My computer is reluctant to start

squeaky

basmic wrote: »

Things might be adding up then - I remember CRTs sometimes take time to warm up and show you display. But you're saying the standby light shows - I'm wondering if you have a dry solder joint in your monitor?

To get into the BIOS setup, just keep tapping the DEL key as soon as the machine is powered up, and you see (or expect to see) the POST screen - it should enter the BIOS shortly after that.

I think it might be worth your while gathering the makes of the drives in your machine, going to manufacturer's website and downloading the diagnostic disks. At least after testing you'll know if the drives are in good health or not.

Erm, yes. The thing is, from a completely cold start I may not get to see the POST report while the CRT warms up - but NORMALLY it DOES change from standy to running. Part of my problem (see post#1) is that the start up hangs and the monitor stays on standby.

Um. Tapping, or holding down, the DEL key does NOT get me into the bios when I get these failures to start. I can only get in when I do a warm restart some time after I've finally got the computer running.

Hmmm... off on a search for drive diagnostics. Thanks.

squeaky

OK a new day.

Boot disc in drive.

Cold Start.

Nada,

It took ten attempts to get a start and it finally kicked off straight into windows after hanging for a while.

It may well be that the bios is reporting some kind of problem but I just can't see it 'cos the monitor doesn't lift out of standby.

I've no idea of the sequence the bios checks in - is it possible that the system hangs while checking something else BEFORE it gets to graphics and the monitor - or am I now on a pretty safe bet that my problem is graphics/monitor related?

chili2001

Right, you must be able to get another monitor from somewhere to test? People just tend to throw their old crt monitors away when they buy a shiny new lcd even though theres nothing wrong with them! Look on ebay or the local paper.
If it turns out not to be the problem my money would be on a power suppy or ram fault. It wouldn't hurt to strip the pc down and give everything a good spray of air duster. Remove and replace the ram and press down on the bios chip to make sure it is firmly seated and to check for componant creep.

squeaky

Yep. I already went through all the connectors for drives and graphics - I know only too well that (sometimes) an intermittent fault in low voltage circuits can be cleared by breaking and making the connectors a few times.

Never thought about checking the bios chip though. Thanks

basmic

Do you have any idea what your voltages are?

The easiest way of finding out is to download and run Speedfan (link).

The most accurate is using a multimeter.

squeaky

basmic wrote: »

Do you have any idea what your voltages are?

The easiest way of finding out is to download and run Speedfan (link).

The most accurate is using a multimeter.

Hmm - no idea. I suppose my power supply could be failing, but tbh I think they usually fail more completely than an intermittent drop in voltage.

Still, it's certainly worth checking, thanks.

Edit: Temps and fans and the voltages all seem fine and both my drives are reported as being at 95% fitness etc. One thing though is that the warn error rates reported for my 28GB HD are listed at 10, while those for my 112GB HD (Drive C: ) are listed at 51 - even though the fitness report says 95%

Anyway - next time I do a cold start I'll immediately run this and see how things compare.

pinkkipper

OK - I'm jumping in here without fully reading all the thread - Had a very similar problem this week.... the manufactures welcome screen came up and the disks spun but it never got to the point of booting into XP
Solved it by
1. making sure the Bios chip was fully seated
2. swapping the connector that the HDD was connected to
3. ejecting and re inserting the ram
4. rotated the Cmos Battery in its holder to clean the contacts

I was working on the assumption that it was a dirty connection as the machine had been running fine for abut 18 months B4 this

almillar

Good suggestions from all so far and good fault finding. Would definately try pinkkipper's suggestions, but I'm looking towards the power supply. I've had one go, and there were flames and everything (!) but there had been random lockups/crashes for 2 weeks previous, likely caused by it being unable to give out a decent steady supply.
Do I understand that a restart works, but that a start from cold doesn't (so often)? If so, this points again to the power supply, as the switching on, when all the devices say 'gimme power!' puts the strain on. I've actually heard hard drives have a couple of goes at spinning up with an underpowered power supply.
What wattage is the supply BTW?
HTH

squeaky

pinkkipper wrote: »

OK - I'm jumping in here without fully reading all the thread - Had a very similar problem this week.... the manufactures welcome screen came up and the disks spun but it never got to the point of booting into XP
Solved it by
1. making sure the Bios chip was fully seated
2. swapping the connector that the HDD was connected to
3. ejecting and re inserting the ram
4. rotated the Cmos Battery in its holder to clean the contacts

I was working on the assumption that it was a dirty connection as the machine had been running fine for abut 18 months B4 this

Yep. One of my first fault finding options was to break and remake the most relevant connections in case of moisture or dirt. These low voltage systems can fall foul of even the smallest amount of them. I've since been through every single connection made to the motherboard and all the external connections such as keyboard, mouse and so on.

The monitoring utility linked to earlier, and the utilities on the disk that came with my motherboard all say that everything is OK and the live monitoring on both shows that evrything such as fan speeds and voltages are stable.

squeaky

almillar wrote: »

Good suggestions from all so far and good fault finding. Would definately try pinkkipper's suggestions, but I'm looking towards the power supply. I've had one go, and there were flames and everything (!) but there had been random lockups/crashes for 2 weeks previous, likely caused by it being unable to give out a decent steady supply.
Do I understand that a restart works, but that a start from cold doesn't (so often)? If so, this points again to the power supply, as the switching on, when all the devices say 'gimme power!' puts the strain on. I've actually heard hard drives have a couple of goes at spinning up with an underpowered power supply.
What wattage is the supply BTW?
HTH

Yeah starting from cold fails. If I leave the button alone for a few minutes then power off and hit the power button again, it still hangs, but the second time, if I leave it alone it will come to life and power straight into windows start up.

For a bet the POST is coming up against a problem - but I can't see the report because my monitor doesn't lift out of standby. And of course, once I've got everything running and do a restart with it warm - no problems are reported by the POST.

I switched off this morning but left the monitor on standby (instead of being completely powered off) and my cold start this evening still hung during POST.

Hopefully I'll have a monitor to borrow tomorrow to see what happens.

As for power usage - apart from the basics - monitor, keyboard, mouse I have nothing else connected that requires power. No printer,scanner, webcam... nothing. So there's no great initial hit on power demand

The power supply unit doesn't have wattage displayed but the amperage looks meaty enough to me...

3.3v @ 20A

5v @ 30A

12v @ 10A

The temp monitor software syas all is OK and by hand it feels cool, not even particularly warm.