OSX86 Fried my Processor/Motherboard? Need desperate help.

[Poi§on]

Hi all, I need some input. I recently installed a copy of OSX86 10.4.1 I got and everything went real smooth. Got it installed and running just fine. Then as I was using it (after it was installed) and my computer would suddenly reboot itself out of nowhere. Although annoying i figured it was a bug or something. The last time it did that however now made my machine not even boot up. its not even booting from a completely different hard drive with win xp. It just has a black screen as if my monitor was unplugged. I've tried 2 different video cards, unplugging and plugging in different combinations of my Hds/Cd-Roms. The power supply has full voltage going to every jack and all the lights and fans work. I tried resetting the CMOS/taking battery out. I tried replacing cables and switching master/slave/cs selections. On both USB and PS/2 keyboards/mice nothing works, no lights or activity on either. The only thing that happens is the HDD activity light stays lit steady for about 20 secs after I turn the power on then goes off. I tried taking the processor out of the socket. i tried unplugging all the internal USB/extra port cords to my motherboard. Even if I unplug all the HDs/DVD-Roms and try to boot up with no drives connected, I see nothing, no DOS/BIOS screen saying "Insert bootable disk" errors, NOTHING.

 

I used to be a computer technician, got a bachelors in computer ahrdware engineering, now I work in the fab for Intel so I have a good amount of knowledge in area. Is it possible somehow OSX86 fried my motherboard or chip? Nothing smells burnt or looks physically damaged. I installed OSX86 onto the IDE drive with the serial ata drive disconnected as to not mess up my previously installed Win XP. My system will not boot into either now. Just a black screen and orange light (versus green) on my monitor.

 

I did not have any problems like this since I built it using XP, only just now after installing this OSX. i originally installed the SSE2 that came with it and after checking the hardware in the system profiler and saw my processor was SSE3 capable I installed the SSE3 package that was on the image i got as well. I also installed the latest ATI dirvers from online even though it said the drivers that came with OSX86 10.4.1 didn't work. Besides that I never installed anything else. This happened after only having osx86 installed for a few hours.

 

I'm hoping if something is blown Its my processor. I can get a replacement for free from intel since I work there and i got it as a loaner chip (We get new loaner chips every year and replacement ones if they go bad). Maybe the loaner chip didn't like osx86. I know they do warn us they might not even work at all even with windows. If its my motherboard that will suck cuz that cost around $150. Any other resets you all might know of to fix this that I haven't tried?

 

ANY INFO OR HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

 

My system stats are below:

 

Pentium 4 Socket T 3.2Ghz

PF21 ECS Motherboard

ATI X800XL 512MB video card

250GB Serial ATA HD

250GB ATA IDE HD

1.5GB DDR2 RAM (3 512MB sticks)

DVD-ROM

52x32x52 Liteon CD Burner

Floppy Drive

XBlade case

Many LED fans

Thermaltake heatsink with different (quieter) fan

[sheepdog43]

Start by unplugging anything not necessary to get into the bios, in other words, no card besides video, and no drives.

 

This narrows the problem area by a big margin. if it boots, start adding things untill it doesn't. Unplug that, and continue (to make sure it is not more than one thing).

 

Could be a bad PSU, or ram. Usually ram will give you a beep code. Make sure it is seated properly, maybe it got bumped.

 

I doubt osx killed the system.

 

Only time that happens is if the OS makes a monitor run out of specification usually.

 

 

If the above fails, take the chip in and say its bad. Also, Intel makes boards, in fact the best boards for OSX are the Intel 915 with 900 graphics card. See if you can get a reduced costs if nothing else, even then you can get a 915 board for $100 through local retailers.

[Poi§on]

Start by unplugging anything not necessary to get into the bios, in other words, no card besides video, and no drives.

 

This narrows the problem area by a big margin. if it boots, start adding things untill it doesn't. Unplug that, and continue (to make sure it is not more than one thing).

 

Could be a bad PSU, or ram. Usually ram will give you a beep code. Make sure it is seated properly, maybe it got bumped.

 

I doubt osx killed the system.

 

Only time that happens is if the OS makes a monitor run out of specification usually.

If the above fails, take the chip in and say its bad. Also, Intel makes boards, in fact the best boards for OSX are the Intel 915 with 900 graphics card. See if you can get a reduced costs if nothing else, even then you can get a 915 board for $100 through local retailers.

 

I tried unplugging everything and still no boot up. I even disconnected all the internal wires going off the motherboard (audio, USB, serial/paralell ports, etc) with no effect. No beeping either. I tried only using 1 ram stick in each of the 4 slots. i tried using only 1 of each one of those 3 i have in those slots. I tried using a different power supply. Just a blank screen. I don't know what else is left to check. I really like my motherboard so I hope thats not it. i'm guessing (and hoping) the processor went out. God i wished I would have just tried out this sh** on my girlfriend's old dell first. Any more ideas to you guys out there would still be great.

 

~Poi§on

[stryder]

I also installed the latest ATI dirvers from online even though it said the drivers that came with OSX86 10.4.1 didn't work. Besides that I never installed anything else.

 

Hate to say it, but that's what killed your system. You installed drivers for the PPC Mac OS X version, which uses completely different video cards. Video cards on the PPC platform use a different on-board bios, and they talk to the system in a different way. You CANNOT use the PPC drivers on the Intel build. You may have fried your AGP slot when the drivers tried to update the card (the ATI drivers sometimes do a flash update when you install them, depending on which drivers you are downloading and which card you have), or you just fried your x800 card and the computer hasn't recovered yet.

 

Try a PCI video card if you can, and see what that does.

 

I've fried a video card before, and it's not fun. What fried mine? A brief surge from the otherwise good PSU. My problem: I bought it on eBay, so I had NO WARRANTY with Sapphire. $250 bucks down the drain that time...

 

Don't try your x800 video card in another system unless you want to risk messing that system up, too. If for some reason you have flashed the bios on the card to be PPC, or atleast corruped it, there may be a chance you could mess up any computer you put that video card into.

[Sudar]

Look, it may sound stupid but I dare ask you do the following - try to replace your monitor (SVHS-out will do too) before doing anything else...

[Poi§on]

Hate to say it, but that's what killed your system. You installed drivers for the PPC Mac OS X version, which uses completely different video cards. Video cards on the PPC platform use a different on-board bios, and they talk to the system in a different way. You CANNOT use the PPC drivers on the Intel build. You may have fried your AGP slot when the drivers tried to update the card (the ATI drivers sometimes do a flash update when you install them, depending on which drivers you are downloading and which card you have), or you just fried your x800 card and the computer hasn't recovered yet.

 

Try a PCI video card if you can, and see what that does.

 

I've fried a video card before, and it's not fun. What fried mine? A brief surge from the otherwise good PSU. My problem: I bought it on eBay, so I had NO WARRANTY with Sapphire. $250 bucks down the drain that time...

 

Don't try your x800 video card in another system unless you want to risk messing that system up, too. If for some reason you have flashed the bios on the card to be PPC, or atleast corruped it, there may be a chance you could mess up any computer you put that video card into.

 

 

The X800XL was PCI-X. I don't have any AGP slots on that motherboard. I tried a completely different regular PCI video card that was never in there and the same thing happened so i don't think thats what the problem is. i got the card from newegg recently so I'm sure they'd let me send it back if thats what it ends up being. Besides if it was the video card wouldn't I hear the system booting up? Remember even after sitting for like 5 mins and pressing every key on the keyboard nothing is working. No mouse, keyboard lights anything. Both with Ps/2 mice and keyboard and USB mice and keyboard. If it was booting but I was not able to see it the HD would be ticking and I'd hear that stupid windows logon sound. What makes me think its the processor is I tryed starting it up with no processor in the slot and the SAME exact thing happens.

 

Look, it may sound stupid but I dare ask you do the following - try to replace your monitor (SVHS-out will do too) before doing anything else...

 

I tryed that too...

[stryder]

I tryed that too...

 

 

Hmmm.... when my video card died, the whole machine died with it. I had to start replacing parts piece by piece before I discovered what it was. Nothing would boot, and I couldn't even get the bios.

