PC freezing on Gateway splash screen

  • Thread starter Thread starter tmac_for3
  • Start date Start date
T

tmac_for3

Hi, I have a Gateway 816GM with XP MCE 05. Today I started the computer
and it froze on the Gateway splash screen at startup. I haven't made
any hardware or software changes since the last succesful boot, but the
computer simply will not start up, it stays on the splash screen and
nothing happens.

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this? As I said I
haven't made any significant changes to the system which would cause an
issue like this, it booted fine last night, and suddenly today it just
refuses to startup.

Thanks in advance
 
Anyone?
Click to expand...

Questions to help narrow down the troubleshooting:

1. Can you get into Safe Mode?
2. If no, can you boot using Last Known Good Configuration?
3. If no, can you boot into a rescue system such as Knoppix (Linux) or a
Bart's PE?

If the answer to all of the above is "no", then you know you have hardware
problems. Here are general hardware troubleshooting steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts with
known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA). Have all
your data backed up before you take the machine into a shop.

Malke
 
No, as I said I can't pass the splash screen, the computer won't even
begin to boot, so I really don't have any options. I tried swapping the
hard drive which did nothing, so I'm assuming that the problem is the
motherboard, I can't see what else would cause a problem like this.
 
No, as I said I can't pass the splash screen, the computer won't even
begin to boot, so I really don't have any options. I tried swapping the
hard drive which did nothing, so I'm assuming that the problem is the
motherboard, I can't see what else would cause a problem like this.
Click to expand...

Sorry, when you said "the splash screen" I thought you meant the Windows
splash screen. Since you meant the "Gateway" splash screen, before the
operating system is even loaded, you definitely have hardware issues. It
could be a lot more things than the hard drive or the motherboard such as
RAM or the power supply. Replacing the power supply is cheap and easy, so I
wouldn't jump to the conclusion that it's the motherboard right away.

Either go through the hardware troubleshooting steps in the link I already
gave you (skip the hard drive diagnostics) or take the machine to a local
shop as suggested.

If the machine is still under warranty, contact Gateway tech support.

Malke
 
Unfortunately its not still under warranty, however, I just remembered
that we did have a power outage the night before it stopped working. My
computer was asleep, I woke up and that's when this issue began. I'm
guessing that the problem could be a fried motherboard, hard drive (god
I hope not) or PSU. It is powering on though, does this mean that it
isn't the PSU, or would still possibly power on even if the power
supply was gone? I'd obviously rather have to replace that than the
hard drive.

Also, I've realized that if I leave it for about 5-10 minutes it will
eventually get past the splash screen, it goes through the startup
screen and then just has a blinking cursor. I reeeally hope it isn't my
hard drive.
 
Unfortunately its not still under warranty, however, I just remembered
that we did have a power outage the night before it stopped working. My
computer was asleep, I woke up and that's when this issue began. I'm
guessing that the problem could be a fried motherboard, hard drive (god
I hope not) or PSU. It is powering on though, does this mean that it
isn't the PSU, or would still possibly power on even if the power
supply was gone? I'd obviously rather have to replace that than the
hard drive.

Also, I've realized that if I leave it for about 5-10 minutes it will
eventually get past the splash screen, it goes through the startup
screen and then just has a blinking cursor. I reeeally hope it isn't my
hard drive.
 
Unfortunately its not still under warranty, however, I just remembered
that we did have a power outage the night before it stopped working. My
computer was asleep, I woke up and that's when this issue began. I'm
guessing that the problem could be a fried motherboard, hard drive (god
I hope not) or PSU. It is powering on though, does this mean that it
isn't the PSU, or would still possibly power on even if the power
supply was gone? I'd obviously rather have to replace that than the
hard drive.

Also, I've realized that if I leave it for about 5-10 minutes it will
eventually get past the splash screen, it goes through the startup
screen and then just has a blinking cursor. I reeeally hope it isn't my
hard drive.
 
Unfortunately its not still under warranty, however, I just remembered
that we did have a power outage the night before it stopped working. My
computer was asleep, I woke up and that's when this issue began. I'm
guessing that the problem could be a fried motherboard, hard drive (god
I hope not) or PSU. It is powering on though, does this mean that it
isn't the PSU, or would still possibly power on even if the power
supply was gone? I'd obviously rather have to replace that than the
hard drive.

Also, I've realized that if I leave it for about 5-10 minutes it will
eventually get past the splash screen, it goes through the startup
screen and then just has a blinking cursor. I reeeally hope it isn't my
hard drive.
 
Unfortunately its not still under warranty, however, I just remembered
that we did have a power outage the night before it stopped working. My
computer was asleep, I woke up and that's when this issue began. I'm
guessing that the problem could be a fried motherboard, hard drive (god
I hope not) or PSU. It is powering on though, does this mean that it
isn't the PSU, or would still possibly power on even if the power
supply was gone? I'd obviously rather have to replace that than the
hard drive.

Also, I've realized that if I leave it for about 5-10 minutes it will
eventually get past the splash screen, it goes through the startup
screen and then just has a blinking cursor. I reeeally hope it isn't my
hard drive.
Click to expand...

I can't answer these questions. I would go through the hardware diagnostics
systematically. All troubleshooting needs to be done methodically.

