PC Fails to boot on first attempt

[Guest]

Please help. My new PC fails to start when I press the power button. I have to press the refresh button maybe once or a few times before it will boot up. The PC is new, with new PSU, motherboard, chip etc. I read that it could be my hard drive failing to bot up? Other than that, once I'm into Windows XP the PC works fine. I'm just a little curious as to why it won't boot up on first attempt. Any ideas??

 

[David Candy]

It shows something is faulty. Maybe the hard drive but could be any part. Take it back while its under warranty.

 

[Guest]

I built the pc myself. Everything is new apart from HD, cd rom and writer. The writer was sent back to manufacturer. Its is in full working order. Could be HD or CD rom??

 

[Malke]

Please help. My new PC fails to start when I press the power button. I
have to press the refresh button maybe once or a few times before it
will boot up. The PC is new, with new PSU, motherboard, chip etc. I
read that it could be my hard drive failing to bot up? Other than
that, once I'm into Windows XP the PC works fine. I'm just a little
curious as to why it won't boot up on first attempt. Any ideas??

This is a classic symptom of a failing power supply. The power supply
can't provide enough juice to get the hard drive spinning on the first
startup. When restarted, the momentum of the drive gets it going. Just
because the hardware is new doesn't mean it can't fail. If the power
supply is not the culprit, then yes, your hard drive could be bad. You
can download a diagnostic utility from the mftr.'s website to test.

Malke

 

[David Candy]

Unplug it and see. Could be any part. Depending on cause and component you may be about to fail or it may work as is forever.

 

[Guest]

I was told that it could be the power supply. It was upgraded from 350watt to 450watt. What power should I be looking at?

 

[Grant]

Please help. My new PC fails to start when I press the power button. I have to

press the refresh button maybe once or a few times before it will boot up. The
PC is new, with new PSU, motherboard, chip etc. I read that it could be my hard
drive failing to bot up? Other than that, once I'm into Windows XP the PC works
fine. I'm just a little curious as to why it won't boot up on first attempt. Any
ideas??

Does it give you an error or anything when it fails?

If it is the hard drive, can you hear your hard drive spin up? Does it finish
spinning up before or after the autodetection part, where it lists all your
drives?

I have had this problem with older, slower hard drives. It is probably not a
problem with the power supply. The hard drive just takes too long to start.
Try going into the bios, and disabling "fast post" or fast memory test, to give
your drive a few more seconds to start up.

 

[Guest]

No there are errors when it fails to start except my monitor going off and the pc becomes idle. The power light is still on though. I'm not sure. The monitor goes off before I can see the list of auto dectected items. I will try resetting at the bios. Thanks

 

[Foopy]

Have you flashed the BIOS on the new motherboard?

Foopy

 

[Guest]

no I haven't. Its a new motherboard...on a couple of weeks old. Surely, I do not need to do this on such a new motherboard. Its a Elitegroup K7VMM+. The reason why I'm not flashing the motherboard is because the same thing was happening to my old motherboard and when I flash it....it made no difference. Therefore, that may not be the case. I have disabled the quick boot as suggested by another member (previous reply)....and I think its working okay...for the moment!!! Fingers crossed. My HD is a Hitachi Deskstar 80gig. Maybe its an older type. Thanks a million for all the suggestions.