[Poi§on]

Hmmm.... when my video card died, the whole machine died with it. I had to start replacing parts piece by piece before I discovered what it was. Nothing would boot, and I couldn't even get the bios.

 

Someone give me some good news...

[gec]

if video card died it could prevent system from booting. what ever u do, do with just power suply, processor, 1 pc of ram, video card, monitor and keyboard. i would also disconnect all the wires to pc speaker and lights except power button. PS, cpu, ram and videocard shuld be known that worked on some other system. if that with resseting bios does not help then its the mb that died. nad i don think it is osx that is the problem.

[EtherealRemnant]

I highly doubt it was OS X that fried it as well.

 

I also HIGHLY HIGHLY doubt that the ATI drivers did it either.

 

Ummm... someone tell me how a driver that can't even find the specific vendor ID that its looking for can magically flash the BIOS of a card that, in its eyes, does not exist?

 

There would be no point to having ATI add the vendor IDs for all of its PC cards into the Mac driver. That just doesn't make sense.

 

It honestly sounds like you fried the motherboard. 150 dollars really isn't all that much money... It could be a lot worse - a LOT worse. You could always have what happened to me - a power surge... About 850 dollars up in smoke.

 

Either way, good luck to you.

 

By the way... Where can I find this info about ATI flashing the drivers during the install? You know, since flashing things in XP simply can't be done with any real safety...

[Poi§on]

I highly doubt it was OS X that fried it as well.

 

I also HIGHLY HIGHLY doubt that the ATI drivers did it either.

 

Ummm... someone tell me how a driver that can't even find the specific vendor ID that its looking for can magically flash the BIOS of a card that, in its eyes, does not exist?

 

There would be no point to having ATI add the vendor IDs for all of its PC cards into the Mac driver. That just doesn't make sense.

 

It honestly sounds like you fried the motherboard. 150 dollars really isn't all that much money... It could be a lot worse - a LOT worse. You could always have what happened to me - a power surge... About 850 dollars up in smoke.

 

Either way, good luck to you.

 

By the way... Where can I find this info about ATI flashing the drivers during the install? You know, since flashing things in XP simply can't be done with any real safety...

 

 

I seem to agree with you. I'm going to have a coworker test some of my components today so we'll see.

[t25bimmer]

osx86 cannot in any way fry you motherboard, it seems to me to just be a freak event. Try reflashing the bios

[Poi§on]

osx86 cannot in any way fry you motherboard, it seems to me to just be a freak event. Try reflashing the bios

 

How can I reflash the Bios if the computer won't even do anything when i turn it on? Unless you know of someway to flash it without using the computer. It would have to be a seriously freak event cuz everything was working fine UNTIL i installed OSx86 10.4.1.

[JaS]

How can I reflash the Bios if the computer won't even do anything when i turn it on? Unless you know of someway to flash it without using the computer. It would have to be a seriously freak event cuz everything was working fine UNTIL i installed OSx86 10.4.1.

 

Ive had this problem 3 time in my life and every time it was a bad power supply.Lucky for me I always have afew here to replace the bad one.just go get a new one.or use an old one out of an older pc as long as the conector is compatable ... dont force it in there.If your worried about the old one not having the power you need.only plug in the mother board,1 cd or dvd drive and one hard disk and the vid card...unless you have onboard video that you can use.

[Poi§on]

Ive had this problem 3 time in my life and every time it was a bad power supply.Lucky for me I always have afew here to replace the bad one.just go get a new one.or use an old one out of an older pc as long as the conector is compatable ... dont force it in there.If your worried about the old one not having the power you need.only plug in the mother board,1 cd or dvd drive and one hard disk and the vid card...unless you have onboard video that you can use.

 

I already did that. Its not the PS.

 

Luckily my motherboard comes with a top hat flash BIOS restorer. Unfortunately the part was missing from the box (I'm having just awesome luck). So now I have to send back the motherboard to newegg to get a replacement. Hopefully the replacement will fix this problem and will have the top hat flash included this time... What a hassle. At least as far as money goes I'm only out what its gonna cost to ship it back which is good.

[EtherealRemnant]

Well let us all know how it goes and good luck!

[domino]

Maybe got a leak in the intake hose of the hydrogen cooler for the cpu or gpu?

