Booting Problems

B

BenvolioTheGreat

n00b
Joined
Mar 13, 2004
Messages
7
Greetings,
Since Summer 2002 year I have been using a computer that I constructed myself. Recently (starting this week of spring break) my computer has been experiencing a phenomenon I haven’t had to deal with yet. When I boot it up, one of two things happen:

1) Within 3 seconds (usually less) it shuts down. It tries to boot properly, all the fans come on and it acts normal, then all the fans cut out and everything powers down, except for the LED for the power button. This blinks on a regular interval (approx 1/2 second on, 1/2 second off)

-or-

2) The computer boots fully. The DOS section reports no errors. Windows starts to load (XP home). The furthest I have gotten in the past 2 days was the logon screen. I can login and enter my password, but as soon as it attempts to load windows, it shuts down (same as #1).

I cannot decide if it is a hardware or software error since it doesn't always act the same (those are the extremes of where it shuts down). However on Tuesday night, it booted normally and ran without problem. I left it on over night and when i awoke the next morning, it had shut itself down and was blinking. Since then I have had no luck.

Hardware:
Asus A7M266 Motherboard
AMD Athalon 1800+ Processor
Radeon 9800 Video card
512DDR RAM
XP Home

On Tuesday I took out the video card and the ram to clean it out with compressed air, and that may have helped, but it didn’t fix the problem. It had a third option that stopped occurring after I cleaned it. It was beeping claiming that there was no RAM installed, I found that out because of the beep code on the motherboard manual, but I can’t find anything about LED codes

Any clue whats wrong?
 
sounds like a heat problem. can you get into the bios to tell us the temps?
even better, before you do that, clean out the cpu heatsink as well as you can.
 
I second Eclipse's post. a shutdown pc can be the cause of a hot CPU. but, about the RAM, do you know if you've exposed it to any ESD? also something happened in the process of you cleaning your ram? check over carefully what you did with it.
 
Good suggestions for sure. Last one I worked on with a cold boot problem with similar symptoms was a PSU issue, low 12V rail. PSU replacement fixed it right up.

Just a thought.

Luck
 
Thanks guys, i have to pack up and head back to school, ill check all that stuff out over the next 2 days.

:Edit: I just swapped with an old power supply and it seems to be working. The onyl problem i have with power supplies is that i prefer the ones with a power out to monitor, and its rough trying to find them.
 
BenvolioTheGreat said:
Greetings,
Since Summer 2002 year I have been using a computer that I constructed myself. Recently (starting this week of spring break) my computer has been experiencing a phenomenon I haven’t had to deal with yet. When I boot it up, one of two things happen:

1) Within 3 seconds (usually less) it shuts down. It tries to boot properly, all the fans come on and it acts normal, then all the fans cut out and everything powers down, except for the LED for the power button. This blinks on a regular interval (approx 1/2 second on, 1/2 second off)

-or-

2) The computer boots fully. The DOS section reports no errors. Windows starts to load (XP home). The furthest I have gotten in the past 2 days was the logon screen. I can login and enter my password, but as soon as it attempts to load windows, it shuts down (same as #1).

I cannot decide if it is a hardware or software error since it doesn't always act the same (those are the extremes of where it shuts down). However on Tuesday night, it booted normally and ran without problem. I left it on over night and when i awoke the next morning, it had shut itself down and was blinking. Since then I have had no luck.

Hardware:
Asus A7M266 Motherboard
AMD Athalon 1800+ Processor
Radeon 9800 Video card
512DDR RAM
XP Home

On Tuesday I took out the video card and the ram to clean it out with compressed air, and that may have helped, but it didn’t fix the problem. It had a third option that stopped occurring after I cleaned it. It was beeping claiming that there was no RAM installed, I found that out because of the beep code on the motherboard manual, but I can’t find anything about LED codes

Any clue whats wrong?
Click to expand...

Did you update your bios?

Ok this is weird... I came here to post about this same exact problem (#2) and we have almost identical setups! I'll post my problem seperate though.... :D
 
Power out to monitor? Why is that? Well if you decide otherwise, here are a couple suggestions:

Fortron
Antec
Powerstream

Those are three reknowned brands that perform outstanding. I would suggest getting one rated at 430 + watts. ;)
 
Rumrunner said:
Power out to monitor? Why is that?
Click to expand...
I like psus like that because it cuts down on the number of plugs needed. When you consider all the stuff that hangs around your PC requiring a mains connection (speakers, joystick, adsl/cable/modem, phone charger, possibly video, stereo, tv, alarm clock in a bedroom). Saving a plug in a situation like that is just handy.

The trouble is, few psu makers produce them any more. But just one question... why on earth do psus supply power to a monitor when it knows that the PC is off?
 
ColinR said:
I like psus like that because it cuts down on the number of plugs needed. When you consider all the stuff that hangs around your PC requiring a mains connection (speakers, joystick, adsl/cable/modem, phone charger, possibly video, stereo, tv, alarm clock in a bedroom). Saving a plug in a situation like that is just handy.

The trouble is, few psu makers produce them any more. But just one question... why on earth do psus supply power to a monitor when it knows that the PC is off?
Click to expand...

only reason I could see is in the case of a KVM setup, but then, why wouldn't you power the monitor through a power strip in such a case.


 
ColinR said:
I like psus like that because it cuts down on the number of plugs needed. When you consider all the stuff that hangs around your PC requiring a mains connection (speakers, joystick, adsl/cable/modem, phone charger, possibly video, stereo, tv, alarm clock in a bedroom). Saving a plug in a situation like that is just handy.

The trouble is, few psu makers produce them any more. But just one question... why on earth do psus supply power to a monitor when it knows that the PC is off?
Click to expand...


I'm not to familiar with those psu's, but I am willing to guess that the monitor power out is just a direct bypass from your wall outlet.
 
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