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Computer hardware question

rivrrat

Goddess of Bacon
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I'm not exactly a computer n00b, but emphasis is on software. I have a hardware cert, but it was years ago and didn't even include info about USB drives. :shock:

Anywho, I just booted up my desktop computer for the first time in 18 months. It's been in storage (NOT climate controlled) that long. Well, the damn thing won't boot up and I get an error that says my BIOS isn't ACPI compatible. Which is odd, since the motherboard actually SAYS ACPI on it. ;) Not to mention that it was running just fine prior to putting it in storage.

The only thing that has changed is that I bought a new power cord since I lost mine somewhere along the way.

So, after a few reboots and fiddling around in the BIOS, I took out the hard drive and put it in an external case. I can access it just fine. I didn't boot off of it, but the data is intact and accessible.

Before I spend a bunch of time and money on this, I just thought I'd toss this out there to see if others possibly agreed that I probably need a new motherboard?
 
So you try to boot up and you get a blue screen telling you that "the BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant", correct?
It is I'm afraid a misleading error, since it's been pretty much a decade since there was a BIOS that wasn't compatible with ACPI, and I don't think your BIOS is that old.

What operating system are you using?
 
So you try to boot up and you get a blue screen telling you that "the BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant", correct?
It is I'm afraid a misleading error, since it's been pretty much a decade since there was a BIOS that wasn't compatible with ACPI, and I don't think your BIOS is that old.

What operating system are you using?

It's a Windows system. XP Pro, iirc.

The very first error on boot up was "the case is open". I checked, it wasn't. (not that it should matter)

Then it rebooted and went straight to BIOS. I exited out without doing anything and rebooted.

It rebooted to the screen where it gives me hardware info and all (right before you'd see the Windows loading screen) and then rebooted itself.
I think it may have done that twice.

Then I finally see the Windows logo and loading screen. After a few seconds, I got the APCI error.

I rebooted and went into BIOS to make sure my boot sequence wasn't wonky and it wasn't. I made no changes and rebooted.
Same error.

I opened the case and checked all of my cable connections. It HAD been in storage for awhile, traveled across the country and all. Checked the connections to the motherboard and from the motherboard to respective hardware. (video cards, hard drives, power supply, etc)

Rebooted.

This time it hung... and hung... and hung... I manually shut it down and rebooted again. This time in safe mode. It hung on the driver loading screen in safe mode.
So, I pulled out the hard drive and stuck it in the external case to see if my data was accessible, because honestly... that's all I really wanted. I was going to use the computer as a storage facility for movies, music, images, etc. I don't care to reformat the drive and put on Linux, as long as I can pull off my data first. And, all of the data was just fine.

Now, I don't think it could be the power cord I bought, it was for a computer after all. But that WAS the only thing I deliberately changed.

However, I'm figuring extreme changes in temperature may have cracked some hardware pieces. (specifically any plastic ones) And since the error is related to the motherboard, and I can access my hard drive data externally, I was guessing it was probably the motherboard that was fubar.

Changing a motherboard is a PITA, though (for me) and not something I wanted to undertake without some confirmation of my suspicions. LOL Plus, the whole ordeal of finding a compatible motherboard, blah blah blah.
 
It's a Windows system. XP Pro, iirc.

The very first error on boot up was "the case is open". I checked, it wasn't. (not that it should matter)

Then it rebooted and went straight to BIOS. I exited out without doing anything and rebooted.

It rebooted to the screen where it gives me hardware info and all (right before you'd see the Windows loading screen) and then rebooted itself.
I think it may have done that twice.

Then I finally see the Windows logo and loading screen. After a few seconds, I got the APCI error.

I rebooted and went into BIOS to make sure my boot sequence wasn't wonky and it wasn't. I made no changes and rebooted.
Same error.

I opened the case and checked all of my cable connections. It HAD been in storage for awhile, traveled across the country and all. Checked the connections to the motherboard and from the motherboard to respective hardware. (video cards, hard drives, power supply, etc)

Rebooted.

This time it hung... and hung... and hung... I manually shut it down and rebooted again. This time in safe mode. It hung on the driver loading screen in safe mode.
So, I pulled out the hard drive and stuck it in the external case to see if my data was accessible, because honestly... that's all I really wanted. I was going to use the computer as a storage facility for movies, music, images, etc. I don't care to reformat the drive and put on Linux, as long as I can pull off my data first. And, all of the data was just fine.

Now, I don't think it could be the power cord I bought, it was for a computer after all. But that WAS the only thing I deliberately changed.

However, I'm figuring extreme changes in temperature may have cracked some hardware pieces. (specifically any plastic ones) And since the error is related to the motherboard, and I can access my hard drive data externally, I was guessing it was probably the motherboard that was fubar.

Changing a motherboard is a PITA, though (for me) and not something I wanted to undertake without some confirmation of my suspicions. LOL Plus, the whole ordeal of finding a compatible motherboard, blah blah blah.

Is your XP pro pre or post service pack 2?
As far as I could gather this problem is often occurring only in pre-SP2 XP systems.

