Booting issue ... PC problem!!

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Hello all,

Got another wierd problem that I cant quite put my finger on.

I obtained some functional (saw them with my own eyes) hand me down stuff (which is better than the stuff I have now) from my dad who just upgraded. He gave me a MB, CPU, memory, GPU. When last they were installed (last week), they were fully functional.

There was a power failure at my place last night. When I went to turn on my PC, the power went on, the hard drive spins (clicks a bunch of times), but doesnt boot. So, process of elimination. I unplugged everything except for the primary HD. Same thing. So, I wanted to use the current tower for the newer stuff that I obtained from my dad. Swapped everything out except the power supply. Same freaking problem. Swap out 4 different hard drives. Same issue.

The only thing I havent swapped out of the power supply. Im not so sure it can be that since it DOES go on. I tried only having one HD and used different power plugs on the power supply. Same thing every time.

Any ideas? Im at wits end.

Thanks in advance, as usual.

LG

[classfour]

LG: A bad power supply can KILL the other components. OR - If you're lucky, only cause the whole thing to not boot. As it is the least expensive of the parts of a machine: look at it.

I've had a bad power supply kill motherboards (at least three) - that tested GOOD with a PSU meter.

I did have a pair of PSU's ordered from the same vendor (of the same brand) kill a succession of motherboards.

Get a power supply tester (oh yeah: I did have a PSU do a number on a PSU tester, so all is not well).

[AlanHK]

The only thing I havent swapped out of the power supply. Im not so sure it can be that since it DOES go on.

Actually, that should be your prime suspect.

I had a lightning strike knock my house's power out. Even though later the PC seemed to be okay, lights went on, etc, it wouldn't boot. I took it in to my local PC guy expecting to hear my mobo was shot, and he checked the voltage, found it was off, and swapped in a new power supply. About $20 and 10 minutes and I was running. And then I bought a surge protector so it hopefully won't happen again. (A UPS would be nice, but they're a lot more expensive and bulky.)

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Wow. Color me surprised.

I hadnt realized that a power supply could still "turn on" but for lack of a better term "not have enough power" to boot up a PC. I just assumed that it either went on or not. That was it.

I'll have to go out and get another power supply as I dont have a spare one.

Shame too. It was an Antec 550watt. Only about a year old. Dammit. Ah well.

I'll keep you updated.

[neomaine]

Lucifers_Ghost,

Agree, definitely power supply. Like having to replace your power supply? How about losing your CPU? Video card? Motherboard? That new 7.1 sound card? Couple of hard drives you're fond of? I'm sure you do/will backup all your important data to offline tape/disk/dvd so you won't lose any email or documents so you won't have to worry about that.

Do yourself a favor and protect your power supply (and EVERYTING else in your computer!) by picking up a UPS to help condition the power it receives. The batteries tend to only last 4-5 years but that's 4-5 years worth of upfront parts and future replacements parts (and time) saved. Its some of the best $100-150 to spend on your computer.

For as much as they protect from brownouts/surges, get one with a serial/usb connection for auto shutoff to protect your system in the event of a blackout. And, disable any wake-on-power/lan/modem you may have setup. Too many times a blackout is followed by intermittent power. Don't want that system bouncing up/down with the power.

Some people may be lucky enough to have clean and continuous power. I know I don't....

[oldandinthe way]

Power supplies are cheap. Replace it.

You don't need a UPS, even a cheap surge protector (<$10) changed annually will protect your system from the surges which often follow power outages.

Power supplies are the post likely component in consumer electronics to die. They provide a variety of different voltages to your computer and often failures only affect one of the voltages, so they system does not work but other behavior seems normal.

Your new equipment probably pulls more power than the equipment it replaced and that could have caused your problem, not the power issues.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Well .. so it seems its not the power supply. I replaced it and I get the exact same thing.

This makes no sense whatsoever. The only two pieces of equipment that are the same are the monitor and the computer case.

The only thing I havent tried is the new power supply with the old stuff.

So, we have:

2 MB/CPU/RAM/Video card tried with one power supply
1 MB/CPU/RAM/Video (my dads stuff) with one power supply
No optical drives. No enet cards. No sound cards. Nothing.

All three scenarios have been tried with 4 different hard drives. I have also tried with different IDE cables.

Same thing keeps happening. Computer turns on, hard drive spins, then nothing else happens. It just sits there.

So, whatcha think boyos and girlies?

LG

[AlanHK]

Same thing keeps happening. Computer turns on, hard drive spins, then nothing else happens. It just sits there.

If you've got a boot floppy, try that.
Otherwise download a bootable CD ISO and burn it, try to boot from that.

