Unexpected Pause at POST screen

[Jake]

I have a dell Dimension 8300. I noticed yesterday when I turned it on It
came to the dell logo where the white progress bar is. This must be the
POST. Where the motherboard checks itself out. The progress bar stuck
about half way. The computer froze. Then I turned it off and on and it
done the same thing. A final time I turned it off and on it worked normally.
And my computer continued to load.

I have switched my computer on and off a few times since then. it has
loaded normally.

This has only happened once. I have had my computer for about a year and
nothing like this has happened before. I thought I better ask some advice
to see if this is a problem rearing its ugly head. What could be happening?

Jake



--

"Today I saw a little worm
Wriggling on his belly.
Perhaps he'd like to come inside
And see what's on the Telly."
Spike Milligan

 

[R. McCarty]

Most BIOS have a function called ESCD (Extended System
Configuration Data) that from time to time gets updated. This
is possibly what has occurred during those boots.

 

[Jake]

Ah ok... So its just a normal function and nothing to worry about? I didnt
know this ESCD gets updated. What exactly is it? How does it work?

--

"Today I saw a little worm
Wriggling on his belly.
Perhaps he'd like to come inside
And see what's on the Telly."
Spike Milligan

 

[R. McCarty]

I'm assuming from your description that ESCD is the cause.
A short explanation here:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/pci4.htm
-or-
Just Google for ESCD, lot's of web sites have details.

 

[Jake]

Yeh sounds like it. I recently changed my Bios Settings back to their
orginal configuration. I have a cd-rom drive and a dvd-rw drive. The
orginal config was the CD boots first then DVD. I was reinstalling windows
and for a quicker install I tried to boot from the DVD and it didnt work. So
in the BIOS I switched off the CD drive and left the DVD. I left it like
this for a few weeks (the cd drive still worked in windows, but i couldnt
boot a windows install cd off it) And a few days ago I went into the bios
and changed it back to the orginal setting so that the CD boots first.
Could this have anything to do with it. The BIOS detecting the change in
configuration and righting any settings it had.


--

"Today I saw a little worm
Wriggling on his belly.
Perhaps he'd like to come inside
And see what's on the Telly."
Spike Milligan