random boot failure

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Hello,

I am experiencing an intermittent problem of my PC failing to boot. Other
than the boot CDROM light blinks for a few seconds, the problem occurs with
only the fans going. There is no initial post, just a black screen. The
monitors power light shows no activity.

This does not occur at every boot but when it does, if I hit the reset
button a few times it eventually kicks the system into life and it boots up
without any further problems.

To rectify the problem, I have re-flashed the machine with its release bios
(ver F1). I have also tried fixing the master boot record by booting to
the WinXP installation CDRom, and then using the 'R' command to get into the
recovery consol, ran the 'fixmbr' command. However the problem still
persists. Anyone got any ideas???

I have the following setup:

Athlon XP 2600+ CPU
Gigabyte GA-7VT600 1394 motherboard
1 X stick of Kingmax 512Mb PC3200 Ram
Leadtek WinFast A180 Cinema (GF4 MX440 X8 with TV)
Hercules Fortissimmo 7.1 sound card.
and two hard drives - an 80gig WD JB 7200 IDE drive (the boot drive) and a
Seagate 80gig 7200.7 SATA drive.

I have been able to install Windows XP Home successfully with everything
recognised by the system. I have also installed the latest drivers.


Thanks,
Shane
 
Hello,

I am experiencing an intermittent problem of my PC failing to boot. Other
than the boot CDROM light blinks for a few seconds, the problem occurs with
only the fans going. There is no initial post, just a black screen. The
monitors power light shows no activity.

This does not occur at every boot but when it does, if I hit the reset
button a few times it eventually kicks the system into life and it boots up
without any further problems.

To rectify the problem, I have re-flashed the machine with its release bios
(ver F1). I have also tried fixing the master boot record by booting to
the WinXP installation CDRom, and then using the 'R' command to get into the
recovery consol, ran the 'fixmbr' command. However the problem still
persists. Anyone got any ideas???

I have the following setup:

Athlon XP 2600+ CPU
Gigabyte GA-7VT600 1394 motherboard
1 X stick of Kingmax 512Mb PC3200 Ram
Leadtek WinFast A180 Cinema (GF4 MX440 X8 with TV)
Hercules Fortissimmo 7.1 sound card.
and two hard drives - an 80gig WD JB 7200 IDE drive (the boot drive) and a
Seagate 80gig 7200.7 SATA drive.

I have been able to install Windows XP Home successfully with everything
recognised by the system. I have also installed the latest drivers.
Click to expand...

There is no point in making any changes to Windows or the hard drive
MBR, etc... this is most likely (almost certainly) a motherboard or
power supply problem. Since it does work sometimes that would suggest
the power supply is the problem.

What make/model/capacity is it, including the 3V+5V combined rating?
Since your motherboard appears to use 5V for CPU power I will
speculate that it's inadequate in it's 5V, 3V rail.

Check the power supply voltages with a voltage meter connected to the
ATX connector (while the system is on, in non-POSTing state).

If it's a generic power supply you should probably just start looking
for a replacement, and underclocking the system might help it to POST
more often in the interim.


Dave
 
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