Small problem with PC, please help!!!

[luckyarcher]

Hello everyone!,
I have this peculiar problem, and I'll really appreciate it if someone could give me some insight into it..
My pc does not boot when I swirtch it on..I can hear the afns whirring, and the hard drive running, but there seems to be no POST or anything on the screen...Upon rebooting numerous times (atleast 25) it will somehow magically boot...and sometimes run for hours at an end..or just crash abruptly..I suspect it is a problem with the SMPS..SO I unplugged everything but the motherboard, and checked to see if it would post..same problem..My question is why does it boot after pressing the reboot button around 25times later?? There doesn't seem to be a problem with the AGP card either, its fans are also running, and so is the processors...But no display, do help me out...Thanks to all in advance...
Thanks,
Avinash

[cr3am]

I'm guessing you have Windows 98 (tip for the future: always say your OS) cuz the same thing happened to me. To fix this... throw out your computer, it's fucked. (that's what i did, and i saved my HDD btw)

[RAY16]

I had this problem on my old computer. When it happend to me, it was my motherboard messing up. It might be the same thing to for you. I know you said its not, but it could be your video card messing it up, i would double check even if you already checked. If its the same as what happened to me then you are probably going to have to get a new motherboard.

[Yian]

Does your motherboard make any beep when the thing starts up? If it doesn't, your motherboard has problems. I really don't think it's your operating system because it can't even post, so it has to be the motherboard. You might want to get a new one because there is really nothing you could do with a hardware failure...

You might want to give us more information on this, I'm not sure why it will "magically" boot up after numerous reboots, but the rpoblem is with the mo-bo, I'm almost certain...

[Rhenna]

Is this a rig you or someone else built from scratch? Or, a "factory" unit? Yian is correct that if you aren't getting any video, the OS isn't the culprit. Video is one of the functions that is initialized VERY early in the boot process. I'm thinking you have a power problem, perhaps an intermittent short. A good power supply will keep sending a 'RESET' signal to the CPU if a short is detected in an effort to protect the rest of the system. I've seen this happen even though the various fans and drive motors are getting 12V and are turning. Also, with the AC DISCONNECTED, try removing and reseating your video card and memory modules. Let us know how you did.

[Phoosh]

Really? cuz to me it sounds like the battery pack has gone, my dad's computers have had a couple go like that, symptoms sound similar.

[sushi128]

the signal rhenna is referring to is the 5v standby signal, and gets in the way a lot of times.

anyway, have you tried the simplest thing; resetting the CMOS? usually a jumper somewhere around the battery, or u could just pull the battery out for a bit (make sure to give enough time for everything to ground).

i've run into this problem many times, usually when in tweaking, but sometimes if i've just added new RAM.

[luckyarcher]

Hi everyone,
Thanks to all for their help...It doesn't seem to be a problem with the agp card...Yes I tried out removing the battery, resetting the CMOS and all...but the most intriguing aspect of all this is the motherboard makes no beeps at all, as if there exists no errors at all..My only respite would be to change the SMPS power supply, as I suppose some diodes must've have got shorted out. When the pc does finally boot, windows 98 does not show a failure in any of the motherboard devices..also, how would the pc finally boot if the mobo was damaged..I really have no clue when my pc finally "decides" to boot:-))
thanks,
Avinash

[RAY16]

I'm almost positive its the motherboard. My old mobo did the same thing, except it was even worse. I could press the power button all day, but it wouldn't turn on. Sometimes i had to wait a week before it decided to turn on. When it wasn't feeling like turning on it would have no beeps of any kind, nothing on the screen, and no HD activity... Nothing. I got a really cheap mobo that supported the CPU i was using before, pluged in all my stuff and it worked fine.


It could also be the video card. When i built the computer i'm using now, i used my old video card. And when i turned the computer on for the first time it didn't boot and i got no beeps and no video. I figured it was fried, so I removed the card and it booted fine and gave me the bios beep code for no video. It was preventing it from doing anything. Btw, it was a PCI GeForce 2 MX400 32Meg.

[Yian]

like GeFore2 "MX" with "32mb" isn't bad enough yet, they even make it for "PCI"....

[RAY16]

lol, yeah. I still only have a GeForce 4 MX440 64Meg DDR right now... I want a GeForce 3/Radeon 8500 or above so bad.... I need pixel shaders, hardware vertex shaders, and enviroment bumpmapping.....*Drools*....

[sushi128]

u want a geforce 3.....??? your geforce 4 MX is worth 50$....and a geforce 3 Ti200 is 71$ (pricewatch). so what's stoppin you? make the jump into DX8 land dude :D

[IkYiolul]

DX8? I had a DX8 card since I built my machine..

[RAY16]

Can't afford a better card right now, even if its $71. I am so broke right now.