PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: sobarel on December 18, 2004, 13:29
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Hello all,
For the past week or so I've occasionally had trouble starting my PC - when I turn the power on the fans start, lights come on, but then nothing further happens at all. If I retry eventually I get the usual beep and the system starts normally, although once I got to that stage and the PC shut down just as the Windows screen appeared.
I've not made any system changes at all that might have prompted the problem, and once it does start everything runs normally. Any suggestions for what might be going on would be much appreciated, thanks.
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Hi and :welcome:
I cant really offer anything constructive but mine has periods of doing that too and I think its because it fails to initialise the graphics card for some reason. Usually one reboot sorts it out but sometimes it needs a couple of tries. It seems to be worse in cold weather so maybe its temperature related ???
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Just to comfirm that it doesn't just happen to you, my cousins machine does exactly the same thing, and usually after one restart it's fine. No solution to this found as yet, but one suggestion was that the machine was booting too quickly to load all the necessaries first time, hence being OK after a restart.
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Thanks Simon and Sandra, sounds like I might just have to live with this for the time being. The last time it took about 8 cycles of powering up before it finally booted, which is annoying but not really terminal...
I don't think it can be the temperature as the PC is in the same place as it's been for 18 months or so and I've never had this problem before. At least you've eased my fear that this might be the first symptom of some imminent complete failure!
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Check back later to see if anyone else has had any ideas. I might actually be concerned at having to reboot 8 times before a successful start up, as that may indicate a more serious problem, which could warrant further investigation.
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I would open the case, remove the inserted cards to the mobo, clean very well their places and replace them back firmly in their places.
Also, check all the inner wires connections.
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Hello all. Just to update you - the problem has continued, and in fact got worse. It's now taking many attempts to start booting up, and when it does finally start booting it often just gets to the point when the Windows screen appears and then fails (as before, screen goes blank, HD light on). Even when the system is finally up and running the same thing sometimes happens when I start a program (almost everytime with Firefox, but not at all with IE strangely enough).
I tried the previous suggestion of checking all connections, boards, etc and it seems to have made no difference. If anyone has any further ideas I'd be really grateful - at the moment I'm quite worried by all this. Thanks.
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I had one do that last week and I rebooted about 10 times and it wouldnt start. It was fine in safe mode but just a blank screen in normal windows.
I pressed F8 to get the safe mode options and tried each option and eventually after selecting start in VGA mode it started ok and has been fine ever since.
You could try that and see if it works on yours :)
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Safe mode doesn't make any difference ... and most times it doesn't even get far enough along in the process to select that!
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When it doesn't start, are you getting any bleeps at all? This does sound like a hardware issue. I had a friend with a similar problem, and it turned out to be the keyboard, believe it or not. Try disconnecting your keyboard and see if it will boot up without. You may get a warning that there is no keyboard connected, but it should still boot up.
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I just tried with the keyboard and mouse unplugged - no change.
Nine times out of ten I don't get a beep - the fans start whirring, the power and drive lights come on but then nothing further happens. Eventually after retrying I do get the usual beep and it starts up, but then most times it fails whilst windows is starting. Even after all that it's now occassionally failing once windows is running - in fact this is my second attempt to reply because it did so whilst I was typing here a few minutes ago.
It's definitely getting worse...
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What OS are you running ?
Have you scanned for virus's?
Have you considered saving all you presonal data and doing a reformat and reinstall? In anycase even if the latter does not cure the problem it will eliminate the problem being a software issue.
There again you could create another primary partition [alongside your existing primary partition And install your OS [only without programs]on the new partition. Then try booting that particulare OS installation from that partition. If it works, it points to it being a software issue with your original installation. If it still fails, at least you have not destroyed the original installation, by reformatting.
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I'm running XP w/ SP2 - and yes I've checked for viruses.
Is a software problem likely? I wouldn't have thought that could explain the initial problem of the start-up not commencing when the power is switched on?
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If its not getting far enough in to go to safe mode or other options using F8 then its unlikely to be a software problem.
It sounds more like a bios or hardware problem.
Try setting the bios to halt on no errors and see if that allows it to continue.
If its still no go try setting the bios to failsafe defaults, infact it may be worth using the clear cmos jumper and starting from its original bios settings ???
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I'm running XP w/ SP2 - and yes I've checked for viruses.
Is a software problem likely? I wouldn't have thought that could explain the initial problem of the start-up not commencing when the power is switched on?
