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Computer won't fully load Windows.

E

Enceladus

n00b
Joined
Sep 25, 2007
Messages
39
This morning, before I turned on my main computer, I decided to do a little cable management and use some canned air to clean any dust from the inside. I unplugged a few cables so I could rearrange them and such and plugged them all back in. I unplugged my PSU of course as to make sure I wouldn't run the risk of messing anything up. I also made sure to ground myself to get rid of any ESD.

Besides doing some cable management, I decided to take my heatsink fan off my CPU and cleaned the Arctic Silver off and applied some fresh Arctic Silver on my CPU. I put my heatsink fan back on correctly and checked everything else to make sure it was okay to turn it on.

The first time I turned my computer on, it booted into Windows and I was able to log on and everything. Everything seemed fine and I walked off to the kitchen to grab something. I came back to see that my computer shut off on it's own. I turned it back on and now it won't even load up all the way. It'll POST, but then it will start loading Windows and then shut off on it's own.

I checked everything and even reset my CMOS jumper and it still won't load all the way. Still shuts off. It could be my PSU because I could have sworn there was a bright blue LED inside of it, but now there isn't. Other than that, I don't have a clue why it won't load.

Any idea why it won't load? My specs for my Rig are in my sig. Any help would be appreciated.
 
I just tried to get it to start a few times and now it's telling me:

CMOS Checksum error

Then it's telling me to boot from CD.

I moved the jumper on the CMOS over and then back where it was. That didn't help. I disconnected the HDDs earlier and maybe thought I switched the cables when I hooked then back up, so I switched the SATA cables. That didn't help and it's still giving me the same message.

Any ideas?
 
Enceladus said:
I just tried to get it to start a few times and now it's telling me:

CMOS Checksum error

Then it's telling me to boot from CD.

I moved the jumper on the CMOS over and then back where it was. That didn't help. I disconnected the HDDs earlier and maybe thought I switched the cables when I hooked then back up, so I switched the SATA cables. That didn't help and it's still giving me the same message.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

For the CMOS error, try going into your bios and just saving. I got that message sometimes before when I had to hard reboot and things got a bit messed up with the bios. If you are going to remove the jumper you should take out the battery too and leave it out for a few minutes minimum before putting it back in and putting the jumper back.

Check if your hard drives are getting recognized in the bios also. Try swapping parts out if you have them, like power supplies or hard drives and see if you can isolate anything
 
Anchen said:
For the CMOS error, try going into your bios and just saving. I got that message sometimes before when I had to hard reboot and things got a bit messed up with the bios. If you are going to remove the jumper you should take out the battery too and leave it out for a few minutes minimum before putting it back in and putting the jumper back.

Check if your hard drives are getting recognized in the bios also. Try swapping parts out if you have them, like power supplies or hard drives and see if you can isolate anything
Click to expand...

I don't have any extra PSUs to swap out with and I only have the two HDDs listed in my sig. I only have two other computers besides the one in my sig, one is a tower which is a 4 yr old HP and I'm posting this from an old laptop.

How would I take out the battery? I don't want to damage anything trying to take it out since I've never done it before. The user manual for my mobo doesn't mention it.

I think the main thing is my PSU or something. I went into the Bios settings and saved and when it was going to restart booting, it just turned off like before.
 
How about trying a linux live-cd and seeing if it can boot up to an OS (anyone really...). If it boots up, you can root out all of your hardware minus your hard drives.
 
fss69 said:
How about trying a linux live-cd and seeing if it can boot up to an OS (anyone really...). If it boots up, you can root out all of your hardware minus your hard drives.
Click to expand...

That's the thing. I can't even get it to boot into Windows XP without it randomly shutting off.

Sometimes, it'll get up to the point where it'll show the XP loading screen. Other times it'll get up to right before it starts loading XP and then it'll tell me to put the boot CD into my drive and I have it in my drive, it'll shut off before XP can start "installing" or boot my system. Other times it'll just show the screen where my CPU, RAM and drives are listed and then randomly shut off.

I don't think it's the OS or CMOS. Could it be my PSU? My fans and everything turn on also when I turn it on, so maybe it might not be. I'm stumped. I thought I connected everything back up right.
 
If it's shutting down before Windows even starts to boot, it's got to be something besides the HD. Does BIOS give you temp readings? Perhaps the sensors are inaccurate. If you have emergency shutdown enabled, that might be the problem.
 
It's probably the PSU. If your motherboard is an older 20-pin, the PSU from your other old computer should connect and you can use that to test it out. If that doesn't work, disconnect everything non-essential (all drives, all PCI cards, video card if you don't have integrated) and leave only one stick of ram. Then slowly add stuff back as you are sure they check out.
 
