PC Will Not Soft/Warm Boot

GlynD

I've already spent a week with Jeff on this issue and sorted out rootkit and trojan issues which were present on the HD.

This PC is three years old and is unbranded (made by a friend of mine who has a shop). The drive is a Seagate Barracuda 7200 and became bricked, as many of them did. Seagate flashed it under warranty.

Setting aside the windows issues which are now sorted, the machine has an unusual problem in that it will only boot from cold. The CMOS screen will not appear if I try to softboot or boot from within windows. If the CMOS appears then windows will boot without an issue. If it doesn't I get the "no signal input" message on screen although the drive can be heard spinning.

One poster has just suggested it may be the internal battery. I haven't discounted that. I have some doubts however because even though the machine is three years old it was switched off for over a year and has seen very little use. My own suspicion is that the BIOS may be corrupt, but I'm not sure about that either.

The chipset has been updated.

I'd be very grateful for any thoughts which may shed light upon this problem which I personally, in 20 years of computer use, have never come across before.

debitcardmayhem

Just about to post on the other thread , don't forget that the OS will write to the cmos at reboot (date etc, and asks for bios to reload. The fact it has been switched off for a year means the cmos battery is probably totally drained, it will not drain as fast if there is power to the mobo. Just a theory tho

GlynD

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Just about to post on the other thread , don't forget that the OS will write to the cmos at reboot (date etc, and asks for bios to reload. The fact it has been switched off for a year means the cmos battery is probably totally drained, it will not drain as fast if there is power to the mobo. Just a theory tho

I see your point entirely. How easy is it to change the battery, I've never done it before but am not frightened to work inside my PC as I've been doing it for years.

debitcardmayhem

Two minute job the battery is normally a CR2032 (button type)

GlynD

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Two minute job the battery is normally a CR2032 (button type)

And I note they cost pennies. It's well worth fitting one prophylacticly to rule it out. I'll pull the machine apart and see where it is and confirm the type.

GlynD

The more I think about this and the more it sinks into my tiny Mk1 brain, the more I believe this could be the issue.

debitcardmayhem

GlynD wrote: »

The more I think about this and the more it sinks into my tiny Mk1 brain, the more I believe this could be the issue.

My brain was slightly fried a couple of years ago, but simple often is the answer, and for less than a quid it rules out one more possibility

GlynD

I'll do that today. I've located the op inst for the MB. CR2032 seems to be the battery so I'll replace it and we'll see what happens.

T_T_2

Have you had a look at the BOOT order in BIOS?

If it has become corrupted AND you have a dodgy/shorted USB port then it may skip through all the priorities down to a USB boot after a false positive detection of a USB device.

GlynD

T_T wrote: »

Have you had a look at the BOOT order in BIOS?

If it has become corrupted AND you have a dodgy/shorted USB port then it may skip through all the priorities down to a USB boot after a false positive detection of a USB device.

Yes, that was one of the first things I checked. The boot order is fine. CD drive first - because this PC has no floppy drive. HD next, then USB.

sho_me_da_money

Sometimes there are are 2 options - one for the boot device priority (includes all the optical media !!!!!!!!) and a separate menu for internal hard drives order.

My best guess is it's the lithium battery. Take the battery out and keep it out for AT LEAST 60 seconds (some people say 30 - but in my past experiences, it is not long enough) and whack it back in.

Updating the BIOS (if a new version is out) will be a good move.