Trouble w/ cold booting

My computer works beautifully as long as I don't turn it off. rolleyes Simple solution.... never turn it off. :-D

I can reboot with no problem. I can also turn it off and then turn it back on within 2 or 3 minutes and it will boot up fine.

The trouble starts when the machine is turned off for the night or even for just an hour or two. Basically, if it's cooled down it has serious difficulty booting up the OS. I get a blue screen with a message about how it had to shut down to save the drive or something to that effect. The same thing happens (blue screen) if I select normal boot, "safe mode", "safe mode with command prompt", "safe mode with networking", and even if I select "last known configuration that worked"... always the blue screen.

I haven't figured out any rhyme or reason to it yet but if I just keep restarting it, it will eventually load up the OS and go back to working fine again (presumably when it has warmed up). That is.. until it gets shut down for any length of time again and the whole issue starts all over.

It's a Gateway comp with an Intel board.
OS: WinXP Pro

Based on initial research into the issue I figured I needed to update my BIOS. After doing a lot of research to make especially sure that I was getting the correct BIOS update and doing it correctly, I went ahead and did the update. The update went very smoothly with no issues whatsoever. Unfortunately, the cold boot issue still remains.

Next, I tried setting all my BIOS settings to default (F9). That didn't help either.

I suspect it has something to do with my video card, but I really don't want to give it up if I don't have to.
It's a ATI Radeon X1300 PRO AGP

I have zero funds to invest in any new parts, so I'm really hoping it's an issue that can be fixed at no cost.

Even though I updated my BIOS to the newest version available from Gateway (April 2003), I think I might be able to solve the issue with an even newer BIOS update from Intel (July 2009). Trouble is, my BIOS version string is specific to Gateway Intels and won't let me use the newer Intel update. I've seen online that it is possible to flash the BIOS over to Intel and get rid of the Gateway part of the string altogether. This would allow me to use the Intel BIOS update. Problem is, this is way over my head.

Does anyone know how to do this? Or have any other solution suggestions?

Thanks

~MG~

 

Hi,

Since you are getting no help here is my two cents worth. Your symptom sounds like a hard drive that has trouble spinning up. One day it will refuse to spin up again so check it out now. Listen closely to the hard drive and remember what it sounds like when it does spin up (boot). Probably when the comp does not boot the boot drive will be silent. Worth a listen.

Good Luck, Jim

 

Thanks Jim

I appreciate your reply. Pretty scary though.
Are you saying that my HD is on the verge of just quitting on me? Yikes!
No other suggestions? Like a power source or anything?

 

Hi again Merc,

First see if you can determine that the drive does not spin up when the comp refuses to boot. If that is actually the case then someday, maybe soon, it will refuse completely. While you can still get it to boot backup all your important data. Leaving it on all the time, as some folks believe is the way to go, will guarantee that if it ever is turned off it will not spin up again.

Good Luck, Jim