Intermittent cold boot problem

[Frank Booth Snr]

Does anyone know why when cold booting, the process sometimes sticks at
POST screen for several seconds before the HDD suddenly clicks and then
normal boot up continues. This doesn't happen on a restart boot, when
the HDD reacts straight away at POST.

The machine is a Dell Dimension 8100, P4 1.3ghz, 256m MB RIMM, SCSI HP
CD Writer, Maxtor 40GB HDD on Primary master and Quantum 10GB on
secondary master.

 

[Lawrence Lucier]

Does anyone know why when cold booting, the process sometimes sticks at
POST screen for several seconds before the HDD suddenly clicks and then
normal boot up continues. This doesn't happen on a restart boot, when
the HDD reacts straight away at POST.

The machine is a Dell Dimension 8100, P4 1.3ghz, 256m MB RIMM, SCSI HP
CD Writer, Maxtor 40GB HDD on Primary master and Quantum 10GB on
secondary master.

Do a Google newsgroup search for this thread:

Maxtor Hard Drive Clicking Noise HELP

It was just being discussed in this and other newsgroups(cross
posted)....I wasn't following it to carefully and so can't offer any
real insight into whether any useful information was being posted or
not.

 

[kony]

Does anyone know why when cold booting, the process sometimes sticks at
POST screen for several seconds before the HDD suddenly clicks and then
normal boot up continues. This doesn't happen on a restart boot, when
the HDD reacts straight away at POST.

The machine is a Dell Dimension 8100, P4 1.3ghz, 256m MB RIMM, SCSI HP
CD Writer, Maxtor 40GB HDD on Primary master and Quantum 10GB on
secondary master.

It would seem one of your drives is having trouble spinning
up or the PSU voltage is too low. If you have a
multimeter, take voltage readings particularly of the 12V
rail, and try unplugging one drive, then the other,
comparing which is the problem.

Offhand I would suggest replacing the 10GB drive, it is now
at an age where you have gotten most of the useful life out
of it and it is becoming a liability to any data stored on
it. The 40GB HDD isn't exactly a spring chick at this
point either.

 

[Steve]

You might try removing all media devices from ur motherboard except the 40G
hdd and see if phenom is the same.

I had a pc do the same thing except it did it even on a warm restart. It was
something w/ the motherboard...maybe ide controller was faulty.
I was do to replace the mb anyway so thats what i did.

good luck troubleshooting....

 

[Frank Booth Snr]

It would seem one of your drives is having trouble spinning
up or the PSU voltage is too low. If you have a
multimeter, take voltage readings particularly of the 12V
rail, and try unplugging one drive, then the other,
comparing which is the problem.

Offhand I would suggest replacing the 10GB drive, it is now
at an age where you have gotten most of the useful life out
of it and it is becoming a liability to any data stored on
it. The 40GB HDD isn't exactly a spring chick at this
point either.

The fault I have tends to be intermittent, so I'm not entirely convinced
that it's too low PSU power, because in that case the problem would
continue when the PC was in use, eg rebooting trouble, which I'm not
getting. When you suggest ' unplugging 1 drive and then the other', do
you also mean swapping over between primary and secondary HDD's? Both
are bootable. Both drives are healthy and passed an IDE diagnostic test.

 

[Elvis]

I'm saying remove all the stuff u don't need, that was u can eliminate those
from causing ur problem (ie CD writer, sec hdd).

u just need a processor, minimal ram, bootable hdd, and vid..
Start trouble shooting from there.

 

[kony]

The fault I have tends to be intermittent, so I'm not entirely convinced
that it's too low PSU power, because in that case the problem would
continue when the PC was in use,

No, the current requirements to turn on a system are
completely different than to keep it running. There are
large surges to charge up capacitors initially, and to begin
spinning up the motors.

eg rebooting trouble, which I'm not getting.

Rebooting is fairly irrelevant, not necessarily any
different than (not rebooting) anything else. It is a
logical state of system use far more than a change in power
with the exception of some CPU power increase going from the
ACPI-managed (in windows OS) HALT state to a non power
managed state during the reboot.

When you suggest ' unplugging 1 drive and then the other', do
you also mean

No, I mean what was written.

swapping over between primary and secondary HDD's?
no

Both
are bootable.

Doesn't matter, allowing either to boot is not a problem,
but also unnecessary. The only goal is to see if the dely
in post (drive detection) still occurs.

Both drives are healthy and passed an IDE diagnostic test.

It is good that you have done this test already, but passing
the diagnostics means more than it didn't find a problem,
rather than a guarantee that there isn't one, that they are
truely healthy. Even so, if you feel comfortable with
that, you have to decide what to focus on next.

 

[Frank Booth Snr]

No, the current requirements to turn on a system are
completely different than to keep it running. There are
large surges to charge up capacitors initially, and to begin
spinning up the motors.




Rebooting is fairly irrelevant, not necessarily any
different than (not rebooting) anything else. It is a
logical state of system use far more than a change in power
with the exception of some CPU power increase going from the
ACPI-managed (in windows OS) HALT state to a non power
managed state during the reboot.




No, I mean what was written.




Doesn't matter, allowing either to boot is not a problem,
but also unnecessary. The only goal is to see if the dely
in post (drive detection) still occurs.




It is good that you have done this test already, but passing
the diagnostics means more than it didn't find a problem,
rather than a guarantee that there isn't one, that they are
truely healthy. Even so, if you feel comfortable with
that, you have to decide what to focus on next.

On reading the Dell forums, I've seen that several owners of Dell
Dimensions seem to have found similar trouble. I haven't read the forums
relating to other Dell models. Anyway one interesting bit of advice
given by one of the moderators, who seems to know what he's talking
about was to reset the NVRAM (CMOS). I can do this by keyboard rather
than change mobo jumper settings. Anyway I've tried it and since then,
I've had no further cold booting problems so far (last 24 hours). Looks
like it's a BIOS problem.

 

[kony]

On reading the Dell forums, I've seen that several owners of Dell
Dimensions seem to have found similar trouble. I haven't read the forums
relating to other Dell models. Anyway one interesting bit of advice
given by one of the moderators, who seems to know what he's talking
about was to reset the NVRAM (CMOS). I can do this by keyboard rather
than change mobo jumper settings. Anyway I've tried it and since then,
I've had no further cold booting problems so far (last 24 hours). Looks
like it's a BIOS problem.

Had you changed any bios settings or changed the system
configuration (hardware additions like memory, CPU or video
swap besides addition of the 10GB HDD) ? If not it seems
strange that clearing CMOS helps.

 

[Frank Booth Snr]

Had you changed any bios settings or changed the system
configuration (hardware additions like memory, CPU or video
swap besides addition of the 10GB HDD) ? If not it seems
strange that clearing CMOS helps.

I had done some minor adjustments like disabling ps2 mouse and parallel
ecp ports. I use usb peripherals. Other than that, no. I had at one
point changed jumper settings on the secondary HDD, as I thougt that
might be the cause (originally set for CS, but reference to Maxtor's
website for jumper configuration showed that it was set correctly first
time. That is now set for master and works fine as does my main HDD,
also reset from CS to master. No further problems to report in last 48
hours.