PC won't boot...

Hi all...

I think the ASUS mobo on my main WinXP (SP3) rig is borked. Well...it was bound to happen...It's an older home built P4 2.0 GHz...it's about 6 or 7 years old.

About 2 weeks ago I did a reload of WinXP SP3 (Slipstreamed CD) and it has been running great for those 2 weeks. Oh yeah...the reason why I reloaded was that the previous install was close to 2 years old and it was starting to slow down...it was time. Anyways...Sunday night after a little house cleaning...nothing major, just general stuff...I rebooted the computer and Nothing...it just hung at the BIOS screen. System detects the RAM then stops...It's hanging right at the "Press DELETE to get into sytem BIOS ". Pressing the DELETE key will not let you into the BIOS. Pulled the HDD's..nothing...hangs at the same spot.

Anyways I'm in the process of setting up my spare Dell GX280 P4 2.8 GHz...it was my Linux test box...as my main WinXP rig. Once I get that up to speed I'll be working on this box to see if I can find out what borked.

 

Hi Steve...

Only within Windows...No internal house cleaning

 

How about the m/b battery ?

 

Hi rsinfo...I'll be taking a look at that. Thanks...

 

Try with different keyboard or without one. If still no joy, unplug all other peripherals and try to boot. Empty all drive bays. Unplug CD Rom drive data cable, likewise with any other optical drives.

I had a CD Rom drive that caused a delay of over a full minute at the boot splash screen yet still worked alright when finally getting into Windows. I suppose it was having trouble getting recognized after working just fine for 6 years.

 

Hi surferdude...

Tried different USB and PS/2 keyboards and get the same result...BIOS starts, recognizes the RAM, then hangs...the longest I let it sit there was 15 mins and no change.

I will try removing all the Peripherals as you suggested...As per my previous post I have already removed the 2 HDD's. I also removed NIC Card, Sound Card, and USB 2.0 Card. Only the DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and Video card left. I'm going to removed clean and reinstall the video card as I need that for my viewing pleasure...I do have a spare card so I can also try that.

I still have to try the Mobo battery as rsinfo has suggested...

 

Well...I found the culprit...and it's not the Mobo, thank God... It was my USB 2.0 Card. When the PC "Posts" properly I can see that it was hanging at the "Initialize Plug and Play Cards" as I never saw that line when it hung.

I had removed all Peripherials as suferdude2 suggested then booted PC and it started the boot process as per normal. Good not the Mobo...
- Reinstalled the cables to the Optical drives...PC "Posts" properly
- Installed the HDD basket (holds 2-HDD's) and reinstalled cables...PC "Posts" properly
- Reinstalled cables to FDD...PC "Posts" properly
- Reinstalled the Sound Card...PC "Posts" properly
- Reinstalled the NIC Card...PC "Posts" properly

Well there is only one piece of hardware left...the USB 2.0 card...install card and PC hangs in BIOS as before...pull card PC boots. Install a spare USB 2.0 card and PC "Posts" properly...this time I let the PC fully boot in Windows WinXP.

Thanks to all that helped with their suggestions...

 

Nice productive procedure there Kent! Thanks for the update.

All the best, Dude