Freeze on Boot

Each time I boot it gives a readout of m/b and Main Processor
No drives listed

At the bottom of the screen it says to Press DEL to enter SETUP, F8 to Enter Boot Menu, ESC t [it appears here not to complete the instruction]
02/22/2006-P4M800-8237-6A7L6009C-00

However it does not respond to any of those instructions either at that stage or during the boot process.

This occured during a power shutdown whilst in the process of transferring data from one drive to another.
I have tried to boot with the XP CD also but to no avail
Hope we can find a way around it.

 

It seems to have had an "upset" to it's basic functions

I would "clear the CMOS ". There may be instructions in the motherboard manual. You can also do this by removing the CMOS battery (a silver coin-like battery on the motherboard) for, say, 30 minutes.

The power supply system may be "fried ". I usually take another power supply (PSU) from another computer and use it to power the "problem" computer. I use caution if the computer is an OEM (Dell, HP, Compaq, etc).

Matt

 

Thanks Matt,

I had considered this move but felt best to wait until I received such expertise advice.

As I still have a laptop I might just wait a while to see if any other suggestions arise.

Roy66

I'm on The [rainy]Sunshine Coast Queensland. How has Sydney handled the rain?

 

If you are using a USB keyboard, you may need to get a PS/2 keyboard so that you can access the BIOS ( "enter SETUP ").

Try holding down a key, say the Delete key after the very first screen. It may send you to Setup with a keyboard error.

Disconnect the non-system HDD, until you are able to get back to Windows (and even CD/DVD drives).

Rain, not many heavy downpours that I have noticed. Probably only enough to make the weeds grow

Matt

 

Thanks Matt for this second piece of advice which should also prove helpful to others with similiar problems.

As previously stated I could not get any response to F8 or Delete upon boot and I had previously disconnected the main HD.

With this last post info I dissconnected ALL drives and was able to get a response to Delete on bootup and get into the BIOS setup and reset settings to default.

ALL is OK now which is a GREAT relief.

3rd day of solid consistent much needed rain.

havagreatweekend

Where in SYDNEY......Sydney is a BIG place.

roy

 

Good to hear you got it going Roy

I am in the Parramatta area. From the news reports your area is getting the most rain. I hope you get your dams filled and it gets to some of the other areas where it is needed.

Matt

 

AMAZING...I have had this problem re-occur twice since getting it up and running.

Have now isolated the problem to an externa USB H/D.
When I pulled the usb and booted it booted OK.

Had noticed previously that after bootup if I plugged in this USB H/D the PC would reboot, but didn't take too much notice of that, just thought it a bit peculiar and inconvenient.

Any thoughts?
Roy

 

Hi Roy,
I would wonder if the power supply system is starting to get overloaded. You have an extra (internal) HDD, more than one optical drive(?), very many add-in cards(?), many USB devices attached(?) Even going from basic to updated hardware will increase the load.

You may be at the limit of the power supply's capabilities, at least, that's what I would suspect.

What could you do? Reduce the load or upgrade the PSU.

For USB, get a self-powered hub, connect all devices except keyboard and mouse through that.
Remove any add-in cards you may no longer use.
Go to one optical drive.
The second internal drive, get a USB external case/adapter for it and connect it to the self-powered hub.

Upgrading the PSU may be simple if it is a standard type. You will not want to spend a lot on a high quality unit if the system is getting older now (unless you may want to keep it for your next computer if you thinking of building it yourself). Edit: check the connectors, some new PSU's only have a 24 pin m/b connector, whereas you will need a 20 pin (20 and 4 separate). I needed an adapter for mine.

A power calculator:
http://www.journeysystems.com/?powercalc
You will need to compare the results to the Wattage on the label of the PSU.

If the power supply has been working near full load, it will be aging a lot quicker than at low load.

As it says at the calculator website, "generic" units can be rated higher than their actual capabilities.

Power would be the area I would investigate.

