Computer Will not Boot Sometimes

Hi everyone,
This problem just started a couple days ago. Went to turn on my comp. power came on, lights came on, fans are running, but nothing happened. There wasn't any sounds like you here when your comp. starts to boot up. Turn it off and try again same thing. Sometimes after the 4th or 5th try it will boot up.
Once it is running it seems ok, sometimes it just shuts off and restarts. Or it will just turn itself off, screen goes blank, power is still on, lights are on, fans are running, but nothing is happening, reset button will not work. Turn off and try to restart same thing happens as before, after 4th or 5th time it will start up.
I have an AMD Athlon 1gig, with 384 megs of ram, Radeon 8500 video card, and I am running XP Professional.
I was thinking of replacing the harddrive but I'm not sure, it seems like a hardware problem I think.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Sal

 

If you are getting a blank screen on startup, it is not the hard drive. BIOS initializes the video even if no HD is present.

The intermittent nature of the problem suggests a bad connection. Unplug and replug everything to be sure you have a good connection--especially the vid card.

You might check the Event Viewer to see what problems appear there---they may give you a hint about the source of the entire problem.

You might also try going to Control Panel, System, Advanced tab, Startup and Recovery Settings and uncheck the "Automatically Restart" box so you may be able to get a blue screen with error information.

 

Thanks Abraxas,
I am headed off to work this mornring I will try that tonight when I get home. How do I check the event viewer?
Also this morning it did boot after about the 6th try, but the power supply was very noisy then it stopped.

Thanks for your help.

Sal

 

I would be looking it the PS noise bit. What is the size of it anyway? You will need to open the case and see what is on it.
Thinking it maybe to small or is about to give out on you possibly.

 

Thanks guys for your help,

After checking all my connections and reseating everything I still had the same problem.

I decided to buy a new power supply and try it. Well everything seems to be working fine now. I bought an Antec True Power 330 watt power supply. Seems to be a lot less noisey, and runs smoother than my old one, ( Sky Hawk 300 watt).

One question, new power supply has 2 fans one in the rear and one on top. When I put my case back together the top lays on the cooling fan shield. Would this cause a problem with not enough ventilation? Should I cut a hole in the top of my case around the fan?

Thanks again for your help,

Sal

 

Sal You may have trouble here.

You see a normal power supply has an air intake and an air output. The intake should be inside the case and clear.

The intake should be positioned so that it pulls air in thru vents either on the front or the sides of the case or both.

This does 2 things, it pulls cool air into the case to cool the inside of the case. This air is then blown onto the processor by a CPU fan to cool it. Additionally as this air is pulled thru the power supply it cools it also.

So you now have 2 problems;

1. no fresh air is being pulled thru the case hence the inside of the case is not being cooled. Heat will cook the processor as it already runs hot enough to burn you if you touched it. It is running much higher now for sure.

2. The fan on the outside has no air source to pull thru since the input is blocked at the top of the case, and therefore the Power supply is also running hot.

So now the power supply is getting hotter also and some of this heat is radiating back to inside the case since it can not be disapated therefore raising the inside case temp even higher.

Hole in the case NO! Even if you did it would only pull the cool air thru the power supply and cause no airflow thru the case.

You have the wrong power supply from your description. You are now cooking both the CPU and power supply.

No wonder it is quite. Hopefully this case has another fan but now it is not enough.

Mike

 

Thanks Mike for your reply,

As of right now I haven't put my case back together. My new power supply is the same as my old one except for an extra fan on the top. Both ps have vents in the side of them. If I install the top of my case there is a little more than a 1/4 inch of space between the case top and the top of ths ps.
There is 2 other fans inside my case.

Most of all the good power supplys had 2 fans on them. Should I have bought one with only one fan?

Thanks for your help Mike,

Sal

 

You now have a good power supply. It sounds like you may need to get a good case to match. I would recommend a full tower if you have space for it, they run cooler than the smaller cases, unless you want to make sure there are enough fans pushing air in and out.

