Odd Freezing During Boot

K

Korrd

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 19, 2005
Messages
237
My brother in Alaska was just telling me his computer routinely needs as many as six restarts just to get it booted into Windows. He claims it goes something like this: when first turned on, the machine displays a blank screen - no activity. After a restart, it boots to the Windows XP loading screen, which freezes. Another restart and he find himself at the XP boot menu, where he opts to boot normally. It freezes at the loading screen again. Repeat, and it finally gets into Windows, but freezes at the desktop. Once more, and it finally loads normally.

My immediate reaction was to question the power supply, but he insists this behavior is more or less repeatable; it almost always has to be restarted multiple times, each subsequent restart getting the machine closer to usability. I'd expect a bad or inadequate PSU would not be quite so predictable. I suggested heat (or cold, since this is Alaska), but he reports a very normal ambient temperature. Bad motherboard, perhaps? RAM?

The problem is nothing I can think of would account for the regular, cyclic behavior he's seeing. I'd love to take a look at the machine, but it's a bit far for a house call. Any suggestions?

All I have available for specs currently are (I think) a P4 ~3.0 and ~550w PSU. I'll try to get more details.
 
Yep, sounds like PSU, I had the same behaviour.
My new PSU sorted it nicely :)

Reduce the FSB a bit and it will probably work fine.
 
Hey, Nenu. Thanks for the info. I think I'll steer him toward a nice Corsair replacement and see if that resolves his issues. :cool:
 
Really sounds like a hd ready to fail. I had a 3 year old maxtor in a Xp2800 system that was doing the same thing before it just didn't work one day. Replaced the hd, back to normal.
 
Do try reducing the FSB quite low to see if it helps before getting another PSU.
If the problem doesnt improve, I doubt its the PSU.
Worth testing.
 
I'll have him try lowering the FSB and see what happens, but he uses the machine for gaming so that's certainly not a solid fix. Right you are, however.

I suppose a hard drive could exhibit the same behavior, but my gut tells me the PSU is a much more likely culprit. I'll have him hit it with a diagnostic just the same.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top