HP locks up on boot, permently. HELP

[agissi]

Hey all...

I have a HP Pavilion XL768. All of a sudden, it does not boot.

Sometimes the keyboard will work, most of the time not. No idea, why, but its another reason for me to think its the mobo thats screwed. And its not my keyboard When the keyboard misteriously does work, i can press ESC or F1 to go to the bios [not that it goes into the bios, it just says its going to, however if you read on it locks up]. However, most the time for some reason, the keyboard doesnt even seem to be on.

When it is on, I can press ESC to get out of the HP logo screen, to go to the real screen where it says whats going on,etc.

What Happens:

It locates & reconigizes the CPU
Counts the RAM
Finds the Hard Drive, and CDROM.

--

After that, it just locks up, permently.
If I press F1 at any time to go into the bios, it locks up right after it lists the HD and CDROM models. Therefor, I cannot even get into the bios.

I thought maybe the hard drive's boot sector [or whatever its called, I forgot what my dad said] was really screwed up, so i bought a new hard drive. After installing that, same problem. So its not the Hard drive.

I dont think its the CPU, a Slot Athlon 900. Because it reconigizes it. It also counts the ram without a hitch so I dont think its the ram. It finds the cdrom, and hard drive perfectly, too.

I think the mobo is fuxored, what about you?

Also, anyone ever put a mobo off the net into an HP? Im not sure if it'll fit the case, even if both case and mobo were to be MATX.

Any comments appreciated

 

[Rick]

The motherboard could be a problem. But don't count out the memory just yet... That POST memory test is not much of a test at all. So yes, memory is still a variable.

It could also be a faulty device, such as PCI card. Hard drives and CDROMs generally won't cause this behavior out of the blue, but you may want to remove them and see if you get any futher.

It may also be some sort of wrong or corrupted CMOS settings. Of course, you are not able to get into the BIOS setup to change this, so you may need to reset your CMOS using the clear CMOS jumper located on your motherboard. Equivocally, you can also take out the silver CMOS battery while your system is unplugged... This will do the same thing.

There's lots of variables to cover.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Aren't you the guy who refuses to put a cooler on your CPU?
Think you finally got it coming.

 

[agissi]

Thanks a lot for the help rick.

And realblack, you have the wrong guy, im the one whos telling the sheltered ones thermal paste was invented for a reason.

 

[Rick]

Originally posted by realblackstuff
Aren't you the guy who refuses to put a cooler on your CPU?
Think you finally got it coming.

Hehe.. I made that mistake once....

 

[RealBlackStuff]

I remembered you defended running your PC very hot, so I read that specific post again.
Less than 2 months ago you said your PC was not giving up the ghost anytime soon...
second page I think in: https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5876

Anyway, sorry to hear about your troubles.
As for a mobo, look into the Abit K7V etc. They are pretty small and should fit.

 

[Masque]

I'm sure you've already checked this agissi, but is the fan spinning on the heat sink and is everything seated properly? It really DOES sound like a heat-related issue to me.

 

[agissi]

realblack, my cpu is running hotter then others, around 60C, which is fine. I use a volcano9 and a 20db fan. I use coolers/heatsinks/fans. I use paste. So anyways, back to your orgional statment, you have the wrong person.

Masque, its a SLOT A cpu. There is a large heatsink on the cpu, then a fan is mounted above it. The fan is spinning. Im going to strip down the PC, do some stuff, I'll let ya know how it goes.

 

[Masque]

Okay....then have you checked other heatsinks that "may" be on the board that could potentially be loose?

 

[agissi]

its a 4year old computer, so not even the videocard has a heatsink Its a TNT2 Vanta videocard.

The only heatsink in the comp is on the cpu. Its not overheating, as much as it sounds.

Its also not the ram, and the mobo isnt shorting to the case, so it must be a faulty mobo.. ordered a new one off ebay. Lets see if that fixes it

 

[will56]

Good luck. Sounds like a fun little project to play with. Could just be the PS2 port on the mainboard. Try a PS2 to USB adaper on the keyboard? Hope the new board works out.

 

[agissi]

thx will..

its not the ram, hd, videocard, or cpu, so I ordered a new mobo.

I think that mobo was what was messed up, and it was proabably just the PS2 port on it.

"Try a PS2 to USB adaper" great idea!

 

[tbrunt3]

I vote for motherboard or the ram controller on the board ... Also when was the last time you replaced the BIOS battery??? this might also be it.

 

[CECILXX]

DO YOU STILL HAVE THIS UNIT?
i BUY THESE
PLEASE CONTACT ME

cesystems@uswest.net