Malke
 
Well I swapped the hard drive and still got the blinking cursor, so I'm
assuming its either the PSU or mobo. I just don't have any spares of
either lying around, so I'm not sure how I can determine which of these
devices is causing the problem. (Assuming one of these is the issue, I
can't see how it could be anything else.)
 
Well I swapped the hard drive and still got the blinking cursor, so I'm
assuming its either the PSU or mobo. I just don't have any spares of
either lying around, so I'm not sure how I can determine which of these
devices is causing the problem. (Assuming one of these is the issue, I
can't see how it could be anything else.)
Click to expand...

Repeat of standard hardware testing cut/paste:

"Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts with
known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA). Have all
your data backed up before you take the machine into a shop."

Malke
 
Yeah, but it seems dumb to me to pay them to do something I could do
myself, just because they have a spare PSU to swap and I don't, I might
as well just buy one and test it and then return it if its not the
problem.

I'm just wondering if there's any way I can determine if the issue is
with the PSU or mobo without switching them for working parts. Would it
still possibly power on if the problem was with the PSU?
 
No, as I said I can't pass the splash screen, the computer won't even
begin to boot, so I really don't have any options. I tried swapping the
hard drive which did nothing, so I'm assuming that the problem is the
motherboard, I can't see what else would cause a problem like this.
Click to expand...

Bad RAM can occasionally cause hangs like this. If you have multiple
ram sticks, try them one at a time.

Go ahead and disconnect floppy, CDs, hard drive, and all cards except
video. See if it still hangs. (you may get an operating system not
found type of message.... but that's an improvement, really. )
 
The moment you see the splash screen hit escape, or start hitting esc as
soon as power comes on. That might clear the screen and show what's going
on.

Can you get into the BIOS? You have removed power completely, and pulled the
battery for a couple minutes....just double-checking some early steps that I
haven't seen listed here yet.

-John O
 
I can get into the BIOS, I don't think there's anything in there that
would need changing though, correct?

I'll try disconnecting all the other optical drives and video cards and
such in case one of those is causing the problem and let you know if
that helps anything, I assumed that none of these would be the issue
because it freezes right after being powered on, but I'll give it a
shot.

I do have two sticks of RAM also, so I'll check those out too.

Thanks for the help so far guys
 
Well I did some serious troubleshooting, and I managed to get it to
boot.

I'm still not exactly sure what the problem is. I tried switching out
the RAM, removing all the optical drives, swapping the hard drive, and
removing the video card and I still had the same problem as before.

However, when I disconnected all of m USB devices, removed my TV tuner
card, my network adapter, and disconnected all the power connectors to
me media reader, front USB, firewire and audio ports; its booted
successfully.

I doubt (I may be wrong of course and I'm going to go back and
reconnect and test each device individually) that the issue was caused
by one of these devices though. I really know nothing about power
supplies, so don't laugh at me too hard if this is a stupid suggestion,
but is it a possibility that my PSU is actually the problem, and by
removing all of these devices so that its only powering the bare
minimum necessary to boot the system, it worked? Basically what I'm
saying is it possible that my PSU still works, but has a much lower
power output than before, and therefore it was unable to boot with all
the devices connected before?

Regardless, I know its not my hard drive so that's great news, but if
anyone could help me further by answering my questions then it would be
greatly appreciated, thanks a lot.
 
Well I did some serious troubleshooting, and I managed to get it to
boot.

I'm still not exactly sure what the problem is. I tried switching out
the RAM, removing all the optical drives, swapping the hard drive, and
removing the video card and I still had the same problem as before.

However, when I disconnected all of m USB devices, removed my TV tuner
card, my network adapter, and disconnected all the power connectors to
me media reader, front USB, firewire and audio ports; its booted
successfully.

I doubt (I may be wrong of course and I'm going to go back and
reconnect and test each device individually) that the issue was caused
by one of these devices though. I really know nothing about power
supplies, so don't laugh at me too hard if this is a stupid suggestion,
but is it a possibility that my PSU is actually the problem, and by
removing all of these devices so that its only powering the bare
minimum necessary to boot the system, it worked? Basically what I'm
saying is it possible that my PSU still works, but has a much lower
power output than before, and therefore it was unable to boot with all
the devices connected before?

Regardless, I know its not my hard drive so that's great news, but if
anyone could help me further by answering my questions then it would be
greatly appreciated, thanks a lot.
 
[email protected] said:
Well I did some serious troubleshooting, and I managed to get it to
boot.

I'm still not exactly sure what the problem is. I tried switching out
the RAM, removing all the optical drives, swapping the hard drive, and
removing the video card and I still had the same problem as before.

However, when I disconnected all of m USB devices, removed my TV tuner
card, my network adapter, and disconnected all the power connectors to
me media reader, front USB, firewire and audio ports; its booted
successfully.

I doubt (I may be wrong of course and I'm going to go back and
reconnect and test each device individually) that the issue was caused
by one of these devices though. I really know nothing about power
supplies, so don't laugh at me too hard if this is a stupid suggestion,
but is it a possibility that my PSU is actually the problem, and by
removing all of these devices so that its only powering the bare
minimum necessary to boot the system, it worked? Basically what I'm
saying is it possible that my PSU still works, but has a much lower
power output than before, and therefore it was unable to boot with all
the devices connected before?
Click to expand...

Well, close: it is possible that you are running more devices that your
power supply can handle. I suppose it's also possible for a power
supply to go halfway bad.

Start adding devices back, one at a time, and see which device is
causing problems.
 
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