(erielack) Off-topic question re: computers (for computer-savvy folks)

["Tupaczewski, Paul R (Paul)" <paultup_@_lucent.com>]

I know this is off-EL topic, but I'm at wit's end here. Please respond to me off-list so it's not cluttered with off-topic content:

My machine at home is a mess! I built it myself from components about a year ago, and has worked fine up until a month ago. It's an AMD Athlon 1400MHz processor on a Soyo Dragon K7VIA motherboard. 768KB of RAM. It now like to randomly lock up somewhere in the boot-up process (so it's not a Windows issue). I get several common errors from the BIOS, including "Error: Init chip 0x2; press any key" and sometimes "hangs" in the middle of the memory check or the SCSI device scan. I also get Windows errors, but they seem to be related to the hardware. Often times it won't even BOOT. It just beeps once and sits there. However, once I do get into Windows, it runs very solidly. Huh?

I've reset the BIOS, I've checked the RAM (all OK), I've done everything but nothing has helped. I took it into a computer dealer for repair. Three days later (and $60 later) it was "repaired" - description on the invoice was "Reinstalled Windows, reset hardware."  Not sure what "reset hardware" meant, but it worked fine... for two days. And then it returned to the above "broken" state.

Could this be a motherboard issue? Can anyone recommend any RELIABLE computer repair places in the Morris County, NJ area?

Thanks in advance, and sorry for wasting the list's bandwidth....

	- Paul


Paul R. Tupaczewski_______________________
Lucent Technologies
Mobility Solutions                              Phone: 973-386-4966
MASD Innovations                                Fax: 973-386-4147
67 Whippany Road, Room 15D-116  
Whippany, NJ 07981                            
_______________________________________________

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