 

But seriousely, if you don't have a digital readout of the problem on the mother board, you changed and tested all the hardware, removed the mobo and tested it outside that box (for grounding), then it's a paper weight board.

 

The drivers have nothing to do with Vagp unless the software has an overclocking feature. Which is very remote since the drivers are not made for your machines.

[stryder]

I highly doubt it was OS X that fried it as well.

 

I also HIGHLY HIGHLY doubt that the ATI drivers did it either.

 

Ummm... someone tell me how a driver that can't even find the specific vendor ID that its looking for can magically flash the BIOS of a card that, in its eyes, does not exist?

 

There would be no point to having ATI add the vendor IDs for all of its PC cards into the Mac driver. That just doesn't make sense.

 

By the way... Where can I find this info about ATI flashing the drivers during the install? You know, since flashing things in XP simply can't be done with any real safety...

 

Funny how everyone is an expert. Tell me, how long have you used a MACINTOSH?

 

These drivers are from ATI, and are not compatible with 10.4:

 

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/ati-radeon-10-...005-readme.html

 

These files update the firmware and ROM file in the OS (which MAY have been what was downloaded, who knows...?):

 

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/aug2005-radeon...ate-readme.html

 

Installing some of the ATI DRIVER updates on the PowerPC Macintosh causes the firmware to be updated on the video card AS WELL. This is a known fact. It's not so on the OEM Apple cards, just the retail cards.

 

And yes, there were reports of people installing PeeCee ATI video cards in their PowerPC Macs, and trying to install drivers/update firmware, and frying their cards. Well, not so much frying the card as corrupting the on-board firmware.

 

The firmware onboard a video card made for the x86 architecture is totally different than that made for the PowerPC architecture. That said, a driver manufacturer right now has not released drivers that know the difference between the PPC and x86 architecture. In that case, installing a driver which could possibly try and update something on the card could cause it to cease working.

 

I didn't say in my post that IT DID FRY IT, I said it was a possibility. AND IT IS A POSSIBILITY. Nobody knows how things are interacting on these 3-headed hydra systems.

 

Unless you work for ATI or Apple, you have no way of knowing whether installing the ATI drivers can cause a video card to cease to work on OS X for x86. That said, I'm not about to try, as I've already fried one $250 card in the past while...

 

Remember, you're thinking about how things work on Windows XP. THIS ISN'T WINDOWS XP. You can successfully update firmware within the OS on Mac OS X. It's sorta a requirment when THAT'S THE ONLY WAY TO DO IT ON A PPC MAC. Tell me, if you can't update the firmware from with OS X, then how the hell do you update the firmware on things on a G5? You can't boot into DOS and apply the update. It's done WITHIN Mac OS X.

 

Geez.... use your brain and think of other possibilities other than what happens on Windows XP...

[domino]

Hmm, I learn somethingnew everday. It's also funny how "Mac gurus" pop at late stages of the discussion to prove there worth.

[other]

Have you tried with another screen?

 

I remember my computer would show nothing on the display but that was because I hadn't put in my graphics card correctly!

 

Actually 2 hours ago, my monitor died (RIP) I recommend you find another and test your machine. If thats not worked then you will probebly need to replace your motherboard.

[loderunner]

Hi all, I need some input. I recently installed a copy of OSX86 10.4.1 I got and everything went real smooth. Got it installed and running just fine. Then as I was using it (after it was installed) and my computer would suddenly reboot itself out of nowhere. Although annoying i figured it was a bug or something. The last time it did that however now made my machine not even boot up. its not even booting from a completely different hard drive with win xp. It just has a black screen as if my monitor was unplugged. I've tried 2 different video cards, unplugging and plugging in different combinations of my Hds/Cd-Roms. The power supply has full voltage going to every jack and all the lights and fans work. I tried resetting the CMOS/taking battery out. I tried replacing cables and switching master/slave/cs selections. On both USB and PS/2 keyboards/mice nothing works, no lights or activity on either. The only thing that happens is the HDD activity light stays lit steady for about 20 secs after I turn the power on then goes off. I tried taking the processor out of the socket. i tried unplugging all the internal USB/extra port cords to my motherboard. Even if I unplug all the HDs/DVD-Roms and try to boot up with no drives connected, I see nothing, no DOS/BIOS screen saying "Insert bootable disk" errors, NOTHING.

