Boot Problem

[vassil3427]

A friend of mine has a problem, her computer(which i built her year and a half ago) It has an Asus motherboard and a Celeron 800mhz. The problem is that when you start it up, thehard drive doesnt fully start up or something. It makes this weird noise, and refuses to start windows at all it attempts to in Safe mode but freezes before getting in Windows, I first thought it was her hard drive cause we used an old 3GB hard drive in it and I thought it was just dying, so we put my old Maxtor 40GB HDD in it and its worked fine till now(She just called me to say the problem is back) Is the problem because the Power Supply?? Because thats what it sounds like to me. Its just using a cheap generic one.....Please write back soon....

 

[Phantasm66]

Oh, could be a number of things if its not the HDD, but did you try replacing the IDE cable?

If possible don't let the CD-ROM drive or whatever be a slave on the same channel as the HDD and make it a master on its own channel and see if that helps...

 

[Vehementi]

What's the PSU wattage rating??

If you think that may be it, hook up all the components in it to a different PSU. Like, you could try setting the PSU on the floor next to the machine, unplugging all the power cables, and using the new power leads.

If you ever get it running with the old PSU, use ASUS Probe to find the voltage ratings. I suspect your 5V/12V may be too low, even below like 4/10. This is one of the symptoms of a dying PSU.

 

[StormBringer]

sounds like the IDE cable is vibrating loose, or it may be bad as Phant said.

If vibration is a problem in the system, you can try a spot of hotglue on the IDE connector to keep it in place. It is a little trick of the trade.

 

[vassil3427]

Well vibration isnt a problem, its super quiet with nearly no vibration, however I do beleive its the PS because...
When I talked to her later last night I told her to unplug it from the wall, and then plug it back in after a few minutes, sure enough. It started right up. I dont know about you but I think it's the PS?? Please reply with your opinion:grinthumb

And she gets confused easily so I'm not even gonna try to guide her through getting into Asus probe:dead: ..cause right now I dont have time to go to her house...

 

[Phantasm66]

Someone at work is having, funnily enough, the EXACT same problem... and its now happening on another machine bought at the same time which is an identical spec. If I hear anything I will let you know....

 

[StormBringer]

Originally posted by vassil3427
however I do beleive its the PS because...
When I talked to her later last night I told her to unplug it from the wall, and then plug it back in after a few minutes, sure enough. It started right up.

Well, I wouldn't order a new PSU just yet, all that tells me is that the problem is a faulty component that only shows itself when energized or when it gets hot. This is what we refer to as an intermittent problem, possibly erratic intermittent.

The PSU doesn't turn completely off when you power off the PC. There are some voltages that are maintained on the mobo at all times, unless you unplug it. Seeing as you can unplug it and plug it back in and it works, but just turning it off and back on won't work, may mean the problem could be on the mobo in the areas that are always energized.

 

[Phantasm66]

memory can do trippy things like that :evil: