Hp fails to boot

  • Thread starter Thread starter jinxy
  • Start date Start date
J

jinxy

Hello, I am trying to assist a friend in finding out why his pc won't
boot. The pc in question an HP M7350n. The mobo is stamped P5LP-LE. He
is running XP home ,with 2 x 1gb of pc4200 ddr2 ram, and a sata HD
(size unknown). I am told that when they try to boot up, there is a
rapid series of beeps,like a machine gun, was the way he described it.
I brought the tower home to have a peek and noticed that the voltage
switch on the rear of the power supply (Bestec 300w) was set on 230v.
This machine is mainly used by a young teen for gaming. They were
originally complaining that the monitor was not coming on all of the
time. I wonder if junior mover the voltage slider in an effort to do
something about his woes and cooked the mobo. Upon closer inspection
of the voltage slider, it almost looks like pencil graphite or ink
traces. Maybe someone used a pen or pencil to move the switch? If you
have any thoughts on this post please enlighten me about the voltage
switch and the possible damages that can be done by choosing the wrong
voltage. Thanks for your time and efforts.
-J
 
Hello, I am trying to assist a friend in finding out why his pc won't
boot. The pc in question an HP M7350n. The mobo is stamped P5LP-LE. He
is running XP home ,with 2 x 1gb of pc4200 ddr2 ram, and a sata HD
(size unknown). I am told that when they try to boot up, there is a
rapid series of beeps,like a machine gun, was the way he described it.
Click to expand...

No RAM?
I brought the tower home to have a peek and noticed that the voltage
switch on the rear of the power supply (Bestec 300w) was set on 230v.
Click to expand...

Why don't you just flip that switch back to 110V and power it up? :)

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jinxy said:
I brought the tower home to have a peek and noticed that the voltage
switch on the rear of the power supply (Bestec 300w) was set on 230v.
Click to expand...

You should put it into the correct position to do your troubleshooting.
I am told that when they try to boot up, there is a
rapid series of beeps,like a machine gun, was the way he described it.
Click to expand...

HP publishes some beep codes at their site
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=bph07107#N2719
The following beep codes are common to many HP and Compaq desktop
computers. Use these codes first before referring to the other code lists.

That page also shows some beep codes for AMI, Phoenix, and Award.
The pc in question an HP M7350n. The mobo is stamped P5LP-LE.
Click to expand...

Product specs
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c00585745

Mobo specs
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...5745/en_us/c00590499/loc:1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us

Mobo is Asus apparently with HP BIOS.
I wonder if junior mover the voltage slider in an effort to do
something about his woes and cooked the mobo
Click to expand...

No, that didn't cook the mobo and maybe he did move it with pen or pencil.
If you have any thoughts on this post please enlighten me about the
voltage switch and the possible damages that can be done by choosing
the wrong voltage.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that it is bad if you are using/ have/ 230v line
voltage and select the 115, but not the other way.
 
Hello, I am trying to assist a friend in finding out why his pc won't
boot. The pc in question an HP M7350n. The mobo is stamped P5LP-LE. He
is running XP home ,with 2 x 1gb of pc4200 ddr2 ram, and a sata HD
(size unknown). I am told that when they try to boot up, there is a
rapid series of beeps,like a machine gun, was the way he described it.
I brought the tower home to have a peek and noticed that the voltage
switch on the rear of the power supply (Bestec 300w) was set on 230v.
This machine is mainly used by a young teen for gaming. They were
originally complaining that the monitor was not coming on all of the
time. I wonder if junior mover the voltage slider in an effort to do
something about his woes and cooked the mobo. Upon closer inspection
of the voltage slider, it almost looks like pencil graphite or ink
traces. Maybe someone used a pen or pencil to move the switch? If you
have any thoughts on this post please enlighten me about the voltage
switch and the possible damages that can be done by choosing the wrong
voltage. Thanks for your time and efforts.
-J
Click to expand...

Having the switch at 230v in 115v land simply causes a failure at
powerup--the supply can't deliver enough power, the voltages are wrong
and it shuts down after a second or two.

Doing it the other way around is quite destructive, though.
 
Having the switch at 230v in 115v land simply causes a failure at
powerup--the supply can't deliver enough power, the voltages are wrong
and it shuts down after a second or two.

Doing it the other way around is quite destructive, though.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

O.K. I unplugged everything and started from scratch. After going
through the usual steps, it turns out that one of the ram modules was
the culprit. The pc now boots and runs fine again. That ram will be
replaced. When the pc boots and goes into the Bios screen, we are
asked "press F1 for set-up or F2 to continue" is there a way to
progress past this screen without having to press F2 everytime?
Thanks again to all for your time.
-J
 
jinxy said:
O.K. I unplugged everything and started from scratch. After going
through the usual steps, it turns out that one of the ram modules was
the culprit. The pc now boots and runs fine again. That ram will be
replaced.
Good.

When the pc boots and goes into the Bios screen, we are
asked "press F1 for set-up or F2 to continue" is there a way to
progress past this screen without having to press F2 everytime?
Click to expand...

The CMOS is 'unsettled'. Either the battery is dead or you should reset
the settings to default or clear CMOS.

Have you noticed what is going on with the date/time in the BIOS POST?
 
O.K. I unplugged everything and started from scratch. After going
through the usual steps, it turns out that one of the ram modules was
the culprit. The pc now boots and runs fine again. That ram will be
replaced. When the pc boots and goes into the Bios screen, we are
asked "press F1 for set-up or F2 to continue" is there a way to
progress past this screen without having to press F2 everytime?
Thanks again to all for your time.
-J
Click to expand...

The prompt "press F1..." occurs on a "halt on error".

The BIOS has settings for halt conditions. It can "Halt on All Errors",
"Half on No Errors", "Halt on keyboard error", as examples of how that
BIOS item can be set.

The motherboard typically has a hardware monitor on it. The monitor is
an interface on the SuperI/O. It checks things like fan speed (RPM)
as well as critical voltages. It can measure Vcore on the processor
for example, and determine it is out of range. On my old P2B-S,
the fact I installed a Tualatin processor used to cause "Press F1"
style error, because the new processor used a different value of
Vcore, than the BIOS was expecting.

As a user, when you see the "press F1" error, you press F1 :-)

That will put you in the BIOS setup screen. Go to the
hardware monitor page, and check the readouts.

http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/motherboards/2008/msi-x48-plat-preview/monitor_BIOS.jpg

Some BIOS, compare the fan speed to a relatively high number.
One of my Asus motherboards, declares a fan problem, at any
RPM value below 1800. I have low speed fans which go well
below that. Later Asus motherboards set that threshold at
500 RPM or lower, so it doesn't happen.

To fix the problem, you can:

1) Enter the BIOS, and set the "Halt On" feature to [No Errors]
rather than a value of [All Errors]
2) If you do that, the user will never be alerted to abnormal
events, when the computer first starts. That "Press F1" is
a warning that something isn't normal. If you can figure out,
exactly what the computer is complaining about, then you won't
need to use the less-desirable solution in (1).

If the PS/2 keyboard was disconnected, that might cause it to halt
as well. Of course, then you can't press F1 :-) So the BIOS does
check for a few different things, but doesn't put a nice message
on the screen like "please plug my keyboard back in". You get
"Press F1" and get to waste 10 minutes eliminating possible
reasons.

HTH,
Paul
 
O.K. I unplugged everything and started from scratch. After going
through the usual steps, it turns out that one of the ram modules was
the culprit. The pc now boots and runs fine again. That ram will be
replaced. When the pc boots and goes into the Bios screen, we are
asked "press F1 for set-up or F2 to continue" is there a way to
progress past this screen without having to press F2 everytime?
Thanks again to all for your time.
-J
Click to expand...

This is usually due to the BIOS sensing the settings don't match the
hardware. In general I have found it will go away if you go into the
BIOS and then exit saving changes (the fact that you didn't make any
is irrelevant.)
 
This is usually due to the BIOS sensing the settings don't match the
hardware.  In general I have found it will go away if you go into the
BIOS and then exit saving changes (the fact that you didn't make any
is irrelevant.)
Click to expand...

Tried the save changes route with no joy. When I press F1 and go to
setup, then choose hardware monitor page, all that is displayed are,
cpu temp,cpu fan speed and system fan speed.There is no mention of any
Halt on error, or of anything to do with a keyboard. The BIOS in
question is Phoenix AwardBIOS v6.00PG . Any other ideas are wecome as
I would like to get past this pitfall.-J
 
jinxy said:
Tried the save changes route with no joy. When I press F1 and go to
setup, then choose hardware monitor page, all that is displayed are,
cpu temp,cpu fan speed and system fan speed.There is no mention of any
Halt on error, or of anything to do with a keyboard. The BIOS in
question is Phoenix AwardBIOS v6.00PG . Any other ideas are wecome as
I would like to get past this pitfall.-J
Click to expand...

Look more carefully at the hardware monitor page :-)

If you cannot see it, do you own a digital camera ?
Could you take a picture of the hardware monitor screen in the BIOS ?

Then post to imageshack.us and give us a link to the photo.

Paul
 
Here you go:  http://img146.imageshack.us/i/picture065x.jpg/
-J- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

After looking at things again, I see that the bios screen says "floppy
disk(s) fail (80).
When I checked the boot priority, the floppy is listed as first boot
device. There is no floppy installed on this machine. Could this be
the problem? I will change the boot order and see what happens. Will
post results shortly.-J
 
You should disable the floppy drive entirely.  Typically that will be on
the first page of the BIOS setup screens.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Thank you all for your suggestions, but Grinder hit the nail on the
head. When I disabled the floppy drive in the BIOS all was as it
should be again. Keep up the good work folks.-J
 
On Wed, 12 Jan 2011 07:35:54 -0800 (PST), jinxy
Click to expand...

it almost looks like pencil graphite or ink
Having the switch at 230v in 115v land simply causes a failure at
powerup--the supply can't deliver enough power, the voltages are wrong
and it shuts down after a second or two.

Doing it the other way around is quite destructive, though..
Click to expand...

Usually setting the input voltage switch to 220 (may also say 230 or
240) just ends up in a non-boot situation. (ancient cubicle rat trick)

FWIW, I fought a brand-new build for 3 days to find that out the new
high-end power supply I bought from a reputable dealer (forehead smacks
aplenty) was set at 230v.

*This may have been a one-time-deal*,

but I had an E-Machines (hehh quality..) level HP recently I was
refurbing for charity.

Yup, BestTec supply..

misplaced 110/220 (or whatever) PS voltage switch.

The PS failed, and started pulsing the 3.3 rail up to about 20 volts.
Killed the RAM and the CPU. I couldn't believe it until I put an o-scope
on it.

I scrapped the whole thing. after seeing that.. I couldn't trust
anything in the box.

This is scary, I'd already cranked out at least 30 of "same box" .



--
Old surprises still exist.

I just heard Elton John's "Talking Old Soldiers" for the
first time. I have no idea how this gem never accesed my
brain before.

It's so damned real to me. Been dere, dun dat.
 
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