Enceladus said:
... I unplugged a few cables so I could rearrange them and such and plugged them all back in. I unplugged my PSU of course as to make sure I wouldn't run the risk of messing anything up. I also made sure to ground myself to get rid of any ESD.
Click to expand...

Quick question... if the PSU isn't connected to a ground, how did you ground yourself?

/*------------- <cut n paste> -------------*/
If you have both the 20/24 pin main ATX connector plugged in, AND the 4-Pin ATX12V P4 CPU connector plugged in, then the board should boot fine.

You could test the PSU. Jump start it (on the main atx connector, short the green wire with any black wire, using a paperclip), and see if it stays on. If not, then its probably a faulty PSU. If it works then proceed (though, in rare cases, it may still be the PSU at fault).

Setup everything outside of the case, with the mobo on top of its cardboard box. Plug in only the essentials:
- PSU (namely: main 20/24-pin ATX connector and 4-pin ATX12V P4 CPU Connector)
- CPU w/ HSF
- Single stick of ram
- Videocard if there is no onboard video
- Monitor
- Keyboard
- System speaker/buzzer

* Use a screwdriver if your board doesnt have an onboard power switch. Jump the two power switch leads to turn the power on.

If it won't POST, try different RAM slots. If it still won't POST, pull out the ram (so no ram in the system) and listen for error beeps. If none, pull the vidcard and listen for error beeps. If none, re-seat the CPU/HSF and try again. Report back with results if you're still having issues.
/*------------- </cut n paste> -------------*/
 
fss69 said:
It's probably the PSU. If your motherboard is an older 20-pin, the PSU from your other old computer should connect and you can use that to test it out. If that doesn't work, disconnect everything non-essential (all drives, all PCI cards, video card if you don't have integrated) and leave only one stick of ram. Then slowly add stuff back as you are sure they check out.
Click to expand...

My mobo has a 24 pin connection, so it won't fit. Plus my video card takes PCI-Express and the old one doesn't have a connection for it.

enginurd said:
Quick question... if the PSU isn't connected to a ground, how did you ground yourself?

/*------------- <cut n paste> -------------*/
If you have both the 20/24 pin main ATX connector plugged in, AND the 4-Pin ATX12V P4 CPU connector plugged in, then the board should boot fine.

You could test the PSU. Jump start it (on the main atx connector, short the green wire with any black wire, using a paperclip), and see if it stays on. If not, then its probably a faulty PSU. If it works then proceed (though, in rare cases, it may still be the PSU at fault).

Setup everything outside of the case, with the mobo on top of its cardboard box. Plug in only the essentials:
- PSU (namely: main 20/24-pin ATX connector and 4-pin ATX12V P4 CPU Connector)
- CPU w/ HSF
- Single stick of ram
- Videocard if there is no onboard video
- Monitor
- Keyboard
- System speaker/buzzer

* Use a screwdriver if your board doesnt have an onboard power switch. Jump the two power switch leads to turn the power on.

If it won't POST, try different RAM slots. If it still won't POST, pull out the ram (so no ram in the system) and listen for error beeps. If none, pull the vidcard and listen for error beeps. If none, re-seat the CPU/HSF and try again. Report back with results if you're still having issues.
/*------------- </cut n paste> -------------*/
Click to expand...

Should I have my PSU plugged in, but have the power turned off for my system to be grounded? What I meant when I said I "grounded myself" is that I just touched the metal part of my case to get rid of any static electricity so I wouldn't fry my mobo or any other sensitive part.

I did what you said and everything seems to work fine. I currently just have everything outside of the case with the things you listed hooked up. It hasn't shut off or anything yet.

Now, I'm going to hook up HDDs and everything else to see if it could have been my Master HDD that was giving me trouble.

I'll report back later.
 
I think I fixed my PSU since it seems to be working fine now.

I now think my Master HDD may have been part of the problem or was messed up during the process of trying to start it back up Thursday. I'm now trying to at least repair the XP Pro installation. If it won't repair, I'll have to do a new installation.
 
You can run a HDD diagnostic utility to make sure the HDD is in good working order.

As for grounding yourself, yes, you should have the PSU plugged into the wall, but the switch off. This way, when its installed in the case, the entire case is a grounding point for you.
 
Okay. I'll leave it plugged in from now on to ground it.

Everything seems to be fine now with Windows. I did a repair on the installation and then realized I had to reset the boot order when it kept coming back up saying it was trying to reinstall Windows.

I guess something I did with the PSU is what helped. Before, the blue led inside it looked like it went out, but now it's on again. I guess jump starting it did it if it was supposed to fix it.

Thanks for the help. Still don't know why it messed up in the first place. lol
 
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