Help! Computer won't boot

[Amaranth]

Hello,

I have a computer with an Asus P5ND2-SLI motherboard, an Intel D 805
2x2.66GHz CPU, a XFX 9600 GSO graphics card and 3GB RAM. Recently, it
started freezing, especially during games. The freezes were
particularly bad and very sudden, it just froze (Ctrl-Alt-Del didn't
work) and the only way to get rid of them was to hit the reset button.

I checked the hard drive partitions and some of them were corrupted;
as such I reinstalled Windows on a new hard drive. This didn't cure
the freezes.

Last night, the computer froze while I was playing a very old game
(1998) and I haven't been able to get past the BIOS greeting page
since...I am just left with a black screen.

I burnt a Memtest CD on another computer and then ran Memtest on my
RAM, which turned out to be OK.

I replaced my XFX 9600 GSO graphics card with an old 6200 SE one lying
around, but I can still only get past the BIOS screen to be greeted by
a black screen and non-responsive computer.

So it isn't the hard drive, RAM or graphics card. What else could it
be? If it was the mobo or CPU, shouldn't it not put up the BIOS screen
at all?

Thanks.

 

[Amaranth]

I should also add that the computer doesn't use any of its PCI/PCIe
slots other than for the graphics card.

 

[Paul]

Hello,

I have a computer with an Asus P5ND2-SLI motherboard, an Intel D 805
2x2.66GHz CPU, a XFX 9600 GSO graphics card and 3GB RAM. Recently, it
started freezing, especially during games. The freezes were
particularly bad and very sudden, it just froze (Ctrl-Alt-Del didn't
work) and the only way to get rid of them was to hit the reset button.

I checked the hard drive partitions and some of them were corrupted;
as such I reinstalled Windows on a new hard drive. This didn't cure
the freezes.

Last night, the computer froze while I was playing a very old game
(1998) and I haven't been able to get past the BIOS greeting page
since...I am just left with a black screen.

I burnt a Memtest CD on another computer and then ran Memtest on my
RAM, which turned out to be OK.

I replaced my XFX 9600 GSO graphics card with an old 6200 SE one lying
around, but I can still only get past the BIOS screen to be greeted by
a black screen and non-responsive computer.

So it isn't the hard drive, RAM or graphics card. What else could it
be? If it was the mobo or CPU, shouldn't it not put up the BIOS screen
at all?

Thanks.

When switching from the 9600 GSO, to the 6200, remove the 9600 GSO driver,
shut down the computer, and then swap cards. Then, install a fresh driver
for the 6200 when it is installed.

You should do some testing with Prime95. This will test your memory
and your CPU. No errors are acceptable. If this will run for four
hours, without detecting an error, then chances are the problem is
more with your video card.

http://majorgeeks.com/Prime95_d4363.html

After you've finished your Prime95 run while using the 6200 with
a fresh driver install, you can go back to gaming tests. If the
computer still freezes, it could be a motherboard issue (assuming
the 6200 is OK). Another possibility is the power supply or Vcore
regulator, because some people like to overclock their D 805 processors
to a high overclock, and that draws a lot of power. Enough to
overheat the Vcore MOSFETs for example.

Paul

 

[Amaranth]

When switching from the 9600 GSO, to the 6200, remove the 9600 GSO driver,
shut down the computer, and then swap cards. Then, install a fresh driver
for the 6200 when it is installed.

You should do some testing with Prime95. This will test your memory
and your CPU. No errors are acceptable. If this will run for four
hours, without detecting an error, then chances are the problem is
more with your video card.

http://majorgeeks.com/Prime95_d4363.html

After you've finished your Prime95 run while using the 6200 with
a fresh driver install, you can go back to gaming tests. If the
computer still freezes, it could be a motherboard issue (assuming
the 6200 is OK). Another possibility is the power supply or Vcore
regulator, because some people like to overclock their D 805 processors
to a high overclock, and that draws a lot of power. Enough to
overheat the Vcore MOSFETs for example.

Paul

Hi Paul, thanks for your advice. Since the bad freeze last night, I
can't get into Windows anymore (it was only after this that I swapped
graphics cards). It doesn't even hit the bootloader for me to select
Windows/Linux. It only gets past the BIOS welcome screen.

I was still able to do Memtest on it from a boot CD though.

 

[Paul]

Hi Paul, thanks for your advice. Since the bad freeze last night, I
can't get into Windows anymore (it was only after this that I swapped
graphics cards). It doesn't even hit the bootloader for me to select
Windows/Linux. It only gets past the BIOS welcome screen.

I was still able to do Memtest on it from a boot CD though.

So the bootloader is corrupted maybe ?

If you can boot from a CD, you could boot a Knoppix LiveCD and
run Linux that way.

Also, you could try something like TestDisk as a means to
check the partitions and the like. I think there is even
a copy of TestDisk on one of my Linux CDs, so you can
run it while in Linux.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

I've used that tool, to put an MBR back on a hard drive,
when a Linux installer removed it. But be careful with it.
And at least in the Linux version, if you want to
quit at any time, press "control-C". The designer
of TestDisk could use some training about user
interface design. There should be some "Quit" items
in the interface, to make people more comfortable
with the tool.