Anyway, as I said this is a misleading error, and as funny as it would sound there's a possibility to solve this by messing with the BIOS settings.
Try changing the order of the "first in boot" and stuff, usually the errors occur if the floppy disk is first on the order, try to change the first to CD-ROM and the third to floppy.
Besides that you can also try to enable the parallel port, disable the APM in BIOS or disable the Legacy USB support in BIOS.
 
Right, you probably need a battery tester.
I'd let you have one but I can't walk to you today...or ever.

Not sure right off the top of my head.

set a setting in your bios. Unplug it for 10 minutes and see if that setting stays.
 
I'm not exactly a computer n00b, but emphasis is on software. I have a hardware cert, but it was years ago and didn't even include info about USB drives. :shock:

Anywho, I just booted up my desktop computer for the first time in 18 months. It's been in storage (NOT climate controlled) that long. Well, the damn thing won't boot up and I get an error that says my BIOS isn't ACPI compatible. Which is odd, since the motherboard actually SAYS ACPI on it. ;) Not to mention that it was running just fine prior to putting it in storage.

The only thing that has changed is that I bought a new power cord since I lost mine somewhere along the way.

So, after a few reboots and fiddling around in the BIOS, I took out the hard drive and put it in an external case. I can access it just fine. I didn't boot off of it, but the data is intact and accessible.

Before I spend a bunch of time and money on this, I just thought I'd toss this out there to see if others possibly agreed that I probably need a new motherboard?

How high was the humidity in the place you stored it? If you don't know, stick the computer outside on a hot driveway for a few hours and see if it works better.
 
How high was the humidity in the place you stored it? If you don't know, stick the computer outside on a hot driveway for a few hours and see if it works better.

It was stored in a unit in WV. Which means hot summer, moderate humidity, cold winter. But it was in a big metal storage unit, which means it likely got much hotter and more humid in there than outside of it with air circulation.
 
That's what I have, but it's old. LOL

I think I got mine in like 2001. It had questions like "whats the front end bus size of a 486dx processor?" and stuff about ISA cards, jumper settings, DOS. At that point we were using windows 2000, so even than it was an old test.
 
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It was stored in a unit in WV. Which means hot summer, moderate humidity, cold winter. But it was in a big metal storage unit, which means it likely got much hotter and more humid in there than outside of it with air circulation.

I don't think that would be a problem (maybe excess humidity) because I leave my surplus pc's in my garage.
A very hot/cold environment and they still work.
 
I don't think that would be a problem (maybe excess humidity) because I leave my surplus pc's in my garage.
A very hot/cold environment and they still work.

I guess I'm just confused by the fact that it ran perfectly prior to storage, and then won't boot after taking it out of storage. So I just assume that *something* happened in storage. :?
 
I don't think that would be a problem (maybe excess humidity) because I leave my surplus pc's in my garage.
A very hot/cold environment and they still work.

The reason I asked is because all of the problems in this post http://www.debatepolitics.com/off-t...omputer-hardware-question.html#post1058886353 are likely generated by hardware issues. This causes me to look for environmental factors that may be affecting the hardware and I am willing to bed that rivr can throw in an ubuntu bootcd in and still have just as many issues. I have seen a case in the past where some water got into a power supply and it started throwing crazy voltage into the mainboard which caused all sorts of wild behavior and it was solved by an electrician packing putting the computer out on a hot stone picnic table all day long.
 
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The reason I asked is because all of the problems in this post http://www.debatepolitics.com/off-t...omputer-hardware-question.html#post1058886353 are likely generated by hardware issues. This causes me to look for environmental factors that may be affecting the hardware and I am willing to bed that rivr can throw in an ubuntu bootcd in and still have just as many issues. I have seen a case in the past where some water got into a power supply and it started throwing crazy voltage into the mainboard.

Oh I see.
I'm no expert/professional, just handy.
 
Did you get it fixed?

I'm copying all of my files over to another drive before I stick the drive back into the computer and mess with it anymore. Just in case. ;) Given that it's many gigs of info, it's taking hours to do. So, I'll likely wait until tomorrow to put the drive back in and give it all another go.
 
I think I got mine in like 2001. It had questions like "whats the front end bus size of a 486dx processor?" and stuff about ISA cards, jumper settings, DOS. At that point we were using windows 2000, so even than it was an old test.

LOL. Not to long ago I got an email from an old accounting professor who was forwarding a request to all of his former students about some masters' student in the computer science department about needing ISA. Seriously. I didn't know comp sci ran tests on dinosaurs!
 
LOL. Not to long ago I got an email from an old accounting professor who was forwarding a request to all of his former students about some masters' student in the computer science department about needing ISA. Seriously. I didn't know comp sci ran tests on dinosaurs!

Oh I could tell you some stories about making old crap work. When I got my first job, the entire place will filled with old computers running over arcnet (I didn't know wtf arcnet even was), netware servers, and 64k point to point wan lines.

All of that started to change when people wanted to start using email.

That place runs off windows 7, 2008, SAP, and all sorts of modern stuff now. My job is tons easier.
 
Hit it with a hammer ;)
Then take out the battery for the BIOS for 5 minutes..... then put it back in. Then reboot and see what happens. :)
 
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