Boot Woes

Evening gents and ladies,

I've been struggling with a rather serious situation with my desktop PC. It all happened suddenly after moving it from my dorm room to my house for spring break...after the drive home it didn't boot up at all. Lights were on and fans - no monitor or usb.

I figured it was a heating issue, since I have a P4 3.2 LGA 775 Prescott on a ASUS P5P800 board (which has always been a little shaky) so I reapplied thermal paste and had to put all the components back. Success - sort of.

This time every time I tried to power up, the system would fail after a certain point in Windows XP's loading and just restart. I managed to get in on safemode and turn off the automatic resart on system fail option and it would freeze every once in a while after running for a bit, but the restarts were still more persistent. I figured it was a corrupt operating system procedure or something and after DOS adventuring without avail I did a full partition format and reinstalled XP.

When it got back up and running, the restarts still were occuring, but not at the same spot (when the XP logo is on screen with the loading bar). I was getting into my account with the system restarting when doing certain tasks (mainly driver installation and eventually downloading etc). I, at this point, was able to rule out heat with my temperature monitor but I found errors in the event viewer claiming something with the "SCSI port 1" and "IDE 1", which pointed to my POS Samsung dvd burner that has always been screwy.

After removing that and replacing with another CD drive, same problem. I removed the IDE cable completely from the system and still encounterd the problem.

My iPod had been a little screwy lately too (it's fixed now thank goodness...it hasn't been my month) so I plugged it into my computer (front USB port) to get a charge and the whole computer powered down immediately.

After this I encountered the same problem I got after the initial move - lights and fans, no monitor or usb. I then swapped out my video card - nothing. Tested the 2 RAM sticks I have (OCZ Platinum 2 x 1GB DDR400) individually in three of the four separate RAM slots - nothing still. The splash screen/bios doesn't come up even if the hard drive is completely unplugged.

I've read a number of similar previous threads and have seen a lot of suggestions of PS issues. Though this initally crossed my mind, I am hesistant to believe that. I have a 700 W FSP PS that has the shielded leads and what not, and would be hardpressed to think of how that could have been overworked/shocked.

I would much more think it to be my motherboard since video and usb are not powering up at all but fans and lights and HD/CD are, not to mention the IDE port failures. I suppose it could also be processor, but I'm all out of ideas of how to figure it out and I want to get it operational ASAP.

If it is the motherboard, there are few options out there for me to select with a LGA 775, AGP 4X/8X setup with DDR 400 and an IDE hard drive and my track record with picking motherboards hasn't been so hot. If anybody could help me with the problem and then perhaps suggest a replacement for the motherboard that is reliable I would be very grateful.

Thanks.

 

I tried to look up the manual for your board, but I could not get it to load. Do you have any diagnostic LED's or beeps coming from the board when you start it up? If you have the plug, you can buy a cheap little speaker that will hook up to the board (if it has the plug). The beeps should tell you what is wrong. Other than that, looks like you have done all the standard troubleshooting stuff.

I suspect the PSU, mobo, or possibly the hard drive. I have had similar problems with a bad PSU and with a bad HD. Check into the beep codes before you spend any money. And even new drives can be bad, and even good quality PSU's can die.

E

 

http://www.malabs.com/product.asp?product_sku=77244&item_no=MB-865G-M8&show=b&pass=&shopid=
http://www.malabs.com/product.asp?product_sku=76020&item_no=MB-865G7&show=b&pass=&shopid=
http://www.malabs.com/product.asp?product_sku=77012&item_no=MB-865GMER&show=b&pass=&shopid=
There's three motherboards for ya'.... they all look more or less the same, but any of 'em should suit your needs just fine. And I don't think any of 'em are $100.00

hopperdave2000

I think they all have only two RAM slots but you said you only have 2 RAM sticks. If you need more RAM slots for future upgrades, just let me know, and I'll post a link or two....

 

Thanks for the responses guys, I'm at my wits end.

Fred: I have one LED that signals if power is getting to the board and it consistently lights up whenever I have it plugged into the PSU, which it always has. That's never malfunctioned as far as I can tell.

Dave: thanks for the links man. I don't want to buy a new part unless I'm absolutely positive it's the reason for the problems so perhaps I should find a way to test stuff more. Thanks again guys.

If anyone else has advice I'd love to hear it.

Thanks.

 

I posted the links to the new boards 'cuz I'm pretty sure yours is DOA. You could try a different PSU tho' and see if that helps. Otherwise, you've pretty much done all the troubleshooting already....

 

Well, I think it is time to look at hopperdave's links. If the board is getting power, and nothing happens, good chance RIP mobo.

E

 

Thanks a lot guys. You have confirmed what I thought to be true. You guys have been a big help. I think I'll go with the GigaByte board that dave suggested, unless anyone thinks that's a bad move. Thanks again everyone.