A close friend has a computer he built -- some time ago -- on a SOYO SY-P41 motherboard using an Intel Pentium 4 SL68R 2GHz CPU which suddenly stopped booting for him. He is computer savvy so did the obvious things, such as clearing CMOS etc. with no effect. MemTest shows the memory to be fault free. As a troubleshooting aid I formatted a harddrive for him , installed Windows XP with SP3 in a barebones system I have in the lab and went on net -- behind my hardware protected firewall -- and allowed Microsoft to make all of the security and critical updates. I did not install any other software.
He disconnected all of the drives in his computer and connected the drive I had prepared as master -- and the only -- drive. Even though it was probably not necessary he installed a new CR 2032 cell. He cleared the CMOS again. On bootup he gets the usual screen showing system inventory etc. followed by the single beep signaling that the POST has been completed successfully.
Now comes the part where I am asking for help. The next thing that appears is the screen saying the machine failed in the last bootup etc. and giving four as he recalled options -- Boot from last known good configuation, Start in safe mode, Start Windows normally etc. No matter which option is selected, he then gets a black screen and the machine hangs there. First, with the CMOS cleared how does the machine know the last boot failed? Where is that info stored? He has gone into the BIOS and chosen the default settings -- which should have been automatic anyway with CMOS cleared -- with no effect.
I booted several times from the Windows harddrive I gave him so I know the Windows install is good. I wouldn't have been surprised if it detected the slight hardware difference between his machine and my minimal bench machine, but I fully expected it to boot.
Now for the second part of the question. If he sets his machine to boot first from the CDROM and puts in his Windows install CD, the machine does not boot into the Windows setup.
Even though the POST was passed successfully, he has removed the CPU, reseated it and reapplied thermal paste. Not surprisingly this made no difference either. We live quite some distance from each other so it is not easy for me to work on his machine.
From my description of what is happening and of what he and I have done, do any of you have an insight of what could be going on? In particular do you see any way a machine with a cleared CMOS could know a previous (to clearing the CMOS) boot had failed? As far as I can see that is impossible, yet it is happening over and over.
Thanks for the help.
He disconnected all of the drives in his computer and connected the drive I had prepared as master -- and the only -- drive. Even though it was probably not necessary he installed a new CR 2032 cell. He cleared the CMOS again. On bootup he gets the usual screen showing system inventory etc. followed by the single beep signaling that the POST has been completed successfully.
Now comes the part where I am asking for help. The next thing that appears is the screen saying the machine failed in the last bootup etc. and giving four as he recalled options -- Boot from last known good configuation, Start in safe mode, Start Windows normally etc. No matter which option is selected, he then gets a black screen and the machine hangs there. First, with the CMOS cleared how does the machine know the last boot failed? Where is that info stored? He has gone into the BIOS and chosen the default settings -- which should have been automatic anyway with CMOS cleared -- with no effect.
I booted several times from the Windows harddrive I gave him so I know the Windows install is good. I wouldn't have been surprised if it detected the slight hardware difference between his machine and my minimal bench machine, but I fully expected it to boot.
Now for the second part of the question. If he sets his machine to boot first from the CDROM and puts in his Windows install CD, the machine does not boot into the Windows setup.
Even though the POST was passed successfully, he has removed the CPU, reseated it and reapplied thermal paste. Not surprisingly this made no difference either. We live quite some distance from each other so it is not easy for me to work on his machine.
From my description of what is happening and of what he and I have done, do any of you have an insight of what could be going on? In particular do you see any way a machine with a cleared CMOS could know a previous (to clearing the CMOS) boot had failed? As far as I can see that is impossible, yet it is happening over and over.
Thanks for the help.
