PC hanging during boot ... some Qs

Growlingfish

Growlingfish

Growlingfish

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Joined
27 Apr 2006
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Essex
Hi all,

When I tried booting my PC this morning it got as far as my Sysinternals defrag (for those that don't know, this happens after the Windows logo loading stage but before the login prompt) where it hung after "Defragmentation complete". After restarting it got to the POST memory check where it gets as far as printing the 2 at the front of the 2GB of memory and then hangs.

On restarts the PC either gets to the end of the defrag or gets stuck during the memory count.

I've set everything back to stock (the RAM and CPU were only very mildly clocked anyway), I've tried every combination of my four sticks in the motherboard, but the same thing happens in each case.

Is it possible that all four sticks are dead? Is my PC getting far enough to do a memtest (I've never done this before so I don't know how far through the boot the PC needs to get)? Obviously the problem may be the mobo but I suppose I need to eliminate the RAM first. Also I do have a spare Akasa PSU lying around that I was about to sell - it's a pain to swap PSUs to test but could this be a power issue?

Edit: having just read a slew of other posts about storm damage and considering that I rather stupidly have my PC on a non-surge-protected socket, is it likely that this is surge related?
 
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Your BIOS latest revision? I would try resetting the CMOS.

I would say its highly unlikly that all 4 memory sticks have gone, unless you have a cheap PSU which may have been unstable. What is your PSU?

You can try stealing some memory out of a different PC just to confirm that.
 
If you had storms like we did last night it could well be a problem.
Id try the psu first. dont need to take the old one out if its all tied in nicely, just plug the mobo connectors and a hard drive in.

My first thought would have been RAM. Maybe find a mate who can lend you a stick.
 
I do actually have one of the Corsair PSUs waiting for me at my sister's house anyway, so *fingers crossed* it's the PSU (current is in my sig - AC Ryan 550W). I'll check with the Akasa when I get back from work.

BIOS was updated about 3 weeks ago.

Will have to wait 'til the weekend to check some alternative RAM in the PC, unless I whip some from work for the night. I'll check the PSU first :D
 
]MadBoy[ said:
ram speed settings? Perhaps the timings are wrong, a cmos reset might solve the issue.
Click to expand...
5-5-5-15 @ 1.8v now, back to autodetect (these are the desired, according to GeIL and aData). I did run at these settings for about a year though before I tuned it. I will of course try a reset later.

Unplug any usb devices as my system hangs at POST if i have my usb card reader plugged in
Click to expand...
This is interesting because I just left a Micro-SD->SD adapter in my card reader for the first time. If that was the problem it would be the easiest solution ever. First thing to try when I get home :D
 
OK thanks to everyone, but thanks in particular to Meatloaf for even making me consider the memory card ...

It *seems* that my PC takes offense to me leaving the little SD->MicroSD adapter in my card reader when booting. The card reader itself is fine, it just doesn't like the adapter being in it.

I'm assuming that was the only problem since I tried about 20 times to boot up this morning and now it works straight away once I unplug the adapter. Mental note though: buy surge adapter for the weekly thunderstorms :D

Edit: surge adapter?? long day ...
 
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