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Computer not booting up unless I reboot 20 times

N

nitro28

Senior member
I built the computer in my sig about 3 years ago and for as long as I can remember it has not booted up correctly so I have always tried to leave it on. Now I am going to give it to my daughter so I need to figure out what is wrong with it. Here is what it does.
I hit the "on" button and the fans start but no beeps and monitor doesn't come on, harddrive does nothing. I shut off the computer and push the button again. It may do the same thing for a couple of tries or then beep and bring up the screen where it says "hit DEL for bios" and then freezes again. I can reboot a few more times and it will go to the screen with the windows logo and moving bar at the bottom. It will then go to a black screen and then do nothing. Then after about the 20 reboots it will make it all the way into windows. If I have to restart from windows for software updates or anything at any point then it starts the whole cycle over again. It seems to help if I unplug the psu during the multiple reboots, but the least amount of times it takes to get into windows is 10-15. Sometimes it never gets there. What do you think could be causing the problem? Is is hardware, bios, psu??? I don't know where to start. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The computer has been back to stock speeds on everything for a long time, it is not overclocked anymore.
 
Disconnect all of your case fans and the two optical drives temporarily. As long as it's not a crappy brand, the old PSU should be enough to boot up the system and make sure it's working properly.
 
I just picked up a antec earthwatts 500 from BB. I needed another psu for my new system anyways, I will try it tonight on the old system.
 
Ok I tried the new psu and it did exactly the same thing. So its not that, whats next? mother board? ram? cpu? hdd?
 
Pull power from PSU. Strip the MB bare. Remove battery and clear CMOS for 1/2 hour. Clean CPU and re-apply thermal paste. Make sure CPU cooler is seated. Install one stick of RAM, GPU, mouse, keyboard, one optical drive and one HDD. Reboot PC and zero fill the HDD. Install windows.
 
Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
Pull power from PSU. Strip the MB bare. Remove battery and clear CMOS for 1/2 hour. Clean CPU and re-apply thermal paste. Make sure CPU cooler is seated. Install one stick of RAM, GPU, mouse, keyboard, one optical drive and one HDD. Reboot PC and zero fill the HDD. Install windows.
Click to expand...

You forgot, before you zero out the drive back up 🙂

To me it sounds like a ram or motherboard problem. I'm leaning more towards motherboard, but what I would do is have the computer boot from memtest and run it overnight, no errors then I would say it's your motherboard.

You could also test to make sure it's not the power button the on the case, by testing turing it on by shorting it with a screw driver and see if you get the same issue as you do normally.
 
Since the problem seems so consistent, my guess is that there is a faulty connection somewhere, whether a poorly seated card or ram, or a broken solder joint. Multiple tries may generate sufficient heat to cause thermal expansion that closes the connection. Get the machine started, run it for a few minutes, then shut down and try an immediate restart. If it restarts easily, then it is a cold part problem, but may be hard to find if it is not a card.
 
I don't think it could be ram. I think if were the ram (badly connected or not) it would post and say it lacked ram wouldn't it? Its pretty hard for the CPU to be that badly seated, I mean its a slot, how does that get screwed up. Additionally, since you don't experience any problems after boot, I think its got to be a motherboard problem. You can obviously completely rule out hardrives and optical drives and windows (and the power supply). You know, it could also be a bad PCI device. You might want to strip out everything but the video card (which could also cause the problem). I have had a computer before that when I had the video card in, it wouldn't even post. But when I took it out it would come on fine. Before you start unseating your CPU I would say, remove every PCI and AGP device and see if it will start. It should, access the drives and boot up, although obviously you can't tell how far it gets.
 
I have a feeling its the MB too. I may just yank it and buy another 939 board since they are only $50 now. If I change the MB do I have to wipe the hdd and start over or will it just detect the new board?
 
If you buy a different MOBO it is recomended that you at least do a repair, but a wipe is the best.

With the issues you have had, id suggest a wipe. If the system was semi stable until it died, then a repair would be fine.
 
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