 

I used to be a computer technician, got a bachelors in computer ahrdware engineering, now I work in the fab for Intel so I have a good amount of knowledge in area. Is it possible somehow OSX86 fried my motherboard or chip? Nothing smells burnt or looks physically damaged. I installed OSX86 onto the IDE drive with the serial ata drive disconnected as to not mess up my previously installed Win XP. My system will not boot into either now. Just a black screen and orange light (versus green) on my monitor.

 

I did not have any problems like this since I built it using XP, only just now after installing this OSX. i originally installed the SSE2 that came with it and after checking the hardware in the system profiler and saw my processor was SSE3 capable I installed the SSE3 package that was on the image i got as well. I also installed the latest ATI dirvers from online even though it said the drivers that came with OSX86 10.4.1 didn't work. Besides that I never installed anything else. This happened after only having osx86 installed for a few hours.

 

I'm hoping if something is blown Its my processor. I can get a replacement for free from intel since I work there and i got it as a loaner chip (We get new loaner chips every year and replacement ones if they go bad). Maybe the loaner chip didn't like osx86. I know they do warn us they might not even work at all even with windows. If its my motherboard that will suck cuz that cost around $150. Any other resets you all might know of to fix this that I haven't tried?

 

ANY INFO OR HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

 

My system stats are below:

 

Pentium 4 Socket T 3.2Ghz

PF21 ECS Motherboard

ATI X800XL 512MB video card

250GB Serial ATA HD

250GB ATA IDE HD

1.5GB DDR2 RAM (3 512MB sticks)

DVD-ROM

52x32x52 Liteon CD Burner

Floppy Drive

XBlade case

Many LED fans

Thermaltake heatsink with different (quieter) fan

Have you triesd booting from a floppy boot disk? If your computer does not boot either from floopy or with a another video card, than you motheboard BIOS is toast. Either you need a new BIOS Chip or Motherboard.

OS x86 has also toasted one of my hard drive.

[gimpyviper]

Have you triesd booting from a floppy boot disk? If your computer does not boot either from floopy or with a another video card, than you motheboard BIOS is toast. Either you need a new BIOS Chip or Motherboard.

OS x86 has also toasted one of my hard drive.

 

I think his issue is that his system won't even POST, let alone boot. So a floppy disk or any other drive or boot medium is useless. I used to call this the "smoke test" when I was in college. You install the BARE minimum parts. (Power Supply, Mobo, Proc, 1 stick of RAM, video card and keyboard) Turn it on and make sure you don't get a terrible error beep or worse, smoke

 

It sounds to me that's a blown motherboard. Especially since he was having intermitten rebooting issues at the start. One question I have is, is the northbridge cooler an active or passive cooler? If it's active is the fan on it shot? Cause if it is or if the heatsink has become dislodge from the northbridge chip, overheating can cause intermitten failure at first until it finally goes up in smoke.

 

I could have sworn I read on here some guys flashing their ATI and Nvidia cards back and forth from Mac firmware to PC and back again. But I'm too lazy to dig it up to be sure. Either way, I don't think it's a blown video card since he's tried other ones, including a standard PCI card. Weather or not installing ATI PPC drivers can blow a motherboard, that I couldn't answer one way or another. I have a hard time thinking it would even get to that point since his video card is PCI-E and the firmware flash would be looking for an AGP or PCI card. If anything I would think the installer would bomb out and bark at you with some error saying card not detected or something to that effect.... But again unless I hear it from ATI I can't speculate.

 

My first guess would be the power supply, but since he said he's tried 3 different ones I doubt that's it. He said all the lights and fans spin up so at least the power supply can be somewhat eliminated for now.

 

At this time I don't think you can eliminate the processor just yet because all signs are pointing toward a blown motherboard. Worse case scenario, the motherboard is shot AND the processor is dead as well.

 

As others have said, replace the Mobo and go from there. To be absolutely sure, test your processor in your friends machine first, if it's fine then for sure replace the mobo.