Eg:
Ultimate Boot CD
SystemRescue CD
Knoppix

(These are all Linux based.)


You may have to set your BIOS to boot from CD, though if hard disk is failing it may automatically try the CD after that.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Actually, since my last post, I tried that.

I tried just installing any HD (hoping it would fail) and then hopefully it would pick up the XP cd in my optical. But it doesnt get that far. It seems to read whatever HD is there (any of the 4 .. although one is brand spanking new and hasnt been formatted yet but the other 3 have been used before) and then just stops.

EDIT: I cant even edit the bios as it doesnt even get that far. The light on the monitor just stays orange (normally it will go green when it boots up properly).

Could the monitor be defective? It doesnt smell "burnt" at all. Would a defective monitor stop the PC from continuing to boot?

[aedipuss]

the standby light on the monitor would seem to imply that it isn't getting any signal. either the video card is dead or the motherboard isn't set to send the signal to wherever the cable is plugged in.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

the standby light on the monitor would seem to imply that it isn't getting any signal. either the video card is dead or the motherboard isn't set to send the signal to wherever the cable is plugged in.

But the same issue with two different video cards AND two different MB's? Mine worked before the power failure. My dads worked fine. Unplugged it all and put it in a box until I went and installed it.

Although, I just thought of something. I have my tower setup. It works fine. power failure and blows out the power supply. I then take my dads stuff and install it using the same "burnt" power supply. Would turning it on with a blown power supply blow any of the new equipment?

[aedipuss]

you obviously have another comp that works. try the monitor on that one and see if it's working. if so the bad stuff is just dead. check the voltage output on the toasted p.s. if it's way out of whack it could have toasted everything.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Thats the thing. I DONT have a working tower anymore.

Both rigs do the exact same thing with either power supply so I CANT even test the monitor.

[aedipuss]

what are you using to post here? plug it into that.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

My computer at work (now) or my gf's laptop (at home).

Cant use the PC at work. They would very much frown upon that.

[aedipuss]

vga port of the laptop.

[aedipuss]

do you get any beeps from the case speaker when the power is turned on? if so count how many. if not the ram/cpu/mb isn't functioning at all which goes along with the no video part, no getting to the bios.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Well the monitor works using the vga output on the laptop (thanks for that, I had forgotten it had one).

In response to the 2nd inquiry, no, there are no beeps at all. Nothing. Power supply fans come on, hard drive spins and clicks, then everything just hangs. No noise, no nothing.

[aedipuss]

not a good sign. try re-seating cpu ram and vid card. make sure ALL power cables are firmly seated and other cables attached to where they need to be.

if still no beeps swap one item at a time.

[Nelson37]

Make sure secondary mobo power is connected.

Remove ALL cards and RAM. Should get beeps from mobo. Possible you have a short on the case, try the board outside the case on a non-conductive surface.

Bad PS can definitely fry other components, recommend not using $200 worth of mobo and CPU to test a $40.00 power supply. In your scenario, I replace PS without a second thought.

When doing what you are doing, do not waste your time connecting optical and hard drives, particularly when these are suspect. First get a BIOS display. Then add any needed cards, then drives. You end up testing a power supply, mobo, CPU, RAM, video card, sound card, floppy disk, hard disk, and optical drive all at once. PS, mobo, RAM, and CPU first. If these don't work, all else is meaningless and a waste of time.

Price difference between a good (APC) surge protector and a UPS (technically these are battery back-ups, not true UPS) is $10 - $20.00. Considering that a good carpet spark can fry a CPU, these are a good investment. Also for TV, stereo, etc.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Oh my lord. So, here goes.

I finally got it to work. The hand me down MB had the secondary 4pin power connector that I didnt know about. Learn something new everyday I guess. Booted up no problem.

The hard drive (well two hard drives and optical) were taken out of my OTHER pc and installed into this one. It booted up and installed a bunch of new drivers and such. It makes me reboot for the changes to take effect.

NOW, the PC wont boot up again. It hits the bios then the XP splash screen comes up for a couple of seconds and then the screen goes blank and nothing. Just sits there. So I thought maybe the drive is having problems being swapped from one PC to another and I need to format. Turn off and back on. Go into the bios and change the boot sequence. Put the XP cd in and reboot again. Hits the bios, says that its searching for boot record from cd and does nothing from there. IIn the bios, all 3 drives are found and accounted for.

Ugh ... I need a nap.

