. So all is good. 3.2 GHz and 2GB RAM, I'm happy. And I can play again.

When in doubt, look for the most simplest item to fix.

Occam's Razor, lex parsimoniae!

Glad to hear it FM!

Very true emetakleze!