[EtherealRemnant]

Funny how everyone is an expert. Tell me, how long have you used a MACINTOSH?

 

These drivers are from ATI, and are not compatible with 10.4:

 

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/ati-radeon-10-...005-readme.html

 

These files update the firmware and ROM file in the OS (which MAY have been what was downloaded, who knows...?):

 

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/aug2005-radeon...ate-readme.html

 

Installing some of the ATI DRIVER updates on the PowerPC Macintosh causes the firmware to be updated on the video card AS WELL. This is a known fact. It's not so on the OEM Apple cards, just the retail cards.

 

And yes, there were reports of people installing PeeCee ATI video cards in their PowerPC Macs, and trying to install drivers/update firmware, and frying their cards. Well, not so much frying the card as corrupting the on-board firmware.

 

The firmware onboard a video card made for the x86 architecture is totally different than that made for the PowerPC architecture. That said, a driver manufacturer right now has not released drivers that know the difference between the PPC and x86 architecture. In that case, installing a driver which could possibly try and update something on the card could cause it to cease working.

 

I didn't say in my post that IT DID FRY IT, I said it was a possibility. AND IT IS A POSSIBILITY. Nobody knows how things are interacting on these 3-headed hydra systems.

 

Unless you work for ATI or Apple, you have no way of knowing whether installing the ATI drivers can cause a video card to cease to work on OS X for x86. That said, I'm not about to try, as I've already fried one $250 card in the past while...

 

Remember, you're thinking about how things work on Windows XP. THIS ISN'T WINDOWS XP. You can successfully update firmware within the OS on Mac OS X. It's sorta a requirment when THAT'S THE ONLY WAY TO DO IT ON A PPC MAC. Tell me, if you can't update the firmware from with OS X, then how the hell do you update the firmware on things on a G5? You can't boot into DOS and apply the update. It's done WITHIN Mac OS X.

 

Geez.... use your brain and think of other possibilities other than what happens on Windows XP...

 

Well, if he did, in fact, corrupt the firmware... wouldn't it be an easy fix? You just stick a PCI card in the computer, boot off of that, and re-flash the firmware?

 

And, sorry, I had heard in the past that ATI never does any sort of flashing. I figured that applied to both Mac and Windows, so that's my bad and I'll admit that.

 

But it still definitely sounds like the mobo failed.

 

But the thing that interests me... Is that if the driver did in fact try to patch the video card... could it be possible that the flash did something to something else in the computer instead of hitting its target? I can see how that could conceivably make the motherboard fubar.

 

Once again, I apologize for my ignorance and I apologize if I came off as an {censored} in that post, it wasn't my intent.

 

I'll admit that I'm definitely still learning all of this and while I'm catching on fast, I was using information that I'd heard previously about ATI's stance about flashing the firmware.

[loderunner]

Well, if he did, in fact, corrupt the firmware... wouldn't it be an easy fix? You just stick a PCI card in the computer, boot off of that, and re-flash the firmware?

 

And, sorry, I had heard in the past that ATI never does any sort of flashing. I figured that applied to both Mac and Windows, so that's my bad and I'll admit that.

 

But it still definitely sounds like the mobo failed.

 

But the thing that interests me... Is that if the driver did in fact try to patch the video card... could it be possible that the flash did something to something else in the computer instead of hitting its target? I can see how that could conceivably make the motherboard fubar.

 

Once again, I apologize for my ignorance and I apologize if I came off as an {censored} in that post, it wasn't my intent.

 

I'll admit that I'm definitely still learning all of this and while I'm catching on fast, I was using information that I'd heard previously about ATI's stance about flashing the firmware.

Once the bios is corrupted and computer is unbootable from floppy: Indicates that bios chip is fried and must be replaced. I am telling you from my personnel experience. I had a similar situation whith my ASUS motherbord a few months back. Computer could not be started at all. No beep-nothing.The only thing running was the cpu fan. I got this MB replaced by the manufacturer because it was still under warranty.

[rushtrader]

Since you say it was rebooting at random times then finally would not boot at all, this sounds like an analog problem not a digital one. This almost always means the power supply,

 

Good Luck!

RT