pc not booting

Faz

Faz

Faz

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
1,073
I've just built a pc for my mates daughter
ECS K8M890M-M
AMD64 3800 (AM2)
2 X Corsair XMS2 512-5400c4
Maxtor 250gb Sata hdd

I built it at work, installed windows, installed m/b drivers updated windows, installed anti virus and adaware, installed itunes, msn messenger.
PC working fine running at work for 3 days no problems.

Took it round for her plugged it in booted fine, she rang me today saying it wont work so I went round and sure enough it does'nt work.

It posts, widows splash screen comes up little coloured bar moving across screen, just as windows should go to desktop, it reboots.

I've tried a different psu, different memory combinations, tried to boot from cd (same result).
Has anyone any ideas as to the problem.

Cheers Faz
 
Have you tried monitoring the temperatures, more importantly the CPU temperature? It may just need reseating!

Which PSU is it using and which did you test it with?
 
You know what it sounds like to me.. That virus, what was it, MS Blast? Ask her if she's downloaded any wierd programs before it started to do this :)

oc.
 
Thanks for the input

mishima said:
Have you tried monitoring the temperatures, more importantly the CPU temperature? It may just need reseating!

Which PSU is it using and which did you test it with?
Click to expand...

Bios reports cpu temp as -40c

PSU is a cheap 400w that came with the case, the only spare one i have around is a colorsit 400w that is running my works pc, amd64 3000, 3 X sata hdd, ati 9800xt, so I would have thought it was up to the job.

"You know what it sounds like to me.. That virus, what was it, MS Blast? Ask her if she's downloaded any wierd programs before it started to do this

oc."

Forgot to put in the original post sometimes it will boot into windows and run, got it to boot this morning but try to restart it and it's back into the reset cycle
 
Ah right..

Hmm, toughy this one.. All clocks @ stock? No overclocking? Is there a removable drive in it? IE, USB flash drive?

Try booting with only the necessitys plugged in (if you have more)..
Mobo, RAM, GFX, HDD, Optical Drive.

oc.
 
overcl0cker said:
You know what it sounds like to me.. That virus, what was it, MS Blast? Ask her if she's downloaded any wierd programs before it started to do this :)

oc.
Click to expand...

Nah, MSblast allowed you into windows, then the RPC service would terminate and just tell you to shutdown after 10 seconds or something...Had that one :P That was a lot of fun.

But like the last poster said, try the board with practicaly ONLY the things you actually need for the pc to work...ie the board, cpu, ram (Just one stick for now...Then add the rest as you go along), and graphics card...unless she has an onboard card on the mobo?...worth using that if she does to rule out the graphics card...Then obviously the psu...

If it where me i'd take everything out of the chassis also..just dont lay it on the carpet :P
 
Delvis said:
Nah, MSblast allowed you into windows, then the RPC service would terminate and just tell you to shutdown after 10 seconds or something...Had that one :P That was a lot of fun.

But like the last poster said, try the board with practicaly ONLY the things you actually need for the pc to work...ie the board, cpu, ram (Just one stick for now...Then add the rest as you go along), and graphics card...unless she has an onboard card on the mobo?...worth using that if she does to rule out the graphics card...Then obviously the psu...

If it where me i'd take everything out of the chassis also..just dont lay it on the carpet :P
Click to expand...

It's a fairly minimal system,
onboard vga, 1 X hdd, 1 X optical, 1 X 512mb ram

I'm convinced it's not a psu problem I would have thought a 350w enemax more than capable of running this spec.

Cheers Faz
 
Yeah it would be...To be fair it could be the ram.

No chance you have any spare? Or could you temporarily nab one from your rig or something?

It could even be something as simple as the hdd cable! Seriously, not joking, had that at work a few times from cables being over crimped and things.
 
Delvis said:
Yeah it would be...To be fair it could be the ram.

No chance you have any spare? Or could you temporarily nab one from your rig or something?

It could even be something as simple as the hdd cable! Seriously, not joking, had that at work a few times from cables being over crimped and things.
Click to expand...

Sorry to doubt your advice, and I'm not having a go or anything :D :D But i wouldn't seat your memory into that motherboard, if it's shorted out then it could take out your RAM too.. If you have any old RAM that you don't care about whack that in there!

oc.
 
overcl0cker said:
Sorry to doubt your advice, and I'm not having a go or anything :D :D But i wouldn't seat your memory into that motherboard, if it's shorted out then it could take out your RAM too.. If you have any old RAM that you don't care about whack that in there!

oc.
Click to expand...

Ok then...Hence why i asked if he had any spare! :P

If he doesent then the only way to see if it is the ram from the original comp is to try a stick of ram that 'definetly' works. I'm assuming the broken PC only has one stick of ram as thats what was stated earlier.
 
Just an update, still no stability in the booting department running mem test now with 1 stick of ram in.

The broken pc has 2 x sticks of ram
 
Faz - have you checked on event viewer to check if any errors logged. Faulty Memory idoes come to mind as my first guess rather than stability issues with the PSU.

However seen this before with faulty mobo as well :(
 
Delvis said:
Could be the hard drive also ;)

But its highly unlikely if its going into the O/S every so often.
Click to expand...

Did wonder that myself so I stuck an ide drive in and reinstalled windows, thought I had cracked it, booted from cd installed windows, everything was going great till it had to reboot :) Back to square one
 
Quick update, left memtest running over night, no errors after 18hrs so I'm presuming the ram is ok.

If I can get it to boot into windows would running prime95 tell me anything useful ?
 
Prime95 is good for CPU and RAM testing.
IMHO cos your RAM is 18 hours MemTest stable seems to be OK.
Faz said:
Bios reports cpu temp as -40c
Click to expand...
Is your CPU subzero cooled?? :confused:
Faz said:
PSU is a cheap 400w that came with the case,
Click to expand...
Good brand names PSUs and 450+ or more are necessary for serious o/c. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom