computer will not boot up all the way

[angrynerdrock]

So my computer has recently stopped working....it wont even boot to windows. i start it up and it will get to the PCI device listing, it will start listing devices and then just hang. I have nothing in my PCI slots whatsoever. Ive tried unhooking everything except the video, mb, ram, hdd and it still doesnt work. Just by chance i did get it to boot to windows once, but after a reset its back to where it was. What could be happening here?

Soyo Dragon mb
XP1800+
256mb DDR
64mb geforce 4 mx4400
pioneer dvd-rom drive
lg cd burner

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums One possible cause, would be if you had a Western Digital hard drive that was on its own separate cable, but was jumpered as Master, Slave, or Cable Select, instead of as Single Drive.

If you have a Western Digital, and it does have its own data cable without any other drives, then shut the system off, take the jumper off the pins completely (which makes it Single Drive), and see if it works now.

Second idea: Soyo motherboards typically watch the CPU_FAN header for an RPM signal so they know the CPU fan is running. If the CPU fan runs too slow, or does not send RPM signals at all, then you will want to turn off the Fan-Off Control (F.O.C.) in the motherboard's BIOS menus. If you can't get into the BIOS because of the Catch-22 situation, either plug an RPM-sending fan on that header or hold down the F8 key to override F.O.C. on a one-time basis, so you can get into the BIOS and disable F.O.C.

Hope that gets you somewhere

 

[angrynerdrock]

didnt work

its a hitachi drive (deskstar)...tried the jumper idea anyway, didnt work.

disable FOC, didnt work either...

now the computer used to boot no problem...why would it just all the sudden do it?

 

[daveybrat]

unplug the hard drive and see if it boots off of a cd or it should at least get to a prompt and say 'no operating system found', or 'insert system disk'.

This will tell you if the hard drive died or is dying.

 

[angrynerdrock]

that didnt work either...gets to the exact same spot and hangs...

right now all that is plugged in is the mb/processor/memory/hdd/video

think it could be the motherboard itself? (i do have a spare lesser model soyo sitting around)

 

[SilverTrine]

Could be a dying PSU or a dying motherboard. My computer recently had the exact same symptoms as yours and it was a dying PSU. If you have another PSU handy I'd test that.

 

[daveybrat]

look at your motherboard closely, are any of the capacitor's puffed looking? If so your motherboard is going bad.

 

[angrynerdrock]

i didnt see any puffed capacitors. I did try swapping the motherboard yesterday with a K7ADA. The dang thing wouldnt even post...not sure what was going on, but it wouldnt even turn the monitor on. It worked before i put in my current motherboard. I put back in the current one, it posts but still gets stuck at the same place. Im going to try a different power supply today. Any other ideas?

 

[mechBgon]

Is the power supply a good brand, or just generic/cheapie? Yeah, try a new power supply, a good-quality brand.

 

[angrynerdrock]

its just a generic 400w suppy. I did swap in an Antec 400w PSU, and it locked at the same point.

did finally get past where it locks though by swapping out the video card. so there is a new video card in it now and it'll get up to where windows should start and then lock. if i hit reset i get to the prompt telling me that windows did not start properly and if i hit load windows, or safe mode, or anything for that matters, it'll act like its gonna do something, then lock...where do i go from here?

 

[mechBgon]

You may want to try an "in-place upgrade", which means installing Windows over itself.

If you do this, then be careful. If your WindowsXP CD is Service Pack 1 or has no Service Pack at all, then this leaves your system back in that vulnerable condition. Take precautions!

 

[angrynerdrock]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
You may want to try an "in-place upgrade", which means installing Windows over itself.

If you do this, then be careful. If your WindowsXP CD is Service Pack 1 or has no Service Pack at all, then this leaves your system back in that vulnerable condition. Take precautions!

its the orignal windows xp professional cd from when it first came out. The computer is not connected to the internet right now though. Im letting my sister use it until i rent/buy a bigger home (this is my second computer). But will try this and see if it works....

 

[angrynerdrock]

good news....that worked...

the computer is up and running now, however all 6 usb ports are not working...is this controlled by the bios or software/drivers?

 

[mechBgon]

Try setting all the USB controllers to USB 1.1 speed in the BIOS, if they're USB 2.0 by design. For USB 2.0, you need Service Pack 1A or later, if I recall correctly. You can order a free SP2 CD from Microsoft on this page if you need, or download the whole SP2 installer and burn it onto a CD to update that computer with.

 

[angrynerdrock]

so it turns out when i was trying to fix it in the bios i had it load fail-safe settings, which in turn shut off USB. went in and turned them on...all is good now...now to buy a new video card....