What is going on here? Puter wont start....

[george41407]

This is a P3 700mhz computer. When it works, it works fine. The
problem is that it often wont boot up. First off, let me tell you
that I always boot to DOS. I have reasons for this, so it's
purposely. I have Windows 98se, which I can start by typing WIN.
The hard drives are fine, since they work fine in another computer.

Here's the problem. The computer works fine, I can shut it off and
reboot at anytime without problem. But after it's off all night, it
regularly will not start in the morning. The power light comes on,
the LEDs on the hard drives light and I can hear the fans and hear the
hard drives spin up. Yet, the computer wont do anything. My monitor
says "Video Error" when I first turn it on, or turn it on when its not
plugged into a computer. Well, I turn on the computer and monitor
from my power strip and that "video error" never goes away. Thus, no
signal is going to the monitor. Yet, there are no beep errors from
the pc speaker (speaker does work). (Monitor works any time on a
different computer).

With this in mind, it's not the monitor, not hard drives, and not
anything that would generate a beep error, (which I know bad or loose
memory would do). When this occurs, I have to shut off the power to
the computer and turn it back on. Often I have to do this 3, 4, or 5
times. Eventually the computer starts and runs fine after that. It
will continue to run fine until I shut it off again, and let it sit
overnight. I should mention that we have been having a hot weather
spell, and I dont have Air Con. It seems to do this more when the
house is the hottest. Once and awhile it just wont start at all, so I
have to use my other computer. Yet, hours later it works fine again.

What the heck is going on with this thing?

This is a homebuilt.

One other thing to mention, if this matters....
The power supply has a "run" line of brown sticky goo on the bottom of
it. Whether this means anything, or is just something that was
spilled into the case before I got it ?????
Someone told me that a bad capacitor could cause this goo.
Could that cause this starting problem?
I should mention that because I keep the case on it's side, that line
did not occur since I built this computer, because whatever made that
line could only have happened when the computer was standing up on
end, so it was already there, and this computer used to work fine all
the time when I first built it.

Can anyone make any sense of this?

Thanks

George

 

[Dave]

This is a P3 700mhz computer. When it works, it works fine. The
problem is that it often wont boot up. First off, let me tell you
that I always boot to DOS. I have reasons for this, so it's
purposely. I have Windows 98se, which I can start by typing WIN.
The hard drives are fine, since they work fine in another computer.

Here's the problem. The computer works fine, I can shut it off and
reboot at anytime without problem. But after it's off all night, it
regularly will not start in the morning. The power light comes on,
the LEDs on the hard drives light and I can hear the fans and hear the
hard drives spin up. Yet, the computer wont do anything. My monitor
says "Video Error" when I first turn it on, or turn it on when its not
plugged into a computer. Well, I turn on the computer and monitor
from my power strip and that "video error" never goes away. Thus, no
signal is going to the monitor. Yet, there are no beep errors from
the pc speaker (speaker does work). (Monitor works any time on a
different computer).

With this in mind, it's not the monitor, not hard drives, and not
anything that would generate a beep error, (which I know bad or loose
memory would do). When this occurs, I have to shut off the power to
the computer and turn it back on. Often I have to do this 3, 4, or 5
times. Eventually the computer starts and runs fine after that. It
will continue to run fine until I shut it off again, and let it sit
overnight. I should mention that we have been having a hot weather
spell, and I dont have Air Con. It seems to do this more when the
house is the hottest. Once and awhile it just wont start at all, so I
have to use my other computer. Yet, hours later it works fine again.

What the heck is going on with this thing?

This is a homebuilt.

One other thing to mention, if this matters....
The power supply has a "run" line of brown sticky goo on the bottom of
it. Whether this means anything, or is just something that was
spilled into the case before I got it ?????
Someone told me that a bad capacitor could cause this goo.
Could that cause this starting problem?
I should mention that because I keep the case on it's side, that line
did not occur since I built this computer, because whatever made that
line could only have happened when the computer was standing up on
end, so it was already there, and this computer used to work fine all
the time when I first built it.

Can anyone make any sense of this?

Thanks

George

You know the answer, bad power supply. Makes perfect sense as some
component is only running at a certain temperature. Hotter or colder, and
power supply won't allow computer to boot. -Dave

 

[ToolPackinMama]

This is a P3 700mhz computer. When it works, it works fine.

LOL

 

[Marcel Overweel]

This is a P3 700mhz computer. When it works, it works fine. The
problem is that it often wont boot up. First off, let me tell you
that I always boot to DOS. I have reasons for this, so it's
purposely. I have Windows 98se, which I can start by typing WIN.
The hard drives are fine, since they work fine in another computer.

Here's the problem. The computer works fine, I can shut it off and
reboot at anytime without problem. But after it's off all night, it
regularly will not start in the morning. The power light comes on,
the LEDs on the hard drives light and I can hear the fans and hear the
hard drives spin up. Yet, the computer wont do anything. My monitor
says "Video Error" when I first turn it on, or turn it on when its not
plugged into a computer. Well, I turn on the computer and monitor
from my power strip and that "video error" never goes away. Thus, no
signal is going to the monitor. Yet, there are no beep errors from
the pc speaker (speaker does work). (Monitor works any time on a
different computer).

With this in mind, it's not the monitor, not hard drives, and not
anything that would generate a beep error, (which I know bad or loose
memory would do). When this occurs, I have to shut off the power to
the computer and turn it back on. Often I have to do this 3, 4, or 5
times. Eventually the computer starts and runs fine after that. It
will continue to run fine until I shut it off again, and let it sit
overnight. I should mention that we have been having a hot weather
spell, and I dont have Air Con. It seems to do this more when the
house is the hottest. Once and awhile it just wont start at all, so I
have to use my other computer. Yet, hours later it works fine again.

What the heck is going on with this thing?

This is a homebuilt.

One other thing to mention, if this matters....
The power supply has a "run" line of brown sticky goo on the bottom of
it. Whether this means anything, or is just something that was
spilled into the case before I got it ?????
Someone told me that a bad capacitor could cause this goo.
Could that cause this starting problem?
I should mention that because I keep the case on it's side, that line
did not occur since I built this computer, because whatever made that
line could only have happened when the computer was standing up on
end, so it was already there, and this computer used to work fine all
the time when I first built it.

Can anyone make any sense of this?

Thanks

George

As Dave said.
I've seen the reverse, the colder it got, the more time it took to start a
system.
Powersupply gone bad. A new one solved the problem.

In your case, it could be a blown capacitor.
I've watched a video of a capacitor going nova in slow motion, bad ugly
things

And are you sure the cpu fan is working correctly?
I've had a computer which turned off repeatedly less then two seconds after
a cold start.
In that case, the cpu fan wouldn't start quickly enough and the mobo's fan
monitor kicked in before the fan fully started.
The result: a shutdown of the system before the monitor would power up.
Somehow, after a few tries, the system started and everyting seemed to work
just fine.
After a good workout with a vacuum cleaner, the problem never appeared
again.. so far....

Hope this helps.

regards,
Marcel