My computer starts and shuts down before O/S starts

Hello,

My computer was on when I experienced a power outage while pc was plugged into surge suppressor. Now when I start the computer, it will shut down within 30 seconds. I have checked all cables and all are tight. I have suspected the HDD, since the O/S does not seem to initiate. Also, the pc attempts to process by the indicator light shown on the front panel of the pc.

I have replaced the PSU and I still have the same problem.

PC specs: HP Pavilion M8100N media center edition
Socket type: AM2 Motherboard Athlon 64 X2 with Dual Core technology up to 5600+ (up to 89 watt)
memory 3 GB Speed: PC2-5300 MB/sec, hdd is a western digitial 500 gb, power supply is only 300 W. Thanks anyone for any help in this.

den
 
Is the monitor showing the normal boot up process up to the point of it crashing.

Run these two diagnostics to make sure your hard drive and memory are OK.

Identify the make of your hard drive and then use one of the links below to get the manufacturers diagnostic for ISO CD. Burn the image file to a CD, boot the PC with the disc in the drive and run the diagnostics. You first need to set the CD drive to 1st in the boot order in the Bios setup.

If you do not have an image burner use this free software to make the CD.

http://www.isoimageburner.com/



ExcelStor: http://www.excelstor.com/eng/support.php?sub_id=3

Hitachi/IBM: http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/

Samsung: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/downloads/support_in_es.html

Seagate, Maxtor & Quantum:http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads

Western Digital:http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en

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Toshiba Fujitsu: http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=SoftwareUtilities#diagnostic

If you have a Toshiba hard drive I would suggest the use of the diagnostics from the Seagate link as this will work on all makes of drive and on any OS.


http://www.memtest.org/

You need to scroll down the page until you see the three blue screenshots. Just below is the list of downloads for Memtest86+ V4.20. Click on Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)and save to your desktop, When the download is complete right click the file and select Extract Here and burn the image to a CD. In windows 7 right click the extracted file, select Open With, then select Windows Disc Image Burning Tool then follow the prompts. For all other versions of windows (if you do not have an ISO burner) download this free software. http://www.isoimageburner.com/

Boot the PC into the Bios setup and set the CD/DVD drive to 1st in the boot sequence. Insert the disk in the drive then reboot and the disc will load into dos. Leave the test to run through at least 8 cycles.

The memtest will not be 100% accurate but should easily detect any major faults.
 
.iso copy unsucessful for boot up

i made a copy of the .iso file from western digitial and the cd will not boot upon startup. my first priority is the cd so it should read but does not.
 
What did you use to burn the ISO image?

Please answer this question from my last post:
Is the monitor showing the normal boot up process up to the point of it crashing.
 
Ok, try removing the hard drive from the PC. Then see if it will boot from the diagnostics disc.
 
computer starts and quits problem

Ok, try removing the hard drive from the PC. Then see if it will boot from the diagnostics disc.

Sorry, but I fail to understand how removing the hd from the pc i will be able to boot from the dianostic cd. To run the cd I would think that I would need the HDD plugged in and preferable in a stable position. Please explain this to me.

Thanks

Den
 
The idea of this short test is to see if the PC will boot from the CD without it being able to see the boot sector on the hard drive (irrespective of the boot order setting). It obviously will not be able to run the test.

If you are quite certain you burned the correct ISO image for the diagnostics there should be no reason why it won't boot from the CD unless there is some other hardware failure.

So, with the hard drive disconnected the PC should boot from the CD, if it fails to locate the CD then it is likely that the power surge has done some damage to your PC's hardware.

Do you have a copy of the OS you can try and boot from? And please tell me what version of windows you are using.
 
computer starts and quits problem

The idea of this short test is to see if the PC will boot from the CD without it being able to see the boot sector on the hard drive (irrespective of the boot order setting). It obviously will not be able to run the test.

If you are quite certain you burned the correct ISO image for the diagnostics there should be no reason why it won't boot from the CD unless there is some other hardware failure.

So, with the hard drive disconnected the PC should boot from the CD, if it fails to locate the CD then it is likely that the power surge has done some damage to your PC's hardware.

Do you have a copy of the OS you can try and boot from? And please tell me what version of windows you are using.

I have swapped hdd and it seems to be working. I can actually log into windows.

Thanks all for your help

Den
 
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