KT7/KT7-RAID replacement

I have a home built PC with a 900 MHz KT7/KT7-RAID mother board in it. After
years of faithful service it appears to have failed.

A couple of weeks ago when I booted the PC up it gave Windows 2000 active
desktop errors. I cycled active desktop off and all was well. This happened
on the next couple of reboots. On the next boot up everything looked normal
until the Win 2000 splash screen with the progress meter came up. The bar
gets about half way across and stops, never to move again. Booting in safe
mode gives a blue screen asking if there were any software or hardware
changes. There were not. I ran commercial hardware diagnostic software and
it finds bad serial and parallel ports, but the mother board checks good. I
pulled every card from the PC and swapped the video card out with a know
good one, same results. I have two extra hard drives not installed but
configured like the drive in the PC. I get the same results booting with
each one.

At this point I'm 99% sure the mother board is the culprit. I'd be happy to
listen to any troubleshooting steps I may have missed. In the absence of
that, can anyone tell me where I can find one of these boards with 900 MHz
processor for a reasonable price. If not I'd be happy to get suggestions of
replacement processor board combo recommendations in the 3 GB range. I'm
trying to decide whether buying a PC or upgrading this one is my best bet.

Thanks

SGF

 

It's always cheaper to upgrade than buy new, but before you give up on the
one you have now I'd try a new PSU. A weak PSU will give the same problems
you have. Could be the caps have got weak to work with a marginal wattage
PSU. A common problem with the KT7 era boards. Look for domed tops and
leaking caps on the board. And I wouldn't use windows (or any OS) to test
with. It's suseptable to too many viruses and driver problems that may
result in looking like hardware problems. And even if it's ok, it might
not be after once booting it due to disk corruption that might occer
with a faulty system. Use a memtest boot cd/diskette for initial test.
After that works you can run prime95 to check for stability.

As for upgading, you can still find new socket A boards if you want to use
your old cpu, but IMO, that's not a reasonalble option unless you are just
strapped for cash at the moment. Findind a new socket A board that would
except your old ram will be a problem and with the price of PC3200 ram so
cheap I wouldn't even consider using the old ram. Sell the old MB/CPU/ram
on ebay and start with a new board/CPU/ram/ and PSU. If you want to stay
cheap, you can get a new Athlon 64 combo for a little more than $100 that
will be at many times faster than your old 900MHz Duron(?). Socket A is
dead and teh only ones in AMD price list are Semprons and they aren't
worth buying IMO.