PC Misbehaving

Lazarus

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
2,874
Guys,

Ran into a problem with my home PC which has me stumped.

System setup :

MSI KT3V 6712 Motherboard
1800 XP (1.56) Processor.
1GB RAM
300W PSU
Abit Siluro Geforce 4 128MB Gfx Card.
Primary HDD - 60GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM
Secondry HDD - 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM
Primary Optical - CDRW
Secondary Optical - DVD Player.

All was working fine last night, but this morning, the machine would not start for me daughter.

Now, before I dock her pocket money (which whe doesnt get anyway) can anyone throw any suggestions.

I start up the PC, and it powers up fine, displaying the Gfx card details, Primary/Scondary drive information. Screen then changes and displays the BIOS and THEN it should show the splash screen for starting up Windows XP (Pro)

However, the screen remains blank and i have left it for a while - no joy.

Strange thing is, when i press the power off button, it switches off immediately - no pressing the button for 6 seconds to switch it off.

Occasioanlly (VERY occasionally) the machine does boot through to windows,

What I have tried:

Removing all of the components (leaving only the Primary HDD and Gfx card)
no joy

Boot to safe mode
no joy - doesnt even show the safe mode option screen

Any suggestions?
 

Embattle

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
13,182
Possible HDD fubar?

However out of interest how is you memory split?
 

Bob007

Prince Among Men
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
585
Couple of quickies as am on me way out, Others will post better after this but it will get ya started.

Try a new ide cable to the hdd, Also set the bios detects to "auto" and turn off the splash screen, See if its picking up the primary HDD first, While ya in the bios, check ya boot order, prob not that but ya there ;).
 

Lazarus

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
2,874
Thanks for the response guys.

Believe me, ive tried just about EVERYTHING

Tried :
Different PSU
Different Monitor
3 different GFX cards
4 different sticks of memory - individually in each of the slots.
3 different HDDs

Next thing to try is a different mobo and processor. Ill strip out the machine and replace the mobo with a spare I have - see if that cures it.

If not, im BUGGERED if I know whats wrong.
 

Lazarus

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
2,874
Bob007 said:
Couple of quickies as am on me way out, Others will post better after this but it will get ya started.

Try a new ide cable to the hdd, Also set the bios detects to "auto" and turn off the splash screen, See if its picking up the primary HDD first, While ya in the bios, check ya boot order, prob not that but ya there ;).

yes - its picking up the primary / secondary drives correctly.
 

.Wilier.

One of Freddy's beloved
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
798
Laz, you could try booting from your XP disc and see if the repair option helps at all??
 

Lazarus

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
2,874
cant even get to boot from Cd (or floppy for that matter)
 

Lazarus

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
2,874
thanks for all the suggestions guys.

Turned out it was the mobo was knackered.

Swapped it out for another and seems to be running ok.

Currently copying out the files I need and doing a reformat.
 

strangely brown

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
54
A couple of things that have happened to my PC in the past that have caused similar boot-up problems (i.e. not able to get to any kind of boot menu):-

1. Motherboard battery depleted so loses some BIOS/date & time settings on power off - Just get a new one and everything's OK.

2. Hoover "accidentally" bumping into computer resulting in corrupted BIOS settings - Fortunately was able to correct them and re-save rather than having to play around with jumpers...

Regards,
SB
 

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