Problem Booting Up Computer

[George]

I was replacing a hard drive and was reinstalling all of the software.
The computer is a HP Pavillion 9720 with Windows ME. The motherboard
is an ASUS A7V-VM. Anyway everything was going fine until I was
loading the 2nd disk of Office 2000. (Didn't realize that it wasn't
needed.) The disk would load about a quarter of the way and hang. I
cancelled and reinserted the disk 3 times with the same result. The
3rd time though I didn't canel and just opened the CD 'Rom. This
caused a blue screen error telling me to replace the disk and press ok.
I did this a couple of times but everytime I clicked ok the CD tray
reopened. Finally I just manually shut the system down. Now when I
try to reboot the system, it hangs at the HP logo screen. I have
repeatedly tried to get to the BIOS screen, but nothing happens. I
have disconnected all of the drives and removed the memory and rebooted
and I get 3 beeps which tells me the motherboard is ok. If anyone has
any suggestions on what else to try, I would appreciate it.

George

 

[Chris Stolworthy]

I was replacing a hard drive and was reinstalling all of the software.
The computer is a HP Pavillion 9720 with Windows ME. The motherboard
is an ASUS A7V-VM. Anyway everything was going fine until I was
loading the 2nd disk of Office 2000. (Didn't realize that it wasn't
needed.) The disk would load about a quarter of the way and hang. I
cancelled and reinserted the disk 3 times with the same result. The
3rd time though I didn't canel and just opened the CD 'Rom. This
caused a blue screen error telling me to replace the disk and press ok.
I did this a couple of times but everytime I clicked ok the CD tray
reopened. Finally I just manually shut the system down. Now when I
try to reboot the system, it hangs at the HP logo screen. I have
repeatedly tried to get to the BIOS screen, but nothing happens. I
have disconnected all of the drives and removed the memory and rebooted
and I get 3 beeps which tells me the motherboard is ok. If anyone has
any suggestions on what else to try, I would appreciate it.

George

Try removing the CMOS battery then booting. Or if your board has it, set
jumpers to "Clear BIOS". THen set it back to normal. This will reset all of
the defaults in the BIOS.

 

[kony]

I was replacing a hard drive and was reinstalling all of the software.
The computer is a HP Pavillion 9720 with Windows ME. The motherboard
is an ASUS A7V-VM. Anyway everything was going fine until I was
loading the 2nd disk of Office 2000. (Didn't realize that it wasn't
needed.) The disk would load about a quarter of the way and hang. I
cancelled and reinserted the disk 3 times with the same result. The
3rd time though I didn't canel and just opened the CD 'Rom. This
caused a blue screen error telling me to replace the disk and press ok.
I did this a couple of times but everytime I clicked ok the CD tray
reopened. Finally I just manually shut the system down. Now when I
try to reboot the system, it hangs at the HP logo screen. I have
repeatedly tried to get to the BIOS screen, but nothing happens. I
have disconnected all of the drives and removed the memory and rebooted
and I get 3 beeps which tells me the motherboard is ok. If anyone has
any suggestions on what else to try, I would appreciate it.

When you write that it's hanging at the HP logo screen is it
reasonable to assume it is already started loading windows
and windows hung?

If so, try booting to safe mode and uninstalling Office
2000, then reboot in regular mode.

If you mean that windows isn't trying to boot at all and
that it won't enter the bios menu (and you are 100% sure you
were able to enter the menu exact same way, pressing same
key and with the exact timing of when you press the key-
sometimes you have to be doing it very quickly, soon after
powering on) then it would seem the Office disc issue is
just coincidence, then you should clear CMOS as Chris
mentioned, and if it isn't enough, check the battery.

On the outside chance your optical drive has failed, you
might want to unplug it temporarily, and if it was on the
same cable as another drive, be sure the jumpers for
master/slave are then correct.

 

[George]

Windows is not loading at all. I disconnected all of the drives to see
if I could get to the BIOS, but that didn't work. I did reconnect the
hard drive to see if it even starts to spin when I boot up and it does.
I have taken the CMOS battery out and left it out for about 2 hours
before replacing it, but I have not tried to boot the computer without
the battery. I will try that. This motherboard does not have CMOS
jumpers, but the documentation says to take a small screwdriver and
place it across solder joints 2 and 3 to clear CMOS. It then says to
reboot the computer. Not sure if it means to leave the screwdriver
there or take it off before rebooting. That's one I will save to the
end. Not too happy about shorting somthing out in my computer.

I appreciate the suggestions. I am going to try them all before I give
up on this.

Thanks,

George

 

[Rod Speed]

Windows is not loading at all. I disconnected all of the drives to
see if I could get to the BIOS, but that didn't work. I did
reconnect the hard drive to see if it even starts to spin when I boot
up and it does. I have taken the CMOS battery out and left it out for
about 2 hours before replacing it, but I have not tried to boot the
computer without the battery. I will try that. This motherboard
does not have CMOS jumpers, but the documentation says to take a
small screwdriver and place it across solder joints 2 and 3 to clear
CMOS. It then says to reboot the computer. Not sure if it means
to leave the screwdriver there or take it off before rebooting.

