reviving my PC

[kkd]

My PC that had been working for 4 yrs has started behaving poorly this year. At first, it was just rebooting/hanging occasionally, but now it is to the point where I can barely use it. I ordered a new PC, but I'd also want to try to get this machine back up. Is this type of behavior possibly an issue with the motherboard? I was going to get a new motherboard to test it out... Is there no other way to troubleshoot this by getting different components (RAM, processor, motherboard, etc) and trying out each component? Are there any tools/utilities that might be useful?

Also, my system is an Athlon XP 2400+. What is a good (cheap) motherboard for this processor? I don't have any PCI-E or SATA devices, so I really don't need anything new/fancy.

 

[mzkhadir]

check the caps on your motherboard to see if they are bulging/leaking ?

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Bad caps on the motherboard or in the power supply would be a prime suspect. Examples here:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195

Other than that, swapping out parts is the only way to diagnose it.

 

[kkd]

Thanks for the info and link... I'll check this motherboard and see if this is the issue. When you say 'in the power supply', do you mean I need to check for caps in the power supply??

Also, can someone suggest a good (reliable) and cheap motherboard for the 2400+?

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Yes, you could have bad caps inside the PSU. You shouldn't open it however unless you know what you'e doing. There's potentially dangerous voltages in there. Swap out the PSU with a spare if in doubt.

I'm a big fan of nForce2 chipset mobos. I can highly recommend the Epox 8RDA3