Hi there,

I have recently bought 3 x brand new 19" TFT's (HANNS.G) and a second hand system built into a brand new case and power supply.

SEMPRON 2500+ 1400 MHz

The first monitor is VGA port
The second monitor is video card port with VGA converter
The third monitor is VGA port

Here is the strange problem:

The system is a real "old faithful" to the previous owner who is trustworthy. He has had it running with 2-3 monitors before (though 15-17") and sold as a fully reliable system.

When I try to boot about 19/20 times I get the "system failed CPU test" audibly through speakers (note not through PC speaker) before even the monitors have been recognised - within about 7 seconds of the fans whirring up.

So I gave it back to the guy who sold it to me to sort it out and he reported about 90 successful boots, said he has "benchmarked the hell out of it" and tried it with 1,2 and 3 monitors as below:

*Plugged in and turned on with one monitor in the VGA port on the dual head radeon AGP card - no problems at all, everything perfect
*Checked device manager - all drivers present and updated
*Restarted 15 times in a row - no problems again
*Shut down and rebooted 10 times - no problems

No problems so far so I resat the CPU, both graphic cards and double checked all connections were firm. To check whether the system has any problems when there is an actual load on the CPU and ram with data flowing all around the system I ran some industry standard benchmarks. All results are saved on your desktop.

*Installed 'Si soft Sandra 07' system benchmark utility and ran a full computer burn with 10 full passes - completed with no errors and the CPU never even went above 40 degrees.

*Installed '3DMark 05' 3D benchmark application and ran a full benchmark with everything selected - completed with no errors.

*Plugged in 3 monitors, enabled them all and positioned for one complete desktop.
*Restarted 15 times in a row
*Shut down and started up 15 times in a row.

*Updated Ad aware and ran full system scan - clean
*Updated Spybot and ran full system scan - clean
*Updated Pest Patrol and ran a full system scan - clean
*Updated Avast Antivirus and ran a boot time scan and full system scan - clean

*Started Nero 7 started 3 consecutive encodes from .avi to DVD overnight while next to the radiator with heating on.

The last test is enough to make most systems with a cheap power supply fall right on it's arse and I couldn't even make it do that!

It's safe to say whatever problems your having your end are either no longer issues or there is some external factor, the only one of which I can think of is your monitors. If I had not partially heard some audio error message over the phone a couple of weeks ago, I would be billing your for my time for pointless testing and emails about your computer and your computer problems.

I am prepared for you to bring your monitors over one night, try all three in the configuration you want and let you see it reboot, shut down and restart. If after that you take it away and still have problems, you are on your own.

So...

I took the monitors around to his place and firstly tried a boot on his 15" TFT and it worked perfectly.

Then we tried a boot with just one of my monitors and it did not work so he finally recognised there was a genuine problem and I wasn't just doing something stupid.

For some unknown reason we managed to boot the system about 30 times in a row with all three monitors (starting by adding one at a time).

He changed some of the BIOS settings (I don't know what) after resetting motherboard.

Satisfied with the problem being solved I took computer home and have had same problem as started off with "system failed CPU test" and about 1 successful boot in 20.

Can anyone please help? I am not a techie by any means. I have tried resetting motherboard by changing the thing that holds two pins for 2 secs and returning it to original postion. No avail.

I do not have a guarantee, but he has offered to buy system back off me. I would prefer to see it working as I believe in the guy who sold it to me and that it is ideal for my needs if only I get the thing working every time (very important for what I want to use it for).

Thanks for your patience in reading this long first post. I know one of you can help.

Sam in UK.

PS I have tried booting system with my own old-fashioned monitor - same error after about 8 secs of switching on.

I have tried different wall sockets as well....

Cheers.

That's really weird. I have experienced problems myself with PCs working under testing and then not working after they were delivered due to a component coming loose in transit. However, for the seller to receive the PC back from you, plug it in and everything to work fine for all that time, it doesn't sound like that's the problem. And, as someone who has been building PCs for 10-15 years, I can tell you that he does sound like he knows what he is talking about and the amount of testing that he has done was way beyond what most people would have done. To offer to buy it back from you even after all that, he's really pushing the boat out to try to be helpful. There doesn't seem to be any question if there actually being anything technically wrong with the base unit.

Which leaves the monitor(s), keyboard, mouse and speakers (if he didn't test it with the peripherals that you were using). A faulty keyboard could potentially cause strange BIOS / POST problems and stop the PC from booting.

The only thing that you've said that seems to point to a possible cause of the problem though is about the monitors. He tried it with a 15" TFT and it worked. Then it was tried with one of your monitors and it didn't work. Then it did work 30 times. Why? What changed?

Have you tried repeatedly testing each of your monitors on a different PC?

Hi

Thanks for the reply. I am fully aware that he has pulled out all stops. I have not tried the monitors on a different system.

I will try testing monitors off a laptop and see if there is any issue with them.

There were no significant changes made to the system before successfully booting 30 times apart from that it was booted successfully using the 15" TFT first and then we added one monitor at a time.

Although I have tried using a different monitor (Standard VGA glass-screen) and had same error.

The guy only sold me the system because he was moving house and needed some deposit and now is willing to buy back, but I would prefer to get the thing working as I reckon his system is better than the basic new one at the store.

It's probably something tiny causing this little error, but just can't think of how to fix it...hence my post...