Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - Hardware/Software - Having trouble with computer powering up
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MathOnNapkins
Posts: 2010/2189 |
I tried out a new power supply, didn't fix anything. Gonna try out a new motherboard tomorrow, and if that doesn't work, I'm calling in my AMD warranty, since it's been about 2.5 years and it's got a 3 year warranty  . I can't even find any warranty info about the motherboard for some reason. |
neotransotaku
Posts: 3292/4016 |
my computer exhibited similar behavior and it turned out the processor had issues--I replaced the processor (using the warranty) and now it works like new (and faster). so, if your computer is outdated, it's probably a good time to get a new computer |
MathOnNapkins
Posts: 2009/2189 |
Okay, little update. I got around to buying the proper type of battery, assuming you meant something like a 2032 Lithium, i just replaced what I had with a match. I didn't see any other batteries on my board. That hasn't worked on its own. I'm going to look at my manual about a full bios reset.
I might look into another power supply, as that was one of my initial problems when building the computer, I ended up having to replace the first one I bought after like a week, it had turned out to be faulty.
As for the main hard drive, yeah it's pretty old, circa 1996. It was carried over from my first computer, which I got for free. I don't use it for anything except running windows, so it's pretty much expendable. Only 2.4 GB. I have a 20GB replacement waiting anyway. But removing all my HDs and several other pieces of hardware, including RAM, did not make my BIOS show up. So at this point I'm thinking it's either the MB or the PSU if this bios reset thing doesn't pan out.
Tomguy: I have heard that beeps can give diagnostic error information, unfortunately when I was fitting my comp into its case about 2 years ago, the wires to the speaker jumpers were severed by accident, and I have no expertise in such matters. But, I might buy a replacement case sometimes soon.
Thanks for everyone's help so far, I hate hardware problems.
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HyperLamer
Posts: 4961/8210 |
The hard drive could actually be the entire problem. My old computer does similar things with certain defective HDs I have laying around. With one the RAM fails (text on the screen gets jumbled and the OS won't boot), the other won't spin up until I give it a good thwack and until then the BIOS hangs waiting for it. |
kitty
Posts: 1450/2449 |
It could be the power supply, motherboard, or RAM.
The "freezing up for a second with stalling" and the sound tells me your hard drive is probably on its way out as well. When the system has trouble reading from (or writing to) the hard drive, it will freeze up until it can. It's possibly related to a hard drive shutdown after X minutes idle configuration though.
Does your computer "Beep" on a normal boot? If not, this is where a spare PC speaker would come in handy. If it gives a beep error code on startup, you can check the manual to find out what it is. |
BMF98567
Posts: 910/1261 |
I was having exactly the same problems, aside from that "stalling" issue. It eventually got to the point where I couldn't even shut down the computer, otherwise it would instantly turn back on and get stuck at a black screen. Luckily, a simple power supply swap completely fixed the problem, and may have actually fixed a few other strange glitches that popped up from time to time (ex: the system would lock up hard, and upon hitting the reset button, I would either get an IDE failure, or HIMEM.SYS would find a RAM error). I'm willing to bet a new PSU would fix your problems as well. |
||bass
Posts: 476/817 |
Try replacing the bios battery and then do a full bios reset (using the jumper, read your mobo manual for details). |
MathOnNapkins
Posts: 1977/2189 |
In the past month I've had trouble getting my system to powerup correctly. At first, it might take two tries on my power switch to get the BIOS information to appear on the screen. Then later in the month it was taking 4-5 tries. Now it's taking forever, maybe 20-30 tries to get started up. I've tried all kinds of different techniques, such as hitting the button multiple times, holding it, toggling my off/on (the one on the power supply) switch before, but nothing seems to help in a particular or consistent way.
-When the problem exists, I hit the power switch, and nothing appears on screen. My monitor doesn't even detect input, nor does my keyboard.
-When the problem finally goes away, the computer starts up, I see the system configurations like anybody does during bootup, and Windows 98 starts up just fine.
-I assume this is a hardware issue rather than software, and it seems to be mechanical rather than a matter of configuration, though I could be mistaken.
-If I restart the computer from windows, it boots up just fine
-If I turn off the computer via shutdown, or the power button, I have to jump through hoops to get it started again, as above.
-The computer itself while actually booted up properly, runs fine, maybe with a few exceptions. Every 5-10 hours or so of usage, it will slow down to a complete stop for about 6 seconds, and I can hear some sort of mechanical "stalling", though it's not very loud at all. Barely audible, you have to listen for it. This also usually happens after about 10 minutes after startup.
My guess is that something is worn out on the motherboard, and needs fixing, or the MB needs replacing... but I would appreciate anybody's insight in this mater. |
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