[Krispy Kritter]

As noted in your earlier troubleshooting, try disconnecting all of the attached drives. Power up and see what happens. You should get a missing system disk alert (or something similar). Then attach one drive at a time, booting after each is connected to note what happens. You may also want to ensure the drives are properly jumpered and connected to the correct positions on the cables (Slave on the middle connector - Master attaches to the end connector). And of course verify the boot order in the BIOS.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

As noted in your earlier troubleshooting, try disconnecting all of the attached drives. Power up and see what happens. You should get a missing system disk alert (or something similar). Then attach one drive at a time, booting after each is connected to note what happens. You may also want to ensure the drives are properly jumpered and connected to the correct positions on the cables (Slave on the middle connector - Master attaches to the end connector). And of course verify the boot order in the BIOS.

All drives and jumpers were connected correctly on the cables with jumpers in the right spot. The BIOS showed everything right were it was supposed to be. Like I said, it boot up fine, installed a few drivers, asked me to reboot, and now nothing.

So, I went ahead and disconnected everything. I do get the boot failure as its looking for a boot drive. Connect the primary hard drive (and video card). Turn on, go into bios, hard drive is there as primary. Reboot, goes into post, windows splash screen comes up for a few seconds then goes to blank screen and just sits there. Tried another hard drive that I know has windows on it and the same thing happens.

I've never ever had this much trouble swapping out stuff. Its maddening.

EDIT: After I posted this, I went and plugged in my optical drive so I could attempt to format again. Change boot sequence to optical drive first. Both C drive and optical are correctly labelled in BIOS. Reboot, bios screen, searching for boot cd, press any kep to boot from cd, press any key, optical drive spins, screen message "setup is now inspecting your computers hardware" and it just hangs there with no noise from the computer. Swapped out the hard drive and tried two different ones. Same thing.

[Krispy Kritter]

OK, without rereading the whole thread, here is what I would do if possible:

During the boot process, try pressing F8 and see if it will boot into Safe Mode.

If not:

Swap the power supply with a spare.
Clear the CMOS on the MB. This is usualy done via a jumper on the MB.
Enter the BIOS and use the "restore to default" setting to reset the BIOS.
Use a boot cd (such as the ultimate boot cd) to boot and use to test the hardware to ensure everything is operational.

[Tool Man]

Clear the CMOS on the MB. This is usualy done via a jumper on the MB.

This should have been the first thing you tried.

We had a power cut a few weeks ago and my PC refused to boot after. Clearing the BIOS solved it.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

This is the most, and pardon my language, fucked up this I have ever come across.

I didnt clear the cmos. I didnt set the bios to default.

I brought the tower over to a friends as I was getting frustrated and simply wanted a fresh set of eyes/hands. Got there, plugged in the tower, booted into windows right away. There was no changing settings, no going into the bios, nothing. Just right into windows. So, we made a few changes, installed some drivers, etc, etc. Rebooted a few times just to make sure. Everything ok.

I get the tower home and the SAME freaking problem as before. Boots up, post comes up on screen, windows xp splash screen, then goes blank and does nothing.

The ONLY things that have changed are a) power cable from tower to power bar, monitor and cables, power bar, keyboard, mouse. Thats it.

I'm going insane. Luckily, it will be a short trip.

[Tool Man]

Sounds like the monitor to me.

The Windows splash screen is I think 640x480, but when Windows acctually boots to your desktop, it switches to whatever you have it set for, 1600x1200 or whatever your using.
Could it be that your PC is set to a display mode that your monitor can't handle?

Have you tried booting in safe mode?

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Thats the only thing it CAN be realistically.

The monitor is a 17" Dell thats only about a year old. I went from a 128 ATI to a 256 FX-6600. However, I had the previous card set to 1024x768. When I put in the new video card, I set it to the same thing (both 32bit color).

I actually tried safe mode (forgot to mention that .. my apologies .. frustrated). Same result.

EDIT: I also tried AGAIN to hook up my monitor to my gf's laptop. The image comes through fine. Her laptop is also set for 1024x768 32 bit.

[freebird73717]

This is just a thought but have you tried to plug it into another electrical outlet / or power strip in your house? It's possible that the power failure messed up your electrical outlet. I had a power surge in my house a few months back and it completely fried an electrical outlet. Nothing I would plug into it would work. Replaced the outlet and the problem was solved. The only reason I suggest this is because your computer seems to work fine at your girlfriends but not at your house (and I'm assuming you are plugging it into the same outlet each time). If this is the case thats good because all you will have to replace is a two dollar outlet.

[NYPlayer]

Are you plugging the PC into the same Power Strip that was plugged it when you had a power failure. Try a different strip if possible. I have had powerstrips go bad and would not supply full power to my PC.