I've been having a problem for a few months that I consider a moderate inconvenience rather than a major problem.
Upon trying to restart my PC - either by restarting Windows or cycling power - it sometimes fails to boot. I will try to describe this boot failure exactly, as I know there are MANY issues that can cause different kinds of boot failures.
When I power on or restart, I receive no signal to the monitor. The keyboard is recognized and flashes the lights like a normal boot start. I continue to get no signal to the monitor, and three long grunting noises are heard (I assume from the HDD). The computer seems to fail to load BIOS and go any further in the boot.
No motherboard error beeps are heard (i.e. failure to post RAM, CPU etc). This remains true whether or not I have both sticks of RAM in, all unnecessary devices unplugged etc.
My PSU is as old as the rest of the parts of my computer, but it had plenty of headroom and I haven't added any new devices. It still runs cool, and I've never had a problem with random restarts, black screens, or power failures under heavy load.
Optical drives work fine. Boot order is HDD -> optical -> external drive etc etc etc.
My chipset cooling fan died a couple of years ago, but I replaced it with an externally powered fan and haven't had any heat issues. The original fan connector was easily unplugged and the new fan cools everything just fine.
Here's why it's been more of an inconvenience than a game-breaker: If I power down and turn off power from the PSU, then remove the CMOS battery and replace it say 15 seconds later, the computer will usually boot just fine. Of course I get the CMOS checksum error and need to press F1, but BIOS autodetect settings work fine and everything returns to normal (other than the system clock of course).
Other folks have suggested one of four things:
1. Hard drive is failing: I don't think this is it - usually when a HDD begins to fail, the bios will at least load.
2. PSU issues: These can be intermittent, but as I said I have not really had the typical host of issues that most people have with bad PSU's.
3. Video card: I do not have onboard video or an extra video card to test this one with. I have had some issues in the past with this ATI x800xl, and am planning on replacing it soon. I hesitate to think this is the issue, although it could cause these symptoms. I just don't see resetting the CMOS battery resolving this every time like it does.
4. CMOS issues:
a. Failing CMOS: Maybe. I'm not sure of this one.
b. Need to replace CMOS battery: I'm going to do this anyway in a couple of days. Thing is, even if you boot with no battery at all, you will usually boot to default BIOS no problem. You'll just have system clock issues on every restart.
So does anyone have any clues to help? As always, assistance is greatly appreciated!
Upon trying to restart my PC - either by restarting Windows or cycling power - it sometimes fails to boot. I will try to describe this boot failure exactly, as I know there are MANY issues that can cause different kinds of boot failures.
When I power on or restart, I receive no signal to the monitor. The keyboard is recognized and flashes the lights like a normal boot start. I continue to get no signal to the monitor, and three long grunting noises are heard (I assume from the HDD). The computer seems to fail to load BIOS and go any further in the boot.
No motherboard error beeps are heard (i.e. failure to post RAM, CPU etc). This remains true whether or not I have both sticks of RAM in, all unnecessary devices unplugged etc.
My PSU is as old as the rest of the parts of my computer, but it had plenty of headroom and I haven't added any new devices. It still runs cool, and I've never had a problem with random restarts, black screens, or power failures under heavy load.
Optical drives work fine. Boot order is HDD -> optical -> external drive etc etc etc.
My chipset cooling fan died a couple of years ago, but I replaced it with an externally powered fan and haven't had any heat issues. The original fan connector was easily unplugged and the new fan cools everything just fine.
Here's why it's been more of an inconvenience than a game-breaker: If I power down and turn off power from the PSU, then remove the CMOS battery and replace it say 15 seconds later, the computer will usually boot just fine. Of course I get the CMOS checksum error and need to press F1, but BIOS autodetect settings work fine and everything returns to normal (other than the system clock of course).
Other folks have suggested one of four things:
1. Hard drive is failing: I don't think this is it - usually when a HDD begins to fail, the bios will at least load.
2. PSU issues: These can be intermittent, but as I said I have not really had the typical host of issues that most people have with bad PSU's.
3. Video card: I do not have onboard video or an extra video card to test this one with. I have had some issues in the past with this ATI x800xl, and am planning on replacing it soon. I hesitate to think this is the issue, although it could cause these symptoms. I just don't see resetting the CMOS battery resolving this every time like it does.
4. CMOS issues:
a. Failing CMOS: Maybe. I'm not sure of this one.
b. Need to replace CMOS battery: I'm going to do this anyway in a couple of days. Thing is, even if you boot with no battery at all, you will usually boot to default BIOS no problem. You'll just have system clock issues on every restart.
So does anyone have any clues to help? As always, assistance is greatly appreciated!
