Most IT guys take pride in being able to fix any computer problem that may crop up over time. But sometimes you run across that one little problem that doesn’t seem to have a real solution, no matter how hard you try. Such was my luck today. My Achilles’ heel for the day was an eMachines W3611 with an Intel 945G chipset on the mainboard. What was irritating was the fact that the when I first got my hands on this computer, it booted directly into Windows Vista without any trouble. I gave the computer back to the client and said, “I can’t find anything wrong.” But something most definitely was wrong. After about an hour, the client brought the computer back, but this time with all of the symptoms (the same symptoms I hadn’t been able to duplicate before). This time I was able to see the problem first hand.
The computer would POST then immediately go to the BIOS settings screen. Normally, you have to hit F2 or some other function button in order to gain access to the BIOS at start up, but not in this case. When you exited out of the BIOS screen (either saving or not saving the settings) it would immediately take you to a black screen that said Turn power off and reinstall the jumper in Normal mode position. Well, Mister Jumper – that sounds like an easy fix. The only problem was that the jumper to clear the CMOS was already in the correct place (between pins 1 & 2). After doing a great deal of tinkering with the jumper setting, CMOS, components, battery, etc. – I was stumped. Everything on the computer seemed to work fine, except for the same darned error that popped up every time the computer powered on. Again, this was very irritating since the computer started up fine for me when I first looked at it.
I’ve worked with a lot of computers over the years – some well maintained, but most of them in horrible condition. This computer was actually in pretty good shape with no visible problems. I pondered the problem for several hours and began pouring over the online computer help forums.
Generally, when you can’t figure something out on your own, a quick Google search will reveal that hidden answer. To my surprise, the forums were absolutely useless! In fact, most of the answers pointed to the a little yellow jumper. Well, I can tell you that the little yellow jumper wasn’t the problem. Something else was going on, but do you think the forums were any help? Of course not – they just made me realize that there are a large number of people who post to the forums that are condescending, rude, and incapable of admitting that they don’t know the answer to a problem. Well, not wanting to be one of those people I just described, I’ll admit when I’m beat! I don’t know what is causing this problem other than most likely there is an error with the Intel mainboard.
I even contacted a friend of mine who works in the IT field and he also pointed to the possibility of a faulty mainboard. While I would like to say I can fix almost any computer problem, I have to admit when I’m beat. In this case, I have to chalk it up to hardware failure until I can determine “if” there is another solution. It’s never easy to tell someone that their computer has died, and this case will be no different. You can’t win ‘em all…
By the way, if anyone has a solution to this problem, please post it here!