PC hangs on boot.

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Ozemail

I have an APEX P3 866 with 256mb ram & 20 GB HAD running Windows XP Pro. I inherited this machine & it has never worked properly.

Each time I power on the machine, it goes through the boot process until it hits the Windows XP start-up screen. Sometimes it doesn't even get that far.
As soon as it gets to the start-up screen it freezes. If it doesn't get to the start-up screen, it goes through the motions of starting up, then reboots itself.
I get the choice of starting Windows normally, safe mode, etc. Whatever option I choose the problem still happens. (Either hanging or rebooting).
The sound & video cards are built into the motherboard, so I can't swap them around to try to eliminate components.
I have also run an overnight RAM testing application, which shows no problems with the RAM. I have tried the HDD on a different PC & that works fine. I have even
formatted the drive & put Windows ME & '98 on it, with the same result.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Dave.
 
"Ozemail" <[email protected]> schreef in bericht

I have an APEX P3 866 with 256mb ram & 20 GB HAD running Windows XP Pro. I
inherited this machine & it has never worked properly.

Each time I power on the machine, it goes through the boot process until it
hits the Windows XP start-up screen. Sometimes it doesn't even get that far.
As soon as it gets to the start-up screen it freezes. If it doesn't get to
the start-up screen, it goes through the motions of starting up, then
reboots itself.
I get the choice of starting Windows normally, safe mode, etc. Whatever
option I choose the problem still happens. (Either hanging or rebooting).
The sound & video cards are built into the motherboard, so I can't swap them
around to try to eliminate components.
I have also run an overnight RAM testing application, which shows no
problems with the RAM. I have tried the HDD on a different PC & that works
fine. I have even
formatted the drive & put Windows ME & '98 on it, with the same result.
Click to expand...
(as Dave wrote in HTML, there are no automatic > -things in front
of the lines)

Hi Dave,

Just some idea's you might still try:
1. Booting from a floppy OK? If You can boot with a floppy with FAT32
support (e.g. the one from win 98), can You after the OK boot (if it is OK)
browse Your harddrive? And by the way, remove all other devices and cables:
CD-ROM, DVD, floppy including cable and try that as well.
2. Use other IDE-cables (and if available, a separate IDE-controller, just
for testing) (I have had so many computers to be repaired for people where a
new cable solved all problems)(well, not that many, but certainly many more
than one would expect)
3. Other power supply
4. Take out the CMOS-battery and close the reset CMOS jumper for some time.
When You have reseated the battery and bootup, go into the BIOS and choose
"Factory defaults", afterwards You should "tune" it again. You can also
disable all extra, thus doing almost the same thing as taking out the cards.
5. Consider a penis enlargement. I can get You some totally harmless herbs
and YES THEY ARE FOR FREE (just a minor cost for sending them). (Just
kidding, there's plenty off this kind of spam in the NG already).
6. If the overnight memory test is OK, I presume that processor and memory
are OK. So taking them out and reseating them won't help much. BUT: Check
all capacitors whether their tops are "bulging" or if there's crap on the
board immediately around them. I could be a matter of leaking/drying out
capacitors. Sometimes it is not even necessary to see anything, and they can
still be broken. If nothing else helps (not even the help of people who know
more than I do) and You are very attached to this Mobo, replacing the cap's
would be what I would give a try.

For now, that is all I can think of.

Good luck!
Rene

P.S. Post Your postings as plain text, and not HTML, please.
 
I have an APEX P3 866 with 256mb ram & 20 GB HAD running Windows XP Pro. I inherited this machine & it has never worked properly.

Each time I power on the machine, it goes through the boot process until it hits the Windows XP start-up screen. Sometimes it doesn't even get that far.
As soon as it gets to the start-up screen it freezes. If it doesn't get to the start-up screen, it goes through the motions of starting up, then reboots itself.
I get the choice of starting Windows normally, safe mode, etc. Whatever option I choose the problem still happens. (Either hanging or rebooting).
The sound & video cards are built into the motherboard, so I can't swap them around to try to eliminate components.
I have also run an overnight RAM testing application, which shows no problems with the RAM. I have tried the HDD on a different PC & that works fine. I have even
formatted the drive & put Windows ME & '98 on it, with the same result.

Can anyone help?
Click to expand...

There should be either a jumper onboard or bios settings to
disable sound, though I doubt sound is the problem.
Likewise with video, else if it's AGP/northbridge based then
iinstalling a video card in AGP slot would disable it, or
with no AGP slot a PCI video card might be tried and the
bios set to use PCI as the primary display adapter.

You might try clearing CMOS and checking jumpers onboard.
If you have a multimeter you might take PSU voltage
readings, or if the bios shows them that would be better
than nothing.

Was WinXP successfully installed and running on the system
previously, or was it a new installation that completed but
THEN it wouldn't properly boot the OS after done installing?
If the latter you might try disabling power management in
the bios, for example disable ACPI. If you can find a bios
update and "think" it's stable in DOS, you might try a bios
update, though you might want to wait on that as it should
still be viable in Win9x/ME.

Weighing odds I'd guess it might be the power supply or
failing motherboard caps, simply because either could cause
this and both are common failings... but there is
insufficient evidence to conclude either are to blame yet.
You might inspect the motherboard for signs of capacitor
failure... vented tops, swelling, leaky residue, etc.... and
likewise the interior of the power supply after leaving it
unplugged from AC for a few minutes.
 
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