Win XP Pro : Computer will not restart! Any Ideas?

[andy]

Hi folks,

Upgrading a PC for a friend :-

Chaintech MoBo CT-9VJL5
Pentium 4 3.0Ghz
512 MB RAM
AOPEN PA300Plus AGP 4x VGA
Quantum Fireball 20GB HDD
Windows XP Pro

This setup works great from start-up (i.e.: when you turn the power on)
and when you turn it off, all is well and fine.

But it will not Restart!

If you choose restart from the shut down dialog it powers down and then
after a brief pause you can hear the disks spin up to speed and then...

Beeeeep! (for about 10 seconds)

....and nothing else, no video, not even the BIOS display, nothing except
10 second beeps with a short interval in between them!

According to the BIOS beep codes (Phoenix Award Modular V6) one long
beep means either a faulty or incorrectly seated VGA card or a possible
problem with the memory.

The memory chip checks out OK. No probs.

I've tried swapping the VGA card for other makes and models (including
PCI ones). No change.

I've tried disconnecting the oldish CD Drive and brand new DVD Writer.
No change.

Faulty MoBo perhaps?

Any other ideas folks?

Thanks for reading.

 

[Bruce J. Weiers]

I worked with a Chaintech board, recently, which had various startup
options implemented with a combination of BIOS settings and on-board
jumpers. There was, for example, both a jumper and a BIOS setting for
starting the PC from a keyboard hot-key. There was a jumper for each
USB controller -- if you wanted the machine to come out of standby in
response to a USB device (e.g. a mouse), you had to set the jumper, and
a BIOS setting.

I would review the Power Management settings very carefully, and examine
again how the power and reset switches were connected to the
motherboard, look at the BIOS settings for temp and fan monitoring, make
sure that CPU and any other MOBO fans were connected in the correct
places, and look at the jumpers mentioned above, if they exist. And
review any other MOBO connections -- such as USB and Firewire and sound
card I/O. (I once had a similar problem, which resulted from improperly
grounding the case front sound I/O.)

With any problem, it is always a good idea to check Chaintech for a BIOS
update, of course, and to test for the problem with the BIOS settings
reset to default and "safe". I kind of presume you have done that, and
that you have "minimized" the setup -- pulling the
USB/Firewire/CD/floppy/etc. connections -- leaving only the videocard
and HD.

Get real methodical.