My computer won't boot most of the time

zAndy1 · 10 Aug 2009 at 08:33

Hi all,
Wonder if anyone can shed any light on this one. Most of the time my computer won't start up, I press the power button, the fans spin at what sounds like full speed and nothing happens. I get nothing on the screen, it simply doesn't post at all. This can happen over and over again until eventually it will boot up (like it has now) but it's driving me mad cos last night it took me almost 45 mins to get my PC started :mad:

Any ideas what this might be symptomatic of? It's a fairly recent build (Biostar TP45 motherboard, E7400 CPU, 4GB of DDR2 ram, HD4770) and to be fair it has been doing this a while now but it seems to be getting worse. Everything is under warranty obviously but I don't know what if anything to RMA as I don't know what's causing the problem.

Cheers
Andy

Yanayaya · 10 Aug 2009 at 08:43

Sounds like a RAM issue. Just off the top of my head. Tried taking a stick of ram out and trying again?

zAndy1 · 15 Aug 2009 at 16:16

Ok, took one stick of RAM out, same problem. Switched the sticks, same problem. Moved them into different slots, same problem. Reseated the CPU, same problem. Reset the CMOS, same problem. Motherboard then maybe? Got it going again now and will see how it goes...

trackrat · 15 Aug 2009 at 18:59

Could be a faulty PSU, what make and power is your PSU?.

imhiya · 15 Aug 2009 at 19:23

Try unplugging it completely, out of the wall. and then plug back in and try.

Garyj881 · 15 Aug 2009 at 19:24

Are the voltages set correctly, especialy the ram?

zAndy1 · 15 Aug 2009 at 19:39

trackrat said:
Could be a faulty PSU, what make and power is your PSU?.

OCZ ModXStream-Pro 600W, I doubt it's that to be honest

zAndy1 · 15 Aug 2009 at 19:40

imhiya said:
Try unplugging it completely, out of the wall. and then plug back in and try.

Done that, exactly the same. I unplugged it completely each time I took the RAM sticks out and reseated the CPU and after switching back on it did the fast fans and no post thing again

zAndy1 · 15 Aug 2009 at 19:41

Garyj881 said:
Are the voltages set correctly, especialy the ram?

As far as I know they are, the ram is only running at 800Mhz and the voltage is currently 1.82V, it can take 2.1V to run at 1066. It was the same when I had the DDR voltage set at 2.1V as well.

xb8browney · 15 Aug 2009 at 19:44

Tried a BIOS update?

zAndy1 · 15 Aug 2009 at 19:45

xb8browney said:
Tried a BIOS update?

No I haven't to be fair, will give that a go, thanks for the suggestion

Dsteviedee · 16 Aug 2009 at 08:49

I have had cold boot issues in the past when, I had certain USB devices attached.

Have you tried removing, if you have any, devices connected ?

zAndy1 · 16 Aug 2009 at 09:58

Did a BIOS update shortly after my reply yesterday and I couldn't get the PC to boot for the rest of the day. Come to it this morning and it booted first time.

As for the USB devices, I'll try disconnecting them when it happens next time

Cheers
Andy

Randomface74 · 16 Aug 2009 at 10:04

These are the symptoms I had when my last PC died in a power surge. Do you have surge protection?

zAndy1 · 16 Aug 2009 at 10:17

billysielu said:
These are the symptoms I had when my last PC died in a power surge. Do you have surge protection?

Yep, plugged into a Belkin Surgemaster extension block.

xb8browney · 16 Aug 2009 at 19:35

zAndy1 said:
No I haven't to be fair, will give that a go, thanks for the suggestion

Did it work?

odevans · 16 Aug 2009 at 20:39

is your fan working properly? same sort of thing happened to my brother.

zAndy1 · 16 Aug 2009 at 21:11

xb8browney said:
Did it work?

See post #13

zAndy1 · 17 Aug 2009 at 08:33

Dsteviedee said:
I have had cold boot issues in the past when, I had certain USB devices attached.

Have you tried removing, if you have any, devices connected ?

Problem happened this morning when I tried to switch it on, disconnected my external USB HDD , webcam and printer and on the next attempt it booted fine. Gonna leave those 3 things disconnected and see how it goes, I suspect it was just coincidence but it's promising anyway...

zAndy1 · 17 Aug 2009 at 18:16

As I suspected looks like it was a coincidence, wouldn't boot tonight with the 3 USB devices disconnected. Did boot on the 2nd attempt though, don't mind when it only takes a few minutes it's when it plays up for an hour that I get annoyed lol!!!