Topic: Intermittent start-up problem

[sobarel]

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.

[Sandra]

Hi and

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  

[Simon]

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.

[sobarel]

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!

[Simon]

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.

[joudi]

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.

[sobarel]

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.

[Sandra]

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  

[sobarel]

Safe mode doesn't make any difference ... and most times it doesn't even get far enough along in the process to select that!

[Simon]

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.

[sobarel]

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...

[Tony]

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.

[sobarel]

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?

[Sandra]

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  

[Tony]

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.