**FIXED!!!** Computer won't boot. :(

[Cyn]

So I just did a full reinstall of Windows on my now 4 year old comp. Running a P4 2.4c processor, with this motherboard. 2gb of PC2700 RAM running in dual channel, ATI 128mb 9700-np video card.

Everything went great with the reinstall. Installed all the newest drivers for my mobo, vid card, sound card and wireless pci card. After I got Windows loaded up properly I've been playing games on it for the past 2 days just great. But I woke up this morning to a computer that won't boot.

I didn't have much time to mess around with it (ie. entering bios to see if it was identifying the hard drive). But basically it loads bios, scans all the drives, checks to boot from the IDE drives, and then JUST before it shows the Windows loading bar screen, it power cycles, and loads bios again, etc, continually.

I figure it wouldn't be vid card, mobo or RAM, because it still loads bios ok and I can see it fine on the monitor, but isn't it right when the Windows loading bar screen appears the loading takes place on the hard drive rather than the RAM? I should also add I have suspected my hard drive to be the source of a pretty funky series of noises during booting for the past 2 years, hah. But it may have finally just crapped out.

What do you guys think? Is there something else I should suspect before the hard drive in this case?

Also I'm considering just buying a SATA drive (this one) to replace it if the hard drive is the problem, but am inexperienced with SATA and wanted opinions to make sure the new drive would be backwards compatible with my IS7 motherboard?

Thanks!

 

[Oyeve]

Have you tried safe mode?

 

[Cyn]

I have not. I tried hiting delete during the loading (in the 60 secs I had to mess around with it, was running late to work) but I couldn't get into the soft menu to see if it was identifying the hard drive ok.

 

[Oyeve]

Try safe mode and see if that works. And do a system restore to a time that you know it last worked.

 

[NotQuiteAPCGuru]

Did you do anything different before you went to bed? Standard "What's changed from the time it was working properly until now" question. Did you notice anything different when it was shutting down that particular time?

 

[Cyn]

Nope, I had just been playing some Warcraft, then literally logged straight off until this morning when I went to check traffic. Shut down wen the same as it had the previous two nights.

 

[Modular]

Time for a new PSU.

My friend built a system with an el-cheapo PSU and after a few months, the computer was doing the exact same thing that you are describing. New PSU and all is well.

 

[amdskip]

Either your power supply is shot/cheapie or your motherboard has bad capacitors. Check out http://www.badcaps.com for pictures.

 

[Cyn]

Really? Power supply would do it eh? Load bios and all that but when it tries to load Windows the PSU gives out? I bought a pretty darn nice Antec case, came with an Antec 430W PSU, but I guess after 4 years it could have given out. I may have to look into that as well, thanks!

 

[Jiggz]

Press F8 when you see Win logo and then choose last known working configuration. If it still does not boot, then try again in Safe Mode. If it still does not boot try another PSU. If it boots at Safe Mode, then it could just be a corrupted driver. Use restore to repair. But if it still would not boot after restore, try another PSU. Usually with a bad hdd, you will get a prompt of Invalid Boot Disk during boot up!

 

[Cyn]

Well when I got home I checked the bios to see what was loading, the the HD was not listed, so I went and bought a new one. Came home, installed it, was now prompted that a new boot drive was detected and to set the parameters in CMOS. No matter what I press, Delete, any of the F1-F12 I cannot get into CMOS. So, I reset CMOS by taking the little battery out for about 5 mins (this was suggested by a "computer friend of mine) and it said CMOS defaults restored. It identifies the HD as the primary master now, but I am still at the same problem, it will not let me access any CMOS menus of any kind, it just hangs on the bios screen saying the CMOS defaults were loaded. (It instructs to press F1 or Delete or whatever, but no go).

I've noticed a perpetual buzzing/humming noise coming from the Power On, Reset button, LED area on the front of the case. At first I thought it may have been a drive (CD-burner, 3.5" floppy) but after unplugging those the buzz remains. There aren't really any other components there that I can tell, what else could this problem be? Based on my above troubleshooting might it still be the PSU? /bangs-head

 

[Cyn]

bump to another day without a computer.

Gonna tear everything out right now and start with bare minimum to see if I can isolate an issue. I hope it's not just the mobo, because, that'd make it hard to tell from the start.

 

[Ken90630]

If you're interested, PCPowerCooling.com and CompUSSR both sell PSU testers for about $10--$15. They're just little things about the size of a USB jump drive and are ridiculously easy to use. You can test your PSU in about a minute. I bought one awhile back (got the one from CompUSSR) and luckily haven't had to use it yet, but I figure it's something good to have on hand in case I do need it someday.

Just FYI.

 

[Jiggz]

Go back to basics, strip it down to minimum so you can isolate the problem. There are only two suspects in here, PSU and mobo. Let us know what you found out.

 

[Cyn]

Well, did exactly that. Went to bed last night having been told by a friend to just start with absolutely nothing, with plans to do just that today.

Took everything out and apart, cleaned all the dust out (quite a bit considering some of these areas have gone 4 years without a severe cleaning), and started with mobo, cpu, hd, psu and vid card. Booted it up, and was somehow able to enter keystrokes again. Went into CMOS, checked everything to make sure it was fine, saved and exited, BAM, I was in Windows in 20 secs.

Added pcs one at a time, until where I am at now, with absolutely everything plugged back in successfully. Except one thing, which was the 3.5" floppy I decided not to hook back up, because I have absolutely no need for it. I'm thinking that may have been the culprit, as the floppy was first on my boot sequence when I looked in CMOS, so I've no idea. At this point, maybe it was a bit of dust in the wrong place, or too many of the outputs from the psu being used (I was able to consolidate the fans to use less), or something else I cannot determine.

So, thank you to the Anandtech community, and I hope to be up and running for a while longer before upgrading to a Dual Core system.