deathspeed
Posts: 613 +520
A family member's PC started freezing up when she turned it on. At first it would restart itself several times, then eventually work OK, but finally it started locking on the Windows XP splash screen. I can see and use the BIOS screens just fine. But when we saw green and orange bands on the Windows splash screen, I thought the video card had failed, so I put in a new Radeon HD5450. It still locked up in the same place, so I tried a few Live CDs I had, and they all seemed to boot up ok. At first. But then I tried my UBCD4. The selection screen came up, but when I tried to boot into windows using it, it locked up in the same place - the Windows splash screen. So now I have ruled out the hard drive as well as the video card. I tried loading a stock XP SP3 CD, and repairing the installation (not the recovery console - i don't know enough about how to use that), but yet again it locked up in the same place. I never get a BSOD or error message.
I tried switching around RAM modules (normally runs 2 x 512 MB Patriot PC3200 DDR), and threw in a few sticks of 256MB that I had lying around (5 sticks total). As long as the slot further from the CPU was populated, I saw the same issue, whether or not there was anything in the other slot. But if the slot closer to the CPU was filled and the other slot was empty, there was no output to the monitor at all.
According to the system info tab in the BIOS, the voltages are all within 5% of nominal, but I have not ruled out the PSU entirely. It's a 4 year old Antec Basiq 350 watt PSU, but i don't have a spare lying around (unless I cannibalize a working computer!
)
Any ideas on what could be causing it to stop in the same place, no matter how I try to load Windows (HDD, Live CD, installation CD)? The most recent change to the system was replacing the original PATA DVD-ROM with a DVD burner a few weeks before the issues cropped up. The motherboard is about 3 years old, and the PSU and RAM about 4. The CPU is about 7 years old. (I think the hard drive and case are the only original parts left!) The case is clean, the fans are running normally, and the temps are fine.
System Specs
VGA: onboard, and Radeon HD5450
MoBo:Asus A8V-VM SE
OS:XP Home SP3
CPU:Athlon 64 3200+ (socket 939)
Memory:2 x 512 MB Patriot PC3200 DDR
PSU:Antec Basiq 350w
HDD:Barracuda 7200.7 160GB
I tried switching around RAM modules (normally runs 2 x 512 MB Patriot PC3200 DDR), and threw in a few sticks of 256MB that I had lying around (5 sticks total). As long as the slot further from the CPU was populated, I saw the same issue, whether or not there was anything in the other slot. But if the slot closer to the CPU was filled and the other slot was empty, there was no output to the monitor at all.
According to the system info tab in the BIOS, the voltages are all within 5% of nominal, but I have not ruled out the PSU entirely. It's a 4 year old Antec Basiq 350 watt PSU, but i don't have a spare lying around (unless I cannibalize a working computer!
)Any ideas on what could be causing it to stop in the same place, no matter how I try to load Windows (HDD, Live CD, installation CD)? The most recent change to the system was replacing the original PATA DVD-ROM with a DVD burner a few weeks before the issues cropped up. The motherboard is about 3 years old, and the PSU and RAM about 4. The CPU is about 7 years old. (I think the hard drive and case are the only original parts left!) The case is clean, the fans are running normally, and the temps are fine.
System Specs
VGA: onboard, and Radeon HD5450
MoBo:Asus A8V-VM SE
OS:XP Home SP3
CPU:Athlon 64 3200+ (socket 939)
Memory:2 x 512 MB Patriot PC3200 DDR
PSU:Antec Basiq 350w
HDD:Barracuda 7200.7 160GB
