PC Boot problems

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dlh

Geek Trainee
Hello everyone
I am having problems with my PC booting.
I have windows XP and the motherboard is a Soltek 400C.
This is the story so far.
About a week ago I had problems with my PC booting up. The screen was black and the PC did not appear to be booting at all. All drives appeared to show activity when initially being checked at start up. ( ie the light on each drive flashed )
I restarted it manually and after a couple of tries it started okay.
The problem got worse and I now have to manually restart 6 or 7 times.
I tried system restore and last good configuration but no joy.
Sometimes it will go through the initial stages firstly coming up with the Graphics card details and then freezing when it shows the usual data text etc etc.
I decided to reformat the hard drive and re load windows but this had no effect.
Somebody at work said it could be the graphics card so i bought a new one, but it is still doing the same thing. Checked all wires in drives etc which are okay.
I reset the CMOS by shorting the pins and again this had no effect.
I have checked the memory using windows microsoft program and this shows okay.
I am now at a loss what to do next.
Is there any checks I can do in the BIOS etc or anything else I should try.
I would be really grateful for any suggestions. Thanks in advance

dlh
 
Could be a bad power supply,It might be going out.. or it might be a memory chip going bad. Also might be Hard drive going bad.. It is a trial and eror to test each peace untill you narrow down the problem. Also check the Keyboard and mouse. A bad Keyboard can give all kinds of weird affectes..
 
will try all of the above and see what happens
Just put a another keyboard on to see what happens.
The trouble is I will now have to wait 3 or 4 hours until it cools off.
It seems that once I have managed to get it working and it is warm it always boots.
It has to be left for at least 3 hours or more until it plays up again.
Could this be a clue which I forgot to mention on my first post ?

dlh
 
What cools off,You mean the computer ? if that is the case you need another power supply.. Is it an old computer ? or new ? If you are having heating problems,then it is your fan to the processor.. Check that and do you have
another fan in the case besides the fan in the power supply ? You should never have to wait 3 to 4 hours to cool anything off. This does not sound right.
Can you open the case up ? does this case have a side panel that comes off ?
If so then remove the side panel and then start the computer, Look at the processor fan to see if it is moving..If not, replace it. Also would ad another fan
just in case if possible.
 
Sorry my last post was a bit misleading, it even confused me. ( I was tired !! )
There is not a heating problem. The processor fan works fine and the heat generated ( checked anti burn data in BIOS ) is well below cut off point.
The problems with booting seem to occur when I switch on the PC after not using it for a few hours or when I disconnect the power to open the casing to check some of the hardware.
For instance, once it has booted successfully I can switch it off again and again and immediately turn it on again and it starts normally every time.
However as soon as I disconnect the cables including power supply and open casing to check the wiring for instance, when I plug it all back in 10 minutes later it does'nt boot again. It certainly seems to be going down the power supply route. I checked all wiring yesterday and it is all located correctly. I even took out the memory, IDE plugs etc and put them back in again.
Today it showed the graphics card details as normal and then froze where it gets to the info on drives, memory etc ( after the option to go into BIOS settings )
What do you think ?
 
Further info re boot problems
Left it switched off for 5 minutes with power cable in and it started first time.
Then left it switched off for half an hour, again with power cable in and it failed to boot first time, just black screen.
Any ideas please Thanks
 
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