# Booting issues



## Culhwch (Jul 30, 2009)

Okay, I need a little tech help. Put together a new computer for my mum over the weekend, but it's having issues. Everything seemed to work fine at the start, but after a few resets, the system would power on when I hit the start button (fans, hard drive spinning, optical drives powered on), but would not boot until I hit reset one, two, or half a dozen times. I figured it was possibly a BIOS problem, so I downloaded the latest version, and that seemed to fix it - it came on like clockwork after that. For a about ten starts. Last night it reverted to needing the reset. I've had a search online and can't find anyone having the same problem... Help!

Oh, specs:

Asus P5KPL-CM S775 QuadCore G31
Intel Celeron Dual Core E1400 2.0GHZ, 800FSB 512KCACHE LGA775
My wife's old ASUS video card, not sure of the model, but fairly lightweight
320GB Seagate HD
A couple of old optical drives, a CD-RW and a DVD


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## mosaix (Jul 31, 2009)

I had a similar problem a couple of years back. It turned out to be the disk drive. Although it seemed to be spinning I don't think the heads were engaging. Maybe it wasn't getting up to speed, I don't think the heads will engage until optimum speed is reached. 

The drive was quite old and replacing it solved the problem.


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## TheEndIsNigh (Jul 31, 2009)

Cul: A couple of questions

Do you leave it on standby between the resets or are these successive restart attempts to see if its working. The reason for the question is that it may be a poor  air circulation - things getting hot - problem 

My first guess would be the slow video card which probably can't keep up with the 800M bus  - assuming the Seagate is new.

If it has an in built video driver try it without the plug in for now.

Can't see it being the optical drives but you could try disconnecting them to eliminate the possibility.


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## Culhwch (Aug 1, 2009)

I don't think it's the hard drive, because I'm fairly certain I had the initial boot issues before I hooked it up (it is new, by the way TEIN). I'm not positive on that though. I remember it started fine when I ran the initial start with only the motherboard, processor, RAM, and video card hooked up. I can't remember exactly when it started to play up, but I plugged in the HD and the optical drives at the same time, so it might pay to pull those and the video card and try it again, work through it one by one. I don't relish doing that, but it might be the only way.

I'm truly hoping it's not a motherboard problem. I don't want to pull the whole thing apart and start afresh...



> Do you leave it on standby between the resets or are these successive restart attempts to see if its working. The reason for the question is that it may be a poor air circulation - things getting hot - problem



As to this, yeah, I leave it running - I guess you could call it stand-by - and hit reset a few times until it boots properly. I don't know about air circulation - the thing has had its side off more than on when running, and it hasn't seemed to make a difference either way.


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## Lenny (Aug 1, 2009)

It's an interesting problem, that's for sure.

The only times I've had real problems with booting, it turned out that I had a dud RAM module - I took all the RAM out and tried it in the first DIMM slot module by module, to find out which module was the dead one (I ended up needing to pair them to find out that one module ran fine on its own, but not with other modules).

However, you say that it booted fine with the basics, so I'm not sure.

Have you got any other hard drives lying around? If so, unplug the cables from the one in there, and instead plug them into whatever hard drive you find (with an OS installed on it, obviously) to see if you can rule out a hard drive problem. Try booting it a number of times to make sure.

If it turns out not to be a hard drive problem, try a spare graphics card (if you have one), and if it's not that, take a look at the RAM.

It's a long process which you might a bit boring, but if it solves the problem you'll be happier for it.

EDIT: Question about the booting problem - what happens? Do all your fans spin, lights flash, but all your given is a black screen? Or does the loading screen for the BIOS pop up and nothing else happens?

This is one of those problems where it would be incredibly useful to see if it POSTS properly, and where it gets stuck. I don't suppose you've got anything that shows you the POST, do you?


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## Culhwch (Aug 2, 2009)

All the fans spin, the lights flash (though now I think of it, I'm not sure about the HDD activity LED, actually), but nothing actually comes up on screen - the monitor remains in standby, so it isn't getting any signal at all. Then when I hit reset, it comes to life with the ASUS splash screen and starts as per normal...

I'll have to try swapping out parts, I think. It seems fairly stable at the moment, which is good, but I want to get on top of it as soon as possible.


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## TheEndIsNigh (Aug 2, 2009)

Cul:

If you are saying you can get it to boot occasionally then you stand a chance.

Leave it running some test software when it's on it's own (make sure you disable standby mode). Memory tests take the longest (In fact from my days as a mainframe designer/tester I know it's virtually impossible to say - "this memory will never fail") However, you can get a good feel about it fairly quickly. 

I have just found that one of the Norton programs installs one of these (and I mean only just - I think it must have been Norton systemworks I installed recently). You can select various areas to test from the processor to 3D graphics.

There are a few free diagnostic programs out there I found one years ago on one of the magazine freebie disks.


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## Culhwch (Aug 2, 2009)

Oh, it doesn't just boot occasionally - it will boot every time (thus far), just not with the start button, only on reset. So it's not a major problem, just a major annoyance, really! I will look for some diagnostic software, though. I have installed Norton 360, though I can't recall anything like that with it, but will have a thorough search...


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## The Procrastinator (Aug 2, 2009)

Just chucking in my two cents, I am very much an amateur with computers but I had the same problem with my relatively new system earlier this year (it was a bit over two years old at the time). I narrowed it down to the video card or an optical drive (no display but plenty of flashing lights and hdd noises, just as you say, Cul - and one of the optical drives had been making strange noises a while back). Pulled various plugs to eliminate things, and one of the optical drives was indeed a problem. I thought I had it beat and it was fine for a while but then started doing it again - this time I pulled the video card and all has been hunky dory ever since. At least it wasn't the motherboard!

PS I suspected overheating as well, as it was more likely to muck up on me if I did a restart for any reason, and less likely to muck up if it had a good long rest between boots/reboots. I dare say the video card was indeed overheating as part of its psycho problem.


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## Culhwch (Aug 2, 2009)

Cheers for the input, Procrastinator! At least I know I'm not the only one to have experienced this peculiarity, now...


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## TheEndIsNigh (Aug 5, 2009)

Just had the no quick post window problem again on several pages this time.

It seems to have cleared up now though. It's almost like the server get's confused beteewn a logged on user and a normal one so the goodies at the bottom of the page don't appear.

Then again I could be talking baldrics


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