Problems starting a NEC VL360

[TechSupp]

Anyone had this problem before or can shed any light on it for me? Got two NEC VL370 Powermate (oops wrong number in thread title!) workstations (two out of an original batch of 10, 12 months ago) and the show the same problem, both have had their MB and powersupplies changed yet the problem has reappeared.

The problem:

PC has been off overnight

Pressing the power button gives the following:

Light comes on power button,

Power supply fan starts

Light on DVD flashes for a few seconnds

One beep is heard

Power supply and PC shuts down

At no time during this is there any output to display although projector did register that a signal had been detected. (Tried also with just a monito connected to the PC as per the other PC we have a similar problem with)

 

Multiple attempts produces the same results untill eventually it fires into life as per normal and when shut down and left an hour it starts up perfectly again! Not helpful for diagnosis!

NEC have asked me to check startup with no drives attached which produced nothing new so reattached drives and they started perfectly! Also swapped memory with another PC with no effect I could see as they had started to work as normal.

 

Sods law is that they will not work on Monday when I am not in school and teachers are understandably getting feed up with them (so am I!)

 

Any ideas what to try next as NEC are reluctant to swap MB and powersupply again as they have done this nec already and I can't track the problem down to any single component be it DVD, etc.

 

Helllllpppppppp!

 

(PS Sorry ist a rather long message but felt all deatils needed for a possible solution)

Edited January 8, 2010 by TechSupp

[hubble]

Did this issue get resolved? I have a VL360 with the same symptoms - it is dependant on the overnight room temperature, fits exactly with what you describe. Once a few tries have been made to boot up, the circuits have warmed a little and everything is fine. On hot days it gets hotter and hotter without the fan doing anything - almost as if software monitor code is working in reverse. There is a temperature sensitive resistor involved in the hardware somewhere, could be on the main board or PSU heatsink/s or . Only half-broke so leave alone, but very irritating. Nothing on the web or from NEC. Interested to hear what your solution was.

[molator]

Time do dig an old post.

 

I solved that issue by resetting the BIOS settings.

Move the jumper next to battery to the right, power on, wait 5s and shutdown.

Move back the jumper to the left.

 

The machine should boot properly now.

[TechSupp]

That was an old thread, not worked at that school for a few years now! Started reading it and only when I noticed my pic did the penny drop that I wrote it!