Can't Get Past the BIOS

[cheapherk]

My son was playing a game on his computer when the game suddenly froze and was followed by a BSOD. Instead of telling me first, he just tried to restart the computer ;therefore, I couldn't get any info from the BSOD screen.

Now when the coputer is started, it freezes at the BIOS screen. It doesn't even go far enough to let me into the BIOS.

I tried clearing the CMOS, but it did not work. I'm kind of stumped on this one. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

 

[mpilchfamily]

For the most part the information displayed on teh BSOD is about worthless to anyone other then the programer who programed that error message into the OS.

Considering your able to see the bios screen that tells me the video card and the CPU are fine. So chances are the RAm is the problem. Assuming you have more then 1 DIMM or RAM, try starting the system up with just a single DIMM. IF it doesn't work try it with the other DIMM(s). Now obviously if it works with one DIMM and not the other(s) then that one is the only one working. If you still get the same problem on all of them then they MIGHT be bad.

Another possibility is the PSU may have gown bad. It may still be providing some power but just not enough to get the whole system to boot. But that wouldn't cause a BSOD. For the most part a BSOD either comes from curruption on the HDD, bad RAM, or bad drivers. Since you can't get past the bios that runles out anything to do with the HDD or the drivers.

 

[cheapherk]

Thanks for the suggestions, mpilchfamily.

Looks like it was either the third RAM DIMM or the RAM I had in it. I originally had RAM in all 3 of the 3 DIMM slots.

Working fine with 2 stick of RAM.

 

[mpilchfamily]

You could try bumping up the RAM voltage a bit in the bios and see if you can get it working with all 3 DIMMS.

 

[SonicIce]

windows stores a copy of the error message somewhere but i dont remember where it goes