PC Won't boot from "cold" ? Please spam me with suggestions!

furnace · 27 Feb 2008 at 10:03

Hey,

This is on behalf of a friend. He has a PC with the following:

DVD Drive
250GB Hard Drive
Sound Blaster Fatality Sound Card
Gigabyte P35 DS4
2GB Kingston 800MHZ
"Core2 Quad" Q6600
BFG 8800 GTS 512MB OC
Corsair HX520W

The problem he has ,is the PC won't boot from 'cold'. If he turns it on, the fans spin, but it doesn't POST - no beeps, no keyboard flashes, nothing on screen - but the fans are whirring away. But if he keeps on trying, on the ~10th attempt to turn it on, it works fine. From then onwards, the computer will always boot properly - whether he restarts it, powers down and on again, it'll be fine.

Then if he switches it off, leaves it for a few hours, and comes back, he can't switch it on again and has to keep trying until it turns on.

This is a brand new build. I don't think it's a dodgy 'on' button because the PC does switch on (the fans go) but it doesn't seem to do anything POST-like :confused:

I have run memtest (no errors), and I have updated his BIOS.

I have told him to try putting +0.2v on his memory, as it is supposed to run at 2.0v but the mobo defaults to 1.8v.

Well, this is wierd, and he hasn't installed anything on it yet as he wants the computer to work properly before he goes installing games and stuff on it.

I have read somewhere (can't remember where) about P35-DS4's having a cold-boot problem? But I can't find much about this other than basically one person saying it in a forum.

So if you could come up with any suggestions - however silly or complex they may seem - please post them!

Thanks!

Dead Dog · 27 Feb 2008 at 10:56

you are having the same problem as I am - near identical setup but I have the DS3R.
my thread

Outcast · 27 Feb 2008 at 11:03

Large hard drives can take a while to spin up ... In the meantime Bios has reported...or got it's knickers in a twist about no hard drive being present.

Try going into BIOS and selecting hard drive delay and set it at about 3 seconds.

Liquidfox · 27 Feb 2008 at 12:31

HDD spin doesn't matter in this case, it isn't POSTing... it wouldn't matter what was plugged in at this point...

Outcast · 27 Feb 2008 at 12:52

Sometimes they dont post.

No I dont know why that is !!

gvers · 27 Feb 2008 at 12:57

Does it post OK with just processor, memory and graphics?

Hughsy · 27 Feb 2008 at 13:21

I am having this problem for my 2nd pc that i built with a P35_DS3R. Wierd

artaxerxes · 27 Feb 2008 at 15:07

This sounds like the PSU is on the edge of supporting that hardware. Even though the rating is 520 and this system only uses 310 (approx) the start up is the critical moment.

Remove a few powered devices like the HDD, DVD Rom and any overclocks.

Leave it for a few hours and then see if it still fails to boot reliably with the reduced load.

If it boots then the power supply is on the edge and likely at fault. Otherwise it is something more systemic.

k-narf · 27 Feb 2008 at 17:38

I had exactly the same problem with mine. Wouldn't post until about the 10th attempt. Thought my power supply had gone but turned out one of my sticks of ram was faulty. Try each stick of ram on its own. That may well be the cause of your problem.

Dead Dog · 28 Feb 2008 at 19:15

with mine if I rest it'll start pretty much ever time after that, and as a PC it works fine when it's going - V odd

don't want to RMA it just to be charged to check it then " yup that fine"

james.miller · 28 Feb 2008 at 19:18

artaxerxes said:
This sounds like the PSU is on the edge of supporting that hardware. Even though the rating is 520 and this system only uses 310 (approx) the start up is the critical moment.

Remove a few powered devices like the HDD, DVD Rom and any overclocks.

Leave it for a few hours and then see if it still fails to boot reliably with the reduced load.

If it boots then the power supply is on the edge and likely at fault. Otherwise it is something more systemic.

definitely not the case if the psu is in working order. those components will draw 300w max, no where near 300w at startup.

furnace · 28 Feb 2008 at 21:09

Outcast said:
Large hard drives can take a while to spin up ... In the meantime Bios has reported...or got it's knickers in a twist about no hard drive being present.

Try going into BIOS and selecting hard drive delay and set it at about 3 seconds.

Just trying out some of the suggestions... this boot delay option, I can't find it in the BIOS? Any idea where it is or what it's called? Or do you reckon the option's just not there in the Gigabyte BIOS..?

ricky1981 · 28 Feb 2008 at 21:13

used to have this issue, never fixed it but found if i totally unplugged my pc for 30 seconds and then tried it would often work. Have since changed PSU and the issue went away.

furnace · 28 Feb 2008 at 21:20

ricky1981 said:
used to have this issue, never fixed it but found if i totally unplugged my pc for 30 seconds and then tried it would often work. Have since changed PSU and the issue went away.

Not to sound sarcastic! But...

So you did fix it - by changing the PSU?

He has sent a Corsair 520w back already, this is his second one... hopefully he hasn't got a dodgy one again. He got his dads PSU tester on the first an apparently the 5v rail was duff! But he had the same issues (with cold booting, didn't test the other PSU's with a PSU tester) using a temporary 375w "Trust" PSU and with his current replacement 520w PSU...

ricky1981 · 28 Feb 2008 at 22:19

Weird thing was that psu was fine with a previous motherboard and its still working fine now (was a tagan so decent enough make).

james.miller · 28 Feb 2008 at 22:23

furnace said:
Not to sound sarcastic! But...

So you did fix it - by changing the PSU?

He has sent a Corsair 520w back already, this is his second one... hopefully he hasn't got a dodgy one again. He got his dads PSU tester on the first an apparently the 5v rail was duff! But he had the same issue with a temporary 375w "Trust" PSU and his current replacement 520w PSU...

its just a thought but be aware that many psu's will act if if they dont have a minium load on all of the rails, causing some psu testers to give out false readings

aph · 28 Feb 2008 at 23:41

I had a similar issue with my PC. Basically when I pressed power it would wait about 20 seconds... then turn on. Swapped the PSU, and voila, it worked. Even tho said PSU had worked fine for months before. When I came to use the "faulty" PSU in a different PC, it actually worked fine. So I'm still none the wiser as to the fault.

sithlord · 29 Feb 2008 at 00:13

I echo what everyone has said... I had this happen on an old PC.

Changed the PSU and the problem went away.

furnace · 1 Mar 2008 at 11:05

Right! Found the problem.

He told me on the same day he found his first PSU was duff, his CD drive was duff too... then he replaced it with another CD drive and the trust power supply.

We tried a new motherboard, and it's all fine now

With his replacement Corsair 520w. So I'm thinking the first power supply, if it was duff, could have blown the CD drive and motherboard.

Anyhoo, the first mobo's getting sent back now and thank **** his PC is finally working.

A very nice rig he's got, too!

Outcast · 1 Mar 2008 at 11:51

I'm glad you sussed it.

For future reference.. that hard drive delay .....