Matt

 

OK Sal

You may be allright based on the additional info

1. 2 other fans

2. there is actually 1/4 inch of space on top and it is not totally blocked

No you are better off with the 2 fans as this gives more power to pull air thru the restricted 1/4 inch.

Two things you might consider

1. see if the PS will mount upside down. Probably will not but look.

2. install an additional fan if possible, may not have a place but some cases have places for 3 or 4 fan positions. If so make sure one of the fans is on the oppiste side of the case and is exhausting air if the others are pulling in.

Mike

 

Thanks for your help,

I am going to add another fan, just to be safe.

Thanks,

Sal

 

I just worked on a PC for my Nephew. The fan on the PS is toward the MB .

BillyBob

 

Just curious. Are the fans (rear) which are exposed to the open back side of the case an exhaust or input. It seems dust and cooler air is pulled into the case and directed to the MB.

 

If you are asking me, I do not know for sure.

The machine I am referring to is the same one mentioned in Sweet Success and Cheers have changed.

It is on its way back to me AGAIN.

BB

 

Power supplys always exhaust. So the 2nd fan on PS would also exhaust thru the unit, so both fans exhaust. This is to boost volume and velocity.

The reason his fan is on top is he has the wrong PS for the case. Because yes it should be pulling air accross the MB and exhausting it.

It is still doing that but because of the 1/4 inch restriction it is struggling to do so. And I am sure not at full volume.

Mike

 

The PS in the case I am dealing with has only the one fan underneath it.

It appears to be drawing the air in from the rear and exaustuing toward the MB.

BillyBob

PS.

And the -12 voltage is fluctuating about 1.5 to 2 volts. And the CPU temp is fluctuating along with it.

BB

 

Maybe so!

But the PS creates heat. So if that is so, it is blowing the heat from the PS inside the case.

Warm up that thar presesser. Lol!

The CPU already creates enough heat it don't need any more.

Usually the PS pulls air thru the case from vents in the sides and front. This cooler air is the pulled accross the CPU where the CPU Fan picks it up and blasts it directly on the CPU, this air is then quite warm but as the PS fan pulls it thu itself it still removes more heat from the PS transformer and exhausts it immediately out the back.


Since you are THE BILLYBOB we can expect yours to do it differently! Lol!

Mike

 

Thanks guys for the clarification. I wasn't sure about the dynamics. If I understand, the cooling affect is cooler outside air (inside the case) is drawn toward/into the P/S, the air that enters the P/S cools the P/S and the hotter air is exhausted away from the MB. Some of the air that moves toward but not drawn into the P/S is cooled by an increase in velocity with fans that cool the CPU.

 

But the PS creates heat. So if that is so, it is blowing the heat from the PS inside the case.

OH !!!. I did not know that . LOL.

Warm up that thar presesser. Lol!

The CPU already creates enough heat it don't need any more.

For sure it does do that.

Usually the PS pulls air thru the case from vents in the sides and front.

That is the way I thought it should be. But I held a Gig nears it and the Smoke Deffinetly went toward the MB. I have a STRANGE feeling that the PS DOES NOT go with that case.

Since you are THE BILLYBOB we can expect yours to do it differently! Lol!

Oui. Si. and Oh Yes. Most deffintely.

But I am referrning to the machine that I speak of in Cheers Of Gladness in the General Discussions forum.

From the one and only ( thank God )
BillyBob

 

10-4 Ken

It needs to pull the cool air in and exhast it out the back of the PS.

The transformer in the PS and CPU are the 2 hottest items in a computer. We don't want to blow hot transformer air on the processor.

BillyBob even if it is the correct PS then if the fan wires are reversed then it will spin the fan in the opposit direction.

Mike

 

Spin direction:
That is consistent with reversing the polarity of the fan connection as identical to changing the fan blade slope 180 degrees without changing spin direction. It will reverse the air flow.