Problems Booting and staying booted

C

CrazyMrB

Gawd
Joined
Jul 24, 2002
Messages
522
I built a computer a few weeks ago and it worked great until a day after I delivered it to the customer (~50-60 yr old woman). Now it boots into Windows XP and restarts roughly one minute into the session. For the minute that I am logged in, the computer is useless because she wanted me to intall a modem and the computer spends its time searching for the drivers.

I don't believe heat is an issue because when I can get into the bios (only rarely, another funky problem) the cpu isn't above 35 C. I have swapped psu's with a new no name 430W and a used Enermax 350W. What do you guys think is the problem?

Thanks in advance

Specs:

A64 3500+ s754
1gb ddr 3200
gigabyte s754 board (came with processor)
Artic Cooling hsf
80gb WD SATA
Sony DVDRW
56k modem
 
so let me get this straight, you build computers for a living and you havent thought of changing out key parts like perhaps the power supply?

either way, try that.
 
I'll help you get it straight. I don't build computers for a living, I'm a student who needed money. And (if you read you would have seen this): "I have swapped psu's with a new no name 430W and a used Enermax 350W." That meas that I took out the original psu and replaced it with each of the two listed.

Either way, are these psu's providing enough power?

Thanks
 
try flashing bios.. I remember building a rig with a Venice CPU and Asus mobo - the CPU wasn't detected properly and mobo was supplying too high voltage.. flashing BIOS with the newest one did the trick...
 
Faction said:
so let me get this straight, you build computers for a living and you havent thought of changing out key parts like perhaps the power supply?

either way, try that.
Click to expand...

Fantastic reading comprehension! Next time you're going to be an ass try rereading the post so you aren't the butt of the joke (all puns intended).
 
Thanks TMWPT, I'll check out gigabyte's site and see what I have to do. SC, I'm glad someone else recognizes the paradigm of the ass.
 
Okay, the mobo had the newest bios (FD). The weird thing is, I just powered it up under safe mode, and everything worked just fine. Then I shut down, powered up under regular windows configuration and everything is working great. Go figure.
 
Ok. The problem's back. I left the computer on running a 3d windows screensaver. It runs for a few hours then reboots. It tries to load winxp and comes up with a boot disk failure. I try to restart to go into the bios and the screen freezes at post. Think its the motherboard?

TIA
 
Are you 100% sure that the used 350 watt Enermax works 100% perfect?

I would try a different sata port for the hard drive, and also each stick of RAM seperately.

Also, assemble the rig outside of the case - I have had a mobo shorting out that would only show symptoms every now and again!!! (I had an extra brass standoff in there FWIW)

Maybe also try another hard drive (if you've got one)



And that modem thing... does the mobo have an onboard modem? If so, disable it in the BIOS and Windows won't look anymore!
 
mdameron said:
Are you 100% sure that the used 350 watt Enermax works 100% perfect?

I would try a different sata port for the hard drive, and also each stick of RAM seperately.

Also, assemble the rig outside of the case - I have had a mobo shorting out that would only show symptoms every now and again!!! (I had an extra brass standoff in there FWIW)

Maybe also try another hard drive (if you've got one)



And that modem thing... does the mobo have an onboard modem? If so, disable it in the BIOS and Windows won't look anymore!
Click to expand...

I used my psu from my main rig 480W Rosewill, not the best, I know, but it powers my oc'd 805, 2 7200rpm drives, x800, audigy, dvdrw, so it should more than cover the problems. I'll get right on the sata, and run memtest overnight (only a single 1GB stick since s754 doesn't do dual channel memory). As for the standoff's, the case is one of the cheapies that has mounds instead of using standoffs.

Thanks for the advice. I'll get right to it.
 
Couldn't you use standoffs anyways? After reading that you didn't use any, I can't help but think this is a definite issue. Go buy some standoffs if the case has holes in it.

Also, does it ever cause problems in safe mode? If not, then you've really knocked down the issue to software, since much of your drivers and programs won't load in safe mode.

Also, have you checked to make sure the CPU's heatsink is on securely?

Hope this helps.
 
I had a bad ECS motherboard that did that for a while before it died.
 
You mentioned something about it crashing at a 3D screensaver. Have you tried a different video card?
 
I think I solved the problem. The SATAII WD was acting funny, so I swapped in an IDE WD and everything has been going great. To formally solve the problem, I attached the SATA drive to my pc and the hard drive gave me crazy errors (read/write problems). So I guess it's time to rma the hd.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top