Not disputing hardware is most likely probability. BUT how much time have you already spent trying to sort it, and still non the wiser?
All I'm saying is, half an hour spent installing a new clean XP installation, would prove it conclusivley regards software/OS or a hardware issue. These intermitant fault finding episodes are just a process of elimination really.
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Sandra - I tried your bios suggestions, no change I'm afraid.
Tony - I'm a bit reluctant to try it because the system is becoming so unstable now. Would it matter if a failure occurred whilst in the process of creating a new partition or installing the OS?
Thanks for your continuing help and suggestions by the way - I'm sorry if my frustration is showing...
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The only other thing I can suggest trying is to disconnect every device not needed on startup, ie any printers scanners, external modems usb devices and even the floppy and cd/dvd drives and any slave hard drive installed.
In other words you just want the master hard drive and mouse and keyboard connected.
If it starts and runs ok with just the hard drive connected then add the other devices one at a time and see if the fault reoccurrs ???
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Okay, I removed all the nonessential components - I'm assuming I did the right thing in taking out the ribbon connections rather than the power ones?
In any case with the floppy and CD drives disconnected the system wouldn't post, but I did notice a difference: usually when powering up fails I get the DVD drive light coming on but not the CDR one, with the ribbon connections removed though I still don't get to post but BOTH lights come on. Does that offer any clues?
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Tony - I'm a bit reluctant to try it because the system is becoming so unstable now. Would it matter if a failure occurred whilst in the process of creating a new partition or installing the OS?
Thanks for your continuing help and suggestions by the way - I'm sorry if my frustration is showing...
No sweat mate, thats the beauty about PC's they can and do drive you mad ;)
Best to try what Sandra says first, strip down to bare essentials and work your way up.
Regards fearing your PC falls over whilst installing the OS on another partition. If you only have one partition on your PC [Primary Partition] then it may be risky.
See I have five partitions on mine, so I would not be frightened to give it a go on one. Plus I've got a spare hardrive all set up to run, if I have a HD failure.
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I would put money (not a lot!) on an iffy graphics card or memory stick. If you have more than one memory stick, try taking one out and see if boots up, then swap. Might also be a dodgy PSU, if it's not distributing the power correctly to the various components. Do you have access to spare parts you could try?
Have we ruled out a boot sector virus?
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I wonder if the bios sequence should be set to boot from hard drive first if the floppy and other IDE devices are disconnected ?
I did wonder about a boot sector virus earlier but discounted it as its not getting to the loading windows stage at all if it wont get to the F8 option screen :(
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It seems to be getting even worse! I was trying to change the bios to boot from the HD and it was failing whilst I was in the bios options menu.
This is the thing that's really confusing me - how come it's getting worse, but is also inconsistent and will sometimes work for a short time? I feel like the more things I've checked the less I've known...
I'll try the memory stick thing and report back, after that I think I'm really out of my depth and will have to hire a tech or something to check it out.
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Okay, I've checked and it's not the memory!
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Apparently a boot sector virus can cause it to fail at such an early stage but if it was that then I would have thought it would be more consistant and never boot up ???
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Hello all - just to update you: it was a motherboard fault. It's now been replaced and everything is running normally. Thanks to everyone who responded with advice and suggestions.
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Glad you got it sorted - thanks for letting us know. :)
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Sorry I can't offer any advice on how to fix it but I can tell you what I have tried as mine has had these problems since last September.
It all started when one day I started my PC, it went through the first screen then just hung. If I left it a day or two it would then miraculasously boot up.
I was running OS ME at the time. I dropped my PC in to my local PC repair chap and he upgraded it to XP home, I had a bigger hard drive put in some USB2s plus a new PSU AMD Athlon 1.8.
Anyway within a couple of days of getting it home it hung again.
Now when it does not hang it goes through the boot sequence then restarts and I can only get it to start in Safe Mode.
Again if I leave it for a day or two and I try booting about every 24 hours it will eventually start up and run, but then I can't get it to run again for another few days.
I have tried dusting it and checking all the internal connections.
Last summer when in use for a long time it would not start once switched off for about an hour or two. I put that down to over heating. I've also found that when my PC is left off in the house when no one is in i.e. no heating for a while it starts okay.
It may just be a coincidedence.
I'm stumped so far.
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Just read you found the fault.
Funny enough that is my next move replace the motherboard.
Now I can do that with confidence.
Thx for the post.
Martin