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Computer hangs at black screen during startup + unexplained crashes.
- Thread starter r-karsk
- Start date
Since this is XP, have you turned off auto-reboot on BSOD? It's under System Properties -> Advanced tab -> Startup & Recovery Settings.
It's normal to have whatever was in the sound buffer at the time of a crash repeat until the system gets its head out of its electronic ass.
There are better ways to kill a frozen PC than yanking the cord. ATX you have to hold down the power button for about 5 seconds to get it to power off. Reset button if available is good. There's also usually a switch on the back of the PSU (if not, you have a DAMN cheap PSU).
Check your BIOS to make sure the HDD is the only listed boot device, it's possible the computer is trying to boot to a list of other things first. After that try BootVis.
Congrats on the pending new HDD, running with 20GB is pretty hard when you get games that want 5+ each.
It's normal to have whatever was in the sound buffer at the time of a crash repeat until the system gets its head out of its electronic ass.
There are better ways to kill a frozen PC than yanking the cord. ATX you have to hold down the power button for about 5 seconds to get it to power off. Reset button if available is good. There's also usually a switch on the back of the PSU (if not, you have a DAMN cheap PSU).
Check your BIOS to make sure the HDD is the only listed boot device, it's possible the computer is trying to boot to a list of other things first. After that try BootVis.
Congrats on the pending new HDD, running with 20GB is pretty hard when you get games that want 5+ each.
r-karsk said:
if you hold the power button in for 4 - 5 seconds and the computer doesn't turn off, then there's a problem with either the motherboard or power supply. i have had my computer lock up the way you describe (sound repeating over & over, with keyboard & mouse non-responsive), and my computer will shut off if i hold in the power button for about 4 - 5 seconds.
as far as the instability, how good is your case ventilation? overheating can cause some weird stuff to happen....
also, you said that your vid card is pre-OC'ed? have you tried un-OC'ing it? if that fixes it, then return it. (do a google search for coolbits to enable the OC'ing options in the nVidia drivers).
does it only crash when playing games, or at other times also? if it's only when playing games, try using different (even older) versions of both the nForce chipset & nVidia vid card drivers.
have you made sure your motherboard is running the latest version of the BIOS? a BIOS flash can work wonders for stability (just be sure to read the instructions on the mobo manufacturer's website **thoroughly**, and be sure you know exactly what you're doing before doing it).
if you have the latest BIOS, have you tried setting it to "failsafe defaults" to see if the problem goes away?
if all the above is good / has been tried, the next logical question is, what brand of power supply do you have, and what are the amperage ratings on each of the voltage rails? (how many amps do the +3.3v, +5v, & +12v rails support?). the amperage ratings can usually be located on a sticker attached to the PSU itself, if you don't have the PSU owner's manual.
if you have some generic / cheap power supply, i would highly recommend spending a little more money on a quality PSU. usually Antec / Enermax / PC Power & Cooling / Sparkle Power (among several others) are some good brands to stick with. as a rule of thumb, i stick to PSU's that support **at least** 20A on all 3 of the +voltage rails, but preferably more.
xXaNaXx said:
Allrighty. Well its definitely not an overheating problem. Period. My case has great ventilation (rounded cables and all). 3 Intake fans (like, 20 CFM each) - 2 outake (1 is 40 cfm, the other is ~15).
I did try "underclocking" my video card back to where the "default" speeds are, didn't help. I did notice that if my motherboard had D.O.T (Dynamic Overclocking Tech.) the comp would crash much more often (its off now).
Here are the voltages for my PSU :
Not bad considering that its generic, I have a feeling that its not a PSU problem though.
Bios is updated to the newest version.
I'll try the failsafe settings now, thanks!
r-karsk said:
I think that this is the key phrase to focus on for the moment.
You've already covered ventilation and you say that it is good. Just for the hell of it, you might check what temps are from time to time. There are a few utilities out there to do that but the names escape for the moment. The BIOS ought to have rudimentary temp checking utilities. Just a thought.
You also seem to have a good amount of amps listed on the PS, but you said yourself that it's generic. The name Tsunami rings a bell, but it's not in the same league as the ones mentioned ^^^. Many many more factors in a PS than it's amp rating. Again, just a thought.
However, it's the randomness that's strange. As mentioned, disable automatic reboot on error and see if you can get a blue screen. If you can, that'll help a little bit. Random errors can be caused by a PSU going south, flaky RAM, or a bad motherboard (or, really, about 650 billion other things; thus, random).
If you're happy with the PSU, and you're happy with the temps, d/l a copy of memtest86 and run it overnight (or 8+ hours). The only acceptable result is 0 errors. You might also think about relaxing the timing on your RAM a little and see if it helps.
The only real way to see if it's the mobo, is to replace it. However, start at the basics. You're thinking sound? Take out the sound card. Test and see. Take out the NIC (or disable onboard). Test. Repeat. Start removing items from the computer until you get to the very basics. Vid crd, one stick of RAM, HDD. Test and see what happens. Maybe try another video card.
It sucks, but you'll need to spend a little time to see what's going on. For the record, last time I had strange random errors (would work fine for hours, days even, then BAM! reboot and corrupted registry hive) it was the mobo.