Paul

 

[Amaranth]

So the bootloader is corrupted maybe ?

If you can boot from a CD, you could boot a Knoppix LiveCD and
run Linux that way.

Also, you could try something like TestDisk as a means to
check the partitions and the like. I think there is even
a copy of TestDisk on one of my Linux CDs, so you can
run it while in Linux.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

I've used that tool, to put an MBR back on a hard drive,
when a Linux installer removed it. But be careful with it.
And at least in the Linux version, if you want to
quit at any time, press "control-C". The designer
of TestDisk could use some training about user
interface design. There should be some "Quit" items
in the interface, to make people more comfortable
with the tool.

Paul

I don't think it is the bootloader because I've booted maybe 5 times
on this freshly installed hard drive. The bootloader wouldn't be
responsible for system freezes anyway, although the freezes may have
corrupted it (unlikely, I think).

I'm not sure if this is relevant but in Memtest v3.6 with beta dual
core support, it froze there too. When I used single core mode, it
tested fine.

Could my second CPU core have gone?

 

[Paul]

I don't think it is the bootloader because I've booted maybe 5 times
on this freshly installed hard drive. The bootloader wouldn't be
responsible for system freezes anyway, although the freezes may have
corrupted it (unlikely, I think).

I'm not sure if this is relevant but in Memtest v3.6 with beta dual
core support, it froze there too. When I used single core mode, it
tested fine.

Could my second CPU core have gone?

You say you can boot Linux. Do two "Penguin Icons" appear
at the beginning of boot ? That shows two cores are present.
You can even run Prime95 under Linux if you want. Mersenne.org
has downloads.

Also, the P5ND2-SLI needs BIOS 0601 or later, to run the D 805.
What BIOS version are you using ?

http://support.asus.com.tw/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5ND2-SLI

Paul

 

[Amaranth]

You say you can boot Linux. Do two "Penguin Icons" appear
at the beginning of boot ? That shows two cores are present.
You can even run Prime95 under Linux if you want. Mersenne.org
has downloads.

Also, the P5ND2-SLI needs BIOS 0601 or later, to run the D 805.
What BIOS version are you using ?

http://support.asus.com.tw/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us...

Paul

Hi Paul,

I have a dual boot setup but can't get into Linux either. A Linux
install DVD is recognised but the system halts once I select "Boot
from Hard Disk". Memtest's ISO was burnt on another computer.

You may be right that it is the hard drive; I took out a hard drive
from another computer and was able to get into Windows this time. I'm
re-installing Windows on another hard drive and hopefully things will
be OK now. Most curious that two hard drives would fail in as many
days, although they were old (but previously working) ones.

I'm not sure what BIOS version I'm using (currently in the middle of a
Windows reinstall) but I've used this setup for about 2-3 years
already.

 

[Paul]

Hi Paul,

I have a dual boot setup but can't get into Linux either. A Linux
install DVD is recognised but the system halts once I select "Boot
from Hard Disk". Memtest's ISO was burnt on another computer.

You may be right that it is the hard drive; I took out a hard drive
from another computer and was able to get into Windows this time. I'm
re-installing Windows on another hard drive and hopefully things will
be OK now. Most curious that two hard drives would fail in as many
days, although they were old (but previously working) ones.

I'm not sure what BIOS version I'm using (currently in the middle of a
Windows reinstall) but I've used this setup for about 2-3 years
already.

My Knoppix CD is a LiveCD version of Linux. It boots without
needing a hard drive to run. (You say your CD is working, so
the Knoppix CD should work.) I use it for doing maintenance
on hard drives. As long as the hard drive doesn't interfere with
the starting of the computer, I could boot from Knoppix.
Another LiveCD is the one for Ubuntu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livecd

Various versions of Knoppix can be found on the mirrors page.

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/

There is a version table here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoppix

Version Date CD DVD
--------------------- ---------------- --- ---
5.1.1 4 January 2007 Yes Yes
5.2 CeBIT-Version March 2007 No Yes
5.3 CeBIT-Version 12 February 2008 No Yes
5.3.1 26 March 2008 No Yes
6.0.0 28 January 2009 Yes No
6.0.1 8 February 2009 Yes No
6.1 CeBIT-Version TBA ? Yes

One problem with the versions, is picking a nice one for
repairing NTFS partitions. If you go back far enough, the
kernel on the CD may not have the best version of NTFS
file system handling (if you need to copy files to the
hard drive). On the other hand, not all the latest versions
have nice interfaces. I use 5.3.1, but it is the DVD version,
and a very large download (4GB+). You have to be careful handling
that one, because if the file system you download to, must
be able to handle a greater than 4GB file. When I downloaded
it, I couldn't use a FAT32 volume. (Choices for a download
volume would be NTFS or EXT2 etc.)

6.0.0 or 6.0.1 don't use KDE desktop. They use a new desktop, which
isn't as nice graphically. You can still work on your hard drives
with it though, so that version would be a choice if you want to
try it. The ISO9660 file for those, should be on one of the mirror
sites. 6.0.1 is 660558 KB, so fits on a CD.

KNOPPIX_V6.0.1CD-2009-02-08-EN.iso (This is the last one I downloaded.)

Paul