P2 based machines dieing faster than I can count.

I have noticed that many of my Pentium 2 based machines with slot 1 and socket 7 processors are dieing for no apparent reason. I have 4 machines that all died a similar death. They would work fine and one day they would never POST again.

I think it is the main boards, because all of the PCI, AGP cards, IDE drives, PSU, and RAM still work. The machines will turn on and power up, however the video never comes on and i never hear them beep.

I can't tell who made these main boards, but i can tell that they have VIA chipsets, DIMM SDR memory banks, ATX form factor, and some have AGP and ISA slots.

Does anybody have a similar story? Does anybody have a clue what is causing these deaths? It is getting expensive replacing these PCs.

could try replacing the cmos battery

Doesn't work. I have also tried clearing the CMOS and booting with nothing plugged into the main board(except known working CPU and Memory).

Is it possible that the Capacitors are bad? I heard that there was a problem with this in the 1990s.

It is possible that the processors are reaching the end of their lifespan and electromigration has caused them to die.

Gnufsh said:

It is possible that the processors are reaching the end of their lifespan and electromigration has caused them to die.

Click to expand...

Processors actually do that? I would figure that they would remain unchanged for almost forever.

that is the case, processors get old..their life span is...10 years, right gnufsh?..

so if you use them a lot they should be dying about now..

that's why you keep them cooler, they'll last longer.

and sorry to hear this..try switching out the processors.

and no, these systems are cheap.

but I hope that my P2s don't start dying.. *shivers with fear*

Here's an electromigration link:
http://www.csl.mete.metu.edu.tr/Electromigration/emig.htm
It's got some cool pics of the interconnects after substantial electromigration. If I remember what I heard, te intended average lifespan of a CPU used to be about ten years, but I have not confiirmed that at all.

Would like to see a socket 7 pentium 2 motherboard!

Actually the capacitor problem was from about 2000 to 2002. However all electrolytic capacitors will eventually give out as the solution drys up. There's not much to about it but keep the motherboard as cool as practical.

Then soon will be the pentium 3's???

There are some Pentium 1's that I know of that still work, as well as a 386DX 40mhz that my friend has. Works, no problems

The original Pentiums were pretty bullet proof. Wouldn't be surprized if those last forever. Not so sure about the PII's. They seemed to run pretty hot. Maybe I'm just more used to Coppermine temps.

Did you check the capacitors? My old K6-2 500 system wouldn't boot because of a dead capacitor and a blown MOSFET. It would turn on but that was it. Replace em and bam they work again.