Take it off before booting.

That's one I will save to the end. Not too happy
about shorting somthing out in my computer.

Its just connecting a pair of pins. You can use a
jumper of you have one available, if only temporarily.

 

[kony]

Windows is not loading at all. I disconnected all of the drives to see
if I could get to the BIOS, but that didn't work. I did reconnect the
hard drive to see if it even starts to spin when I boot up and it does.
I have taken the CMOS battery out and left it out for about 2 hours
before replacing it, but I have not tried to boot the computer without
the battery. I will try that. This motherboard does not have CMOS
jumpers, but the documentation says to take a small screwdriver and
place it across solder joints 2 and 3 to clear CMOS. It then says to
reboot the computer. Not sure if it means to leave the screwdriver
there or take it off before rebooting. That's one I will save to the
end. Not too happy about shorting somthing out in my computer.

Unplug the computer from AC. Pull the battery (and take
it's voltage reading if you have a multimeter), use the
screwdriver tip to short these two solder ball points, cease
shorting them (only has to happen for a moment) and then put
the battery back in, plug AC back in, and start up the
system.

If the system still won't get into the bios, disconnect all
nonessential things like the drives (again), and any other
nonessential parts including mouse and any USB items (in
case they're running off 5VSB, the PSU may have this
subcircuit failing.

If all else fails I'd suspect the board or PSU is dying but
we haven't quite gotten to this conclusion yet.

 

[therover]

I was replacing a hard drive and was reinstalling all of the software.
The computer is a HP Pavillion 9720 with Windows ME. The motherboard
is an ASUS A7V-VM. Anyway everything was going fine until I was
loading the 2nd disk of Office 2000. (Didn't realize that it wasn't
needed.) The disk would load about a quarter of the way and hang. I
cancelled and reinserted the disk 3 times with the same result. The
3rd time though I didn't canel and just opened the CD 'Rom. This
caused a blue screen error telling me to replace the disk and press ok.
I did this a couple of times but everytime I clicked ok the CD tray
reopened. Finally I just manually shut the system down. Now when I
try to reboot the system, it hangs at the HP logo screen. I have
repeatedly tried to get to the BIOS screen, but nothing happens. I
have disconnected all of the drives and removed the memory and rebooted
and I get 3 beeps which tells me the motherboard is ok. If anyone has
any suggestions on what else to try, I would appreciate it.

George

3 Beeps is usually a memory problem, but not necessarily system ram. I
could be the CPU cache or even the ram on the Graphics Card. If there
is more than one stick of ram inside the system remove them
individually and see if the problem goes away. You can also download a
free memory tester from www.goldmemory.cz

Try removing all non-essential hardware (ie. all PCI cards) If you have
a separate graphics card remove that and use the on-board VGA on the
A7M-VM. Also unplug all hard drives, optical drives and floppy drive.

After all of this if you still get three beeps you have narrowed the
fault down to the motherboard, processsor or power supply, with the
motherboard or processor being the most likely culprits.

 

[George]

I had read about devices attached to USB ports as a possible problem,
so I disconnected the mouse and the system came up. So now it will not
boot if the mouse is attached, but the mouse works after it boots. And
the system will not turn off. At least I am getting somewhere. Thanks
again for all the help.

George

 

[kony]

I had read about devices attached to USB ports as a possible problem,
so I disconnected the mouse and the system came up. So now it will not
boot if the mouse is attached, but the mouse works after it boots. And
the system will not turn off. At least I am getting somewhere. Thanks
again for all the help.

George

I would suspect a PSU problem. Take voltage readings
(particularly 5VSB) if you have a multimeter. I suppose
there's an off chance your mouse has some problem resulting
in it drawing excess current but it doesn't seem so likely-
even so I'd try another mouse if you had one lying around,
and/or that mouse on another system. Otherwise I'd look at
replacing the PSU.

While you have the system open, inspect the capacitors -
some people have had theirs fail, notibly the small yellow
fujitsu on the CPU VRM riser (if I'm thinking of the correct
board which I think I am as I have an Asus A7V-VM that I
pulled out of an old HP something-or-other, but on similar
Asus boards they didn't always use the riser for the VRM
subcircuit.

I had upgraded the CPU in that board to an Athlon XP2400,
but never built the combo into a working system because
while running that CPU the aforementioned capacitors ran way
too hot for my liking, I didn't think it'd last long term.
Meant to swap in some better capacitors as I had a spare GB
or two of PC133 memory I could've put to use, but so many
parts, so little time...

Anyway if your capacitors are already bulging or vented,
that could produce the failure to startup problem
too/instead, but I wouldn't think it effected by whether a
mouse was plugged in.