AN11E worked fine for 3 years, now takes 30 minutes to boot!

My friend has a FIC AN11E with an Athlon XP 1700. He has been noticing
some strange problems lately where it takes forever to boot. So I went
over and had a look (and actually upgraded his memory too).

When the machine is powered on, we get the white mainboard screen for
about 5 minutes! Then we get the BIOS screen. Windows XP will boot in
safe mode. It takes forever, but it eventually gets there and runs. This
is the wierdest stuff I've ever seen.

Its almost like the processor is running at 50MHz instead of 1.5GHz.

Any ideas? I've obviously reverted back to the original 256MB dimm. The
machine worked fine for 3 years before the recent problems. I've reset
the CMOS.

In article <pan.2005.05.26.13.38.47.557000@NO_SP_A_Myahoo.com >, PGG
<pa_paSPAAMgordygrapes@NO_SP_A_Myahoo.com> writes
>My friend has a FIC AN11E with an Athlon XP 1700. He has been noticing
>some strange problems lately where it takes forever to boot. So I went
>over and had a look (and actually upgraded his memory too).
>
>When the machine is powered on, we get the white mainboard screen for
>about 5 minutes! Then we get the BIOS screen. Windows XP will boot in
>safe mode. It takes forever, but it eventually gets there and runs. This
>is the wierdest stuff I've ever seen.
>
>Its almost like the processor is running at 50MHz instead of 1.5GHz.
>
>Any ideas? I've obviously reverted back to the original 256MB dimm. The
>machine worked fine for 3 years before the recent problems. I've reset
>the CMOS.
>
Shot in the dark ... CMOS battery need replacing?
--
Roger Hunt

This is just a guess, but in addition to a bad CMOS battery, another
possibility may be bad capacitors. Check that the capacitors are clean
and have nice flat tops. If any of the tops are bulging (like Coke cans
under pressure) or have brown stuff oozing from them, the capacitors are
bad. They may be replaced, if you or your friend is handy with a
soldering iron.

--Alex


PGG wrote:
> My friend has a FIC AN11E with an Athlon XP 1700. He has been noticing
> some strange problems lately where it takes forever to boot. So I went
> over and had a look (and actually upgraded his memory too).
>
> When the machine is powered on, we get the white mainboard screen for
> about 5 minutes! Then we get the BIOS screen. Windows XP will boot in
> safe mode. It takes forever, but it eventually gets there and runs. This
> is the wierdest stuff I've ever seen.
>
> Its almost like the processor is running at 50MHz instead of 1.5GHz.
>
> Any ideas? I've obviously reverted back to the original 256MB dimm. The
> machine worked fine for 3 years before the recent problems. I've reset
> the CMOS.
>
>