Problem starting or restarting

[Bill Eversole]

Hi,

I am working on an aging PC w/ AOpen AX34 Pro MB, 512 MB RAM, WD136AA
HD, Windows XP Home SP3.

When switching on PC or restarting PC from Windows, it fails to POST
or boot on first try. Power LED light comes on, but there is no
display or POST beep. Usually it will boot if reset button is pressed
after a failed start or restart.

So far I have swapped out video cards, hard drive, and power supply.
Nothing has helped.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Bill

 

[Bill Eversole]

Hi,

I am working on an aging PC w/ AOpen AX34 Pro MB, 512 MB RAM, WD136AA
HD, Windows XP Home SP3.

When switching on PC or restarting PC from Windows, it fails to POST
or boot on first try.  Power LED light comes on, but there is no
display or POST beep.  Usually it will boot if reset button is pressed
after a failed start or restart.

So far I have swapped out video cards, hard drive, and power supply.
Nothing has helped.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Bill

Update: While checking startups I noticed a new entry for
"KernelFaultCheck". This may be from the time I came back to the PC
after an extended time and found no display, but Power LED light still
on front of Case.

I consider this another clue, but still don't know what to check next.

Bill

 

[RobV]

Hi,

I am working on an aging PC w/ AOpen AX34 Pro MB, 512 MB RAM, WD136AA
HD, Windows XP Home SP3.

When switching on PC or restarting PC from Windows, it fails to POST
or boot on first try. Power LED light comes on, but there is no
display or POST beep. Usually it will boot if reset button is pressed
after a failed start or restart.

So far I have swapped out video cards, hard drive, and power supply.
Nothing has helped.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Bill

The MB may have bad electrolytic caps. When these go bad, on board
voltage regulation suffers and can cause problems such as you described.

Go to this web site and look at the pictures of bad caps, so you know
what to look for and carefully inspect the caps on your MB, especially
the tall ones around and near the CPU socket.
http://www.capacitorlab.com/visible-failures/index.htm

If you have even a single bad one, the MB is bad and must be replaced,
or repaired by installing new caps.

 

[jaster]

Hi,

I am working on an aging PC w/ AOpen AX34 Pro MB, 512 MB RAM, WD136AA
HD, Windows XP Home SP3.

When switching on PC or restarting PC from Windows, it fails to POST or
boot on first try. Power LED light comes on, but there is no display or
POST beep. Usually it will boot if reset button is pressed after a
failed start or restart.

So far I have swapped out video cards, hard drive, and power supply.
Nothing has helped.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Bill

My money is on the PSU, side bet video card.

 

[Bill Eversole]

My money is on the PSU,  side bet video card.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Both PSU and video cards were swapped out for new ones....no change

 

[jaster]

Both PSU and video cards were swapped out for new ones....no change

Hmmm, then have you tried Memtest86 or some other memory tester?

Also, are you sure peripherals are properly seated and connected, ie,
memory, ide drives?

 

[Bill Eversole]

Hmmm, then have you tried Memtest86 or some other memory tester?  

Also, are you sure peripherals are properly seated and connected, ie,
memory, ide drives?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I used Seagate Diagnostics which has a memory tester--no problems
found. Seated and reseated RAM--made no difference.

Have concluded the problem must be motherboard or CPU--moved HD and
RAM to an older motherboard & CPU w/ no problems so far.

Thanks for the replies.

Bill

 

[Paul]

I used Seagate Diagnostics which has a memory tester--no problems
found. Seated and reseated RAM--made no difference.

Have concluded the problem must be motherboard or CPU--moved HD and
RAM to an older motherboard & CPU w/ no problems so far.

Thanks for the replies.

Bill

About the only other option, would be a PCI port 80 POST
card. Some high end desktop boards, have one of those
two digit displays integrated on the motherboard. But
for the rest of us, it means buying a special PCI card.
The card installs into the first PCI slot.

The card function is pretty simple, and the BIOS is writing
to a known address, with a two digit hex value. As the BIOS
starts up, the value gets updated as each BIOS routine executes.

What would likely happen, is you'd buy one of those, for
$20 (Ebay via Hong Kong) to $100 (local computer store),
plug it in, and not see the display update at all in the
failure case. What that would mean, is the processor crashed
very early in the startup sequence. And then you'd have
no additional knowledge for the money spent.

One of those cards makes sense - if you can borrow one

Paul

 

[jaster]

I used Seagate Diagnostics which has a memory tester--no problems found.
Seated and reseated RAM--made no difference.

Have concluded the problem must be motherboard or CPU--moved HD and RAM
to an older motherboard & CPU w/ no problems so far.

Thanks for the replies.

Bill

Sometimes its still the PSU but you have an Aopen m/b so I agree with you
that its probably the m/b (doubt its the AMD or Intel cpu).

I recommend that you either buy a new system (Compaqs for $299, HPs for
$499) or at least a new motherboard/cpu combo for $50 and up plus 2G mem
for $30. Even for $50 the mb/cpu combo would be better than your current
system.