You may have seen my other posts re: problems with a Compaq Deskpro EN PIII
933, 512 Megs Ram, XP Home.To briefly recap, this round of problems seemed to start a few days ago with an NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error and would thereafter only boot to Safe Mode. Wouldn't do a normal boot at all. This had never happened before. The computer had run basically flawlessly for some time.
After reinstalling the sound card, video capture card and modem the computer seemed fine again. However shortly thereafter it started exhibiting a new symptom. It would wink out in the middle of doing something. Blank screen, computer seemingly dead except for a green power light. Or it would sometimes freeze. However, the NMI Parity check error hasn't arisen again. Don't know if the current symptoms are related or not.
Now, in addition to the freeze/wink out symptom, I've noticed some other issues:
1) It will only boot intermittently. When it boots normally, you get a big red Compaq logo on the screen and the Enter Setup / Network Service Boot options at the bottom. Now, it will get as far as showing the Compaq logo but just hangs there. Sometimes letting it sit for a while or unplugging it from power, waiting a minute and replugging seems to let it boot.2) However, even when it boots, it won't allow me to go into Bios (setup). Looks like it's starting to, but then just goes to a normal boot. Per the suggestion of a poster in another thread, I tried removing the battery and putting it back in, which temporarily lets me get back into Bios/Setup, but thereafter begins displaying the same symptoms. Won't let me into Bios/Setup, just goes to a normal boot. I tried removing the battery a couple of times, and both times it allows me into Bios but only once. Once booted, "Standby" mode seems to work okay and a couple of programs I tried - Windows Media Player etc. seem to work but I haven't run it hard. However, after shutting down, it may or may not successfully reboot as per above.
3) No longer sends a video signal through the nVidia GeForce2 MX400 video card which had been working flawlessly up to now. The first few times it was intermittent - sometimes it would, sometimes it wouldn't, now I only get video through the onboard video port. Tried reinstalling the drivers for the card, doesn't seem to make a difference. Oddly, I also don't find it listed in the Add/Remove Programs list in control panel.I think I've eliminated the RAM as the culprit. Since the Compaq wouldn't recognize Memtest or the Microsoft Memory Diagnostic in either the A: or CD drive, I took the Ram out and put it in another PIII (the one I'm writing on) and ran the diagnostics. Well, 2 of the three modules. This IBM PIII won't accept the single 256K module. The 128meg modules test out as okay, as well as simply exhibiting no problems in running the computer.
Putting only those two 128meg modules back into the Compaq, it still generates the same symptoms above.
Sincere thanks for any input.