Need help on dad's PIII

I am pretty new to this hardcore computer modifying so bear with me. Last night I was setting up my dad's three year old PIII-733. I opened it up to look at the parts. (Like I said I am new to this and very curious).

So I put it back together. It boots fine to Win98. I just learned about how important it is to keep a clean desktop and startmenu, so I go through deleting and moving all the shortcuts.

My dad decides he wants to move the comp to a new spot so I power down and move it. I turn it on and now it wont "post" (I think that is the correct term) The initial boot screen comes up telling me what bios it is, what mobo, and the CPU speed. Then the system just hangs with the message on the bottom hit del to enter setup and the next line is 6/12/2000-VT694X-P3V4X. Hitting del or anything else doesn't enter the BIOS.

I then try restarting, I get the same messages only now it displays 366E as the CPU speed. I assume it is automatically lowering the speed to try to boot. It still hangs.

I have not done any overclocking on this system. I was hoping to use it to learn on before my new system gets here. The next step that I am thinking about is trying to clear CMOS or BIOS. But I am not sure if this is the right step or how to do that. I just remember other people advising to do that in similar circumstances.

Sorry for the long post just trying to get all the relevant info out there. I really appreciate any help.


Oh and on a totally irrelevant side note the motherboard in this tower is setup so the cards fit in upside-down. I assume this is to help with the dust. This is the computer I was given when I was a cadet at West Point. Has anyone seen anything like this before? The board is an ASUS P3V4X.

Oh I just remembered I turned video shadowing off in the bios. Could this be related to the problem?

Any chance you plugged the k/b in the mouse port and visa-versa after you moved it?

If you have the manual for the mobo that should tell you how to reset the CMOS. I'm guessing something got changed in there that wasn't supposed to be changed.

Clearing cmos is a pretty standard step at the point you find yourself at.
If the jumper is not labeled and you do not have the manual, the info on which jumper it is will probaly be available online- just find the model # of the pc and look on the manufacturers site.

Try that and let us know

Oh I just remembered I turned video shadowing off in the bios. Could this be related to the problem?

Click to expand...

i don't think video shadowing could be the problem...

can you get into the bios when you boot?

if so...there should be an option to restore everything to default...try that...

in addition you should clear the CMOS (sometimes holding down the insert key while booting works)...sometimes there is an onboard jumper that has to be reset...look it up for that board)

also...i see you are (were?) a cadet at west point... and you like running...did you run for west point?...i went to the naval academy ('93 Go Navy, Beat Army ) Anyway...i left after two years...but one of my roommates was Greg Keller...and he was an awesome runner...4:01 record mile time...12 varsity letters and almost qualified for the olympics...ever heard of him?

Thanks for the advice guys. I haven't been able to get back to my dad's place yet. I did find the manual for the board and looked around online some. Surprisingly it seems have been a really good board a few years ago. I say surprisingly because it was a government/army computer. Anyway from what I have found it seems you can’t reset CMOS without removing the battery, so I will try that and a few other things when I get a chance.


larva- Actually I thought I did plug them in wrong. That was about the second thing I looked at, I said to myself " how silly, well at least its easy to fix." But nope I had them in right.

dustybyrd- I can't get into bios now, I disabled the video shadowing just before my current problems.

And yes I did go to West Point for just a semester. I tried to walk on the team, not quite fast enough. I haven’t heard of Greg Keller, I will mention the name to my brother. He follows competitive running a lot more then me. I bet he has heard of him with times like that. Go Army, Beat Navy!

Just asking, dont kill me, But you DID check so all the cards and cpu /memory are correcly seated in the PC after the "move" ?

Just a thought, as i kinda agre that the Video bios shadowing thingy cant have anything to do with this.

Also, if you have a "button" like battery, dont remove it, just push a small pice off paiper or plastik (credit card, drivers licens comes to mind) under the metal "rod" or the top, to get it disconnected from the mobo, leave it in.

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/slot1/pro133a/p3v4x/p3v4x-102.pdf
^^manual, guess you looked at this allready^^
in the manual ther eseams to be an undocumented jumper,
just next to the battery, a good guess is that is the one to clear your bios,
but it could be for something else offcourse *- )

I would say, power down your thingy, completly, like remove powercord from atx powersupply, short those pins for a sec, and try booting your PC up...

Best off luck!
B!