Boot fails one out of two

LestatLestat
edited July 2004 in Hardware
Whenever I start my PC, about half the time it will shut down within 5 seconds, just before the screen posts.
Has anyone any idee what could cause this behaviour? I have a abit KT7 motherbord runnen a 2.4Ghz P4 with a 350Watt power supply

Also, sometimes though not that often, the boot continues normaly but just before I get to the winXP bootscreen, the screen goes blue (no BSoD) en just reboots.

After reboot, it sometimes also shuts down just like a cold boot

Comments

  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited June 2004
    Assuming you get it working how often does it crash?

    It sounds like a few possibilities. Could be bad ram, could be heat issues, could be the early signs of hard drive failure.
  • LestatLestat
    edited June 2004
    That's the strange thing. One it's up, it doesn't crash, reboot or fail in any way. Tried encoding some video all day, machine never complained ;-)
  • LestatLestat
    edited June 2004
    And voltages are

    CPU core volt 1.50
    DDR volt 2.57
    DDR VTT volt 1.28
    AGP VDDQ volt 1.53
    ATX +3.3V 3.24
    ATX +5V 4.97
    ATX +12V 11.85
    Batt volt 3.28
    Standby volt 4.96
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited June 2004
    Yeah it's going to come down to a lot of could be's in this situation.

    Could be the powersupply also that it just randomly doesn't work or shorts out some times. Could be a loose connector somewhere. etc...etc..etc...

    You could do a clean install of your OS and see if that solves the problem. Otherwise it's trial and error hardware testing.

    First things do a memtest for your ram
    then do a full scandisk including surface scan and a defrag to rule that out.

    Beyond that it's just a matter of trying different things.
  • LestatLestat
    edited June 2004
    Thanks for the advise, but...
    one: I don't think it's a software problem as it occurs only at post. Once the PC us up and running, all is fine...

    two: It's not a ramdom power loss, bad mem or connector as the computer doesn't fails after booting

    please tell me if i'm wrong, because i'm realy stuck at this one.
  • HawkHawk Fla Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    Just a thought, I had my pc doing that once. Looked for a couple of hrs until I found while upgrading it I skinned one of the tiny wires to a 12 in. CC light ever so slightly, and it was shorting out to the case. And it didn't do it everytime. Only when the vibration (as slight as it is) made it ground out. It would start booting up and a few seconds it would shut down. So, If you've been modding or upgrading things-You might check that if you can't find the prob. It was a real bugger to find too. BTW, Lestat, Love your AVI pic.
  • NeonDionNeonDion
    edited July 2004
    Lestat,

    I have an Abit IC-7, P4-2.8Ghz, corsair Twinx CMX512-PC3200C2PT, Enermax 350w Pwr Supply with the identical problem, including self power down, sometimes when I restart the PC. During POST, if my PC beeps then it will complete the bootup process, else it powers down. (no overclocking -yet).
    I've been researching it and this is what I have found.
    I replaced the power supply with a Demon 580Watt (cheap with good voltages), but no change.
    I found two identical threads, one person had the same problem, he replaced his FDD with a brand new one and fixed his problem. I totally disconnected mine - No Change.
    The other person had changed the PS2_US_PWR1 from pins 2+3 to Pins 1+2. This solved his problem.
    Mine was already at pins 1+2. I changed them to pins 2+3 with No Change.
    I took the pin1 and spread it apart ever so slightly so that the Jumper would get an even tighter connection. I also went into the bios and changed my primary video from PCI to AGP.
    The PC seems to complete the boot process many more times than previously.
    Try one or all the above.
    - Neon Dion (newbie)
  • LestatLestat
    edited July 2004
    Thanks. I will try those things. If i find any sollutions, i'll let it know.

    began to think I was the only one with this problem. Bad motherboard or something. Apparently the quest is thus not over - i can still fix this :-)
  • AcidicDreamsAcidicDreams Oregon
    edited July 2004
    When the computer shuts itself down can you power it right back up with the button or do you need to unplug the power cord/turn off the manual switch on the PS to get it running again? if so you probably have a short. If not shut it down, unplug everything 'cept the video, ram, CPU, and boot several times. Then you can narrow down the problem... I'd start with a Power Supply anyways... and buy QUALITY and it will last for years and keep you from crashing....
  • NeonDionNeonDion
    edited July 2004
    Dudes,

    To Answer AcidicDreams ?, Nope, I did not have to pull the pwr cord or flip the manual switch. The PC booted right back up with da button.

    Well I finally got my PC fixed. What fixed my particular problem was resetting CMOS on the Abit IC-7 MotherBoard.
    Since resetting the CMOS jumper, I have successfully completed 25 consecutive cold boots. Yipppee!! Finally the quest for a resolution is over!

    What got me to try the CMOS jumper was when I recently was working on a PC that a friend replaced the mb. He could not get video on the PC. I had previously tested the P4 cpu, video card, and ram as good. I figured he was shorting out the motherboard to the mounting screws or something, but nope. I tried everything to get video on that new motherboard. I was getting ready to pull the mb when I decided to reset the CMOS via jumpers.
    I changed the jumpers from pins 1+3 (normal setting), moved jumper to pins 2+3 (clear CMOS) , powered on the PC, powered off the PC, put the jumpers back on pins 1+3.
    On my friends PC, I also was unable to get the CD-Roms to be recognized on the 2ndary IDE Channel. It work via as slave to HD on Pri IDE CH., but not as single master on 2nd IDE CH. I selected the BIOS menu - Set Default Settings, and the CD-Roms (DVD + CD-R) both were recognized fine. So my friends PC boots fine...Just Like Mine...and EVERYTIME!!
    - Neon Dion
    :rockon:
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