Problem with cold start ! BIOS runs only on multiple power ons !

[abhishaked]

Hi All !!

My first post to this forum ! :wave:

I have a very weird problem in my newly assembled system (2 months old ).From the begnning on cold boot of my system, it wasnt starting and on restarting the power multiple number of times it used to start and work perfectly( even shaking it a bit use to work ! ). Recently it became a nuisance and I changed the complete motherboard. It worked fine for 3 days and now again I have the same problem. This is the history of the checks made on system :

1. Checked for all jumper settings, connections and configuration to be proper.
2. Checked for well connected RAM and Graphic card.
3. Checked if there is power in the MB. When i start the comp, the MB's led glows but there is no booting and there is no power in cdrom and floopy.
4.CPU temp and voltages are correct according to the manual
5. Harddisk is spinning (i can feel the vibrations)
6.Cleared CMOS

I am stumped what the problem is. It cant be a PSU problem as i have installed a new PSU with still the same problem. I have a doubt ! Say its a booting problem then if the system doesnt boot atleast there should be power in the Cdrom(ie, the CD plate should come out on pressing the eject button). Is this assumtion correct ??

Here is my system configuration :
AMD Athylon 2800
1GB RAM (single wafer in 1 slot)
Geforce 5500 256MB graphic accelerator card
TUL Express Mother Board (A480 series)
4MB Flash Bios
Tvtuner Card


Please help me out. Tell me if anyone had similar problems and has corrected/is trying to correct the problem. We can discuss

Thanks a lot in advance

ciao

Abhishake

 

[SOcRatEs]

Hello! Welcome to TechSpot

Have you tried a bare setup?
absolute min to get to bios boot screen.
Video
ram
MoBo
Cpu
only power to MoBo and monitor.
Disconect everything else and remove all
addin cards, other than the video.
Try slowly to eliminate things one at a time.
Do have another system to test devices?
G'Luck

 

[abhishaked]

Hi Socrates ! Thanks for the quick response ! Before I changed my motherboard I had done a bare run but with the same problem. I concluded the motherboard to be out of order and replaced it ! But still i face the same problem. Can it be a problem because of the geometry of the MotherBoard (the way it is placed) or the stress level being too much ?? Can u clarify my doubt whether power in cdrom and floopy are independent of boot faliure ?? Because i found no power in cdrom and floppy on boot faliure. Can it be because of SATA configurations or RAM ?? I m so stumped !! : (

 

[DelJo63]

what HD is installed and is it new out of the box or previously used?

There's an old problem with HDs called 'Stickion';
When an HD is reset for power off, the arm seeks to max displacement
and gets parked on the platter surface to stablize any jaring that might occur.
IFF there is just a tad of microscopic oil in the landing zone, there can be
problems when restarting. The rotation begins, but the recalibrate seek fails
due to surface tention of the oil between the head and the platter.
Several reboots are required, and sometimes a good SLAP on the case to
break free - - kind of like amphibious planes taking off of water.

I had an external SCSI HD with this 'feature' that was solved by delaying the
device ready signal, allowing more heat to build and thus break the suction.

Just a thought ...

 

[abhishaked]

what HD is installed and is it new out of the box or previously used?...delaying the device ready signal, allowing more heat to build and thus break the suction....

Hi Joe ! Thanks for the advice.....i searched the net for stickon amd yes it can be a valid reason for this kind of behaviour. I have a 120GB Seagate HD which is connected with SATA1 of the MB. Its a new one (wasnt in a box, but the manufacture date is aug 2005). Please tell me how to delay the device ready signal because i found no options for the same in the BIOS settings !!

Thanks in advance

 

[DelJo63]

Unless it's a SCSI device, you can't. These settings are unique to SCSI Drivers,
sorry. The only point being made was at times there may be strange symptoms
observed, which we can't influence but only seek to understand.

This stickon issue was several years ago and basically a manufacturing flaw;
the platter of the disk should not have any oil present at all. stickon was the result.

 

[abhishaked]

If we eliminate logically, as socrates said , I had done a bare run of the MotherBoard without HD but still had the same problem from which I thought it was a motherboard problem. Still on having the brand new motherboard it was the same issue for which I beleive it has to do with something else rather than the working of MB. Is geometry of MB's placement in the cabinet an issue ?? I read in the net that there can be problems with cold boot is there is problem with geometry of mother board or if too much stress (due to components) is given to the MB. Has anybody faced such problem ?? Please advice !

 

[SOcRatEs]

I've had cases that no matter what I could not get anything to work in them.
I can not tell you why. I still have a generic case that will not work.
It may have been somthing in the way of how things were grounded or maybe
the MoBo stand off's were grounding out the MoBo.
It may be a simple as incompatiblity with case and new psu or the front panel
buttons and wires.
It's always helpful to have another system, to switch things out with to find the offender.
trial and error....
G'Luck