[Techtalk] Diagnosing a hardware problem

[Vera Childs]

On 11/15/2002 at 5:08 PM Maria Blackmore wrote:
>> I think my computer is possessed. :)
>
>or possibly just dusty/dirty

It *is* dusty. I need to get a can of air and get the dust bunnies out. :)

>I would suspect a motherboard problem, specifically it sounds like there
>could be a pair of shorted address lines to the sockets, or possibly
>cracked address lines, or a wonkly contact in the socket.  This is because
>the same problem happens in the same place with both sticks.  Hmm, an
>interesting thing to try is to try both sticks in all the sockets on the
>board, by themselves, perhaps?

I've tried each of the two sticks by themselves in each of the two slots
that they've been sitting in. I couldn't get a chip into the third slot, as
cables and such get in the way, so I gave up on that. But I've gotten the
same results with the 256MB by itself in both of the other slots, and with
the 64MB by itself in both of the slots. If it hangs at boot, it always
hangs at the same spot. If it gets beyond that hang, it hangs pretty soon
afterward, or else it spontaneously reboots. I've gotten both of those
symptoms with each of the chips.


-Vera