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Computer booting up less and less often

fustercluck

fustercluck

Diamond Member
Computer doesn't want to boot up lately. A few days ago it was booting every other time, then yesterday it took about 4 tries, and today it took about 10 tries. To be more specific, the boot screen locks up after the 1024 MB RAM OK message, which is usually when the connected HDDs show up.

So...I don't know what the problem is. Hopefully it's not the HDDs because one of my older hard drive just went bad a few months ago and it was a big ordeal to transfer everything over.

What I'm wondering is why it would boot up 1 out of 10 times rather than just not booting up at all? Nothing changes when it finally boots up, at least, I don't tinker with anything to get it to boot. I just keep turning it off and on until it boots.
 
The first step to troubleshooting is to isolate the problem, try removing attached devices one at a time and see if it makes a difference, also try running a memory test.
 
Nah I don't have another good PS to swap it with, though my voltages look fine, if that matters. I'll check out the Mobo, thanks.
 
I would suspect the psu first.
As there isn't one around, try disconnecting all nonessential hw
Take out pci cards, disconnect molex from cd/dvd, second hdds, etc.

See if that makes a difference for a bit.
 
bump. I'm really lucky if my computer even posts these days. I turn my computer on, but monitor won't detect a signal usually, and it just sits there in a blank screen, and my computer lights suggest nothing is loading. I'm not sure how I got it to boot up this time, I just turned it on, and left it on for about 10 minutes, i came back to my room and it was at my desktop surprisingly.

All sounds like PSU probs but like I said the voltages are fine, could it still be going bad though even when showing normal voltages?
 
Is it possible that it is trying to boot, but the signal just isn't getting through to the monitor till windows loads?

Can you try dl the LIVE cd of Knoppix - won't touch your installation, but at least we can see if there is a problem with your hardware
 
Here's an update. I'm pretty sure the damage was done by storms... there have been 3 or 4 blackouts the past week or so and I don't have a surge protector. My brother's computer which also wasn't using a surge protector has been damaged pretty badly, burned caps on the mobo and power supply plug is fried. I assume my computer was also somewhat damaged by the blackouts, but it was having this probably before the storms. So I guess I'll be finding a surge protector somewhere now. It's too bad I'm broke 😛
 
My computer won't boot at all today, just sits there humming. I couldn't find any visible damage from the storms, but it's still possible damage was done.

Here's what happens when I turn on my computer...starts humming, fans are on, but nothing else happens. No beeps... Monitor doesn't detect an input signal, keyboard/mouse lights don't come on as they should. Keyboard lights blink every once in a while, but I've left it on for 3 hours and nothing else happens. When this same thing happened a couple days ago I left it on for about 20 min and when I came back the computer was booted up fine, and a few times after that it started up with no problems. I was using my computer yesterday and it just shut down in the middle of nowhere and wouldn't boot up again. I was hoping it was just another temporary thing but i've been trying it out and working on it most of the day. I disconnected and reconnected everything. I also tried resetting the CMOS but that also didn't help.

I'm thinking it's the Mobo but not sure. What can I do now? I'd RMA something if I knew what needed to be RMA'd, if anything. Would really appreciate any help here, thanks.
 
i tried replacing the power supply and the same things happened when I tried to boot up. So, it's still looking like the Mobo is the problem. I checked it for bad caps and they all look fine.
 
More bad news...

I bought a new motherboard and power supply to replace my currents ones, but I got the new mobo/psu installed, tried to boot and had the same exact problem. When I try to start the computer it just hums as usual and nothing happens. Monitor doesn't detect a signal, keyboard and mouse don't power on at all. So I guess the problem was neither the motherboard or PSU...and that doesn't leave much else, just the CPU maybe, but I don't know why the CPU would stop working out of nowhere. I don't know what the next step is, I really thought the new mobo/psu would solve everything. The next step for me is to take a nap 😛

Any ideas what the problem could be?
 
Well, it looks like you have tried everything except PCI cards, CPU, RAM and Graphix card.

Take out the RAM and see if you can coax a beep.
 
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