Matt

 

Hi Matt,

Thanks for taking time out to post a most comprehensive overview of the possible problems I am encountering as well as providing some helpful solutions and software to analyze the issue.
Nothing is wasted and I am sure that all posts hold valuable and helpful information to those who read them.

As an aside but as a lead up to what I've discovered I might mention that recently I have had 2 replacement engines and gearboxes installed in my vehicle and was possibly looking at a 3rd due to the evasiveness of the real issue.
It was only after a most critical analysis and trial and error by myself that I found the problem that evaded the experts to be a minor one of nuisance value which was corrected with a $25 replacement part that took 3 minutes to install and you could have done it in your dinner suit.

Likewise, the complex nature of computers gives rise to an incalculable number of procedures that could be undertaken to get to the heart of the issue and seemingly in this instance it appeared that some of the options I tried had succeeded...but only briefly.

Unbelievable as it may sound the problem was/is with a USB thumb drive which when installed on boot created the problem.
I can FULLY LOAD ALL peripherals..excluding the troublesome thumb and boot is OK.
Once booted it will accept the troublesome thumb drive..non issue but it will NOT boot through if I have that connected at bootup, though I have no problem whatsoever when it is connected to my laptop.

Therein remains the mystery...just what is it with this thumb drive that presents that scenario?????????/

Roy
PS...Following this post I transferred the content of this USB to my laptop and tried to reboot my PC [desktop] but again...with nothing in the USB I still got the same boot failure.
Using my laptop I formatted the USB and then tried a boot on my desktop PC...this time with success.
All I need to do now is reload this USB with the data I transferred and see what happens.....though it appears at this stage that the data was not the problem...here goes.

A OK..reloaded the data booted.......YIPPEEEEE sorry for yelling.
Now these 2 instances above are an indication that if one perserveres then it may not be a case of expensive remedies.....like this one has cost me a new motherboard, ram and video card, all un necessary.
Fortunately all labor costs were covered.
BUT: What undeniable identifiable explanation can be given for this problem, bearing in mind that this USB and its content has been part of the operating system for quite some time.

 

Okay...maybe

Seems we are thinking of different hardware. You talked about an "USB external H/D ". Different from a Thumb/Flash/Micro USB drive. (An external HDD is a full sized 3.5" harddrive in a case which you connect via USB.)

Two suggestions (thoughts?)...
Go into the BIOS/Startup settings and look at the boot sequence. If there is "external" (or related to USB) drive listed, remove it (don't miss saving the new settings).

2nd. In Windows, copy the data off the thumb drive to your HDD. Do a full format on the drive (My Computer, right-click on the drive and select Format, you will see "Quick Format ", don't select it). For a drive less than 512MB, use FAT (or FAT16). For a drive larger than 512MB, use Fat32. I would avoid using the NTFS file system (although it seems to work for for this type of memory).

Those are my suggestions, hope you have some success.

Matt
EDIT: Seems I am posting after the event. You edited while I was making up my post.
Let us know if the "Yippee" sticks.

 

Hi Matt,
I really am cracking up

You were right, I do have an external USB H/D as well as a couple of Thumb/Flash/Micro USB drives.

luv it.
Yes I will keep you informed.
But the question still remains???????? how come!!
Roy

 

I could only guess. Windows method of reading the drive would be more sophisticated than the BIOS's method of reading. (As I mentioned, it would appear that the BIOS has the capability to boot from USB drives.) The BIOS may have been trying to read the drive, but it was not the right format or maybe slightly flawed.

I have found that, occasionally, those drives need to be reformatted. If they have become slightly corrupted or if they may have been formatted at the factory and it is not completely compatible with all systems, I don't know. If I am deleting all files on the drive, I format it as well.

Sticking yippee, let's hope so

Matt

 

My "assumption" would be that there was a software conflict that could not be accomodated on boot.
Though, I suppose it will remain a mystery.

roy