crazy start up

[Punkychan]

lately my pc has been very funny whenever I start it up.It either goes to BIOS flash or refuse to start up unless I press the start button to reboot a few times.I've checked the hardwares and all are okay and tight, ram cards are intact and even did e fresh install 2 weeks ago...can you tell what's the problem ??

 

[American Zombie]

Kinda need more info.

Are you saying you get an error during POST?

 

[Punkychan]

no error . but when I start the screen show the BIOS , then I have to press F10 on the keyboard to 'save and exit the BIOS ' or sometimes even worse I have to 'pretend' I change the settings then back to normal > prees F10 > it starts normally.I I just 'exit BIOS' it won't start at all and the screen will show the BIOS again.

 

[American Zombie]

If you are getting kicked into bios during POST then the bios is detecting some kind of error. If you have a full screen logo that appears instead of seeing POST messages then try turning it off so you can see the POST messages and maybe see the error.

Have you run any tests on the ram?

If not then try a few passes with Memtest.

If that comes out clean then maybe the CPU is overheating.

Would help to know make/model of motherboard if you know what it is.

 

[Punkychan]

Haven't run the memtest yet.Will it do any good ? motherboard : Biostar M7ViW Via KT 266 chipset but I went through their website maybe no more in production.Cpu Athlon XP 2.4

 

[American Zombie]

Run memtest so we can say the ram is ok and eliminate it as a cause of this.

Is your board the M7ViW or the M7ViW-D?

 

[Hipster Doofus]

No stuck keys on the keyboard. Sound like the DEL key is stuck or something like that.

Was it doing it before you reinstalled?

 

[bush dogg]

Yep as the others said check the memory, keyboard for stuck keys and replace the battery on the board I've seen the battery do some strange things.

 

[Punkychan]

No stuck keys on the keyboard , changed the battery this morning and it did a few times before I re installed (one of the reason why I did a reinstall )

 

[Mastershakes]

No one has mentioned it yet, but the few BIOS issues I've encountered, I've flashed it up to the latest version, or flashed it down, then back up to resolve the issue.

 

[Dublex]

Have you carried out any flash upgrades recently or similar activities? either that or carry out the mem tests etc above. I wonder if anything on the motherboard itself is behaving oddly as well.. are all the jumpers properly set / BIOS settings correctly configured?

 

[Punkychan]

Sorry for the late reply guys since I've got to use my office pc after all these breakdowns.I did a Memtest last night and all seems to be okay> no errors> dare not update the latest BIOS since on the manufacturer's website did mentioned it would crash my system , jumpers and settings should be okay I supposed since I've been using the same mobo for the last 2 years despites somes hardware upgrades....hmmmmm it did again this morning..and I had to key in 'save settings and exit '...tough luck though ........

 

[bush dogg]

Make sure the battery is in correct (making good contact)

Then follow Mobo manual to clear cmos by putting the jumper on the correct pins for a few seconds.

Boot to bios and click "load fail safe" or "restore defaults" whatever there called on your board (unless you remember what all settings were at to do it manually).
but change all settings.

Save and Exit.


Battery replacement info

Let us know how this works and we can go from there (it still sounds like battery or bios corruption) if so the above steps should correct this.

 

[LeeJend]

Make sure the battery isn't dead.

If the battery is dead (or dying) you have to load the CMOS defaults at every start. Sounds like what you are seeing.

 

[Punkychan]

Battery replaced new..but it did agian this morning..totally refused to boot up.the cursor just flicker there on the screen after it had shown 'verifying DMI data pool ' ....but now I remember after that fresh install , I always go to system configurations utility and usually on XP there are 6 tabs on the top , but I thought I saw only 5 - the Boot.ini tab is missing...so what should I do now..should I do another fresh install ??

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Get back into windows & unhide your system files. Go to the root of C & have a look at your boot.ini.

Paste it here so we can see it.

 

[Punkychan]

can you give me sometime since now I'm using my office pc..can't use the one at home right now...but what if I do a fresh install again...( no choice ).....

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Well the boot.ini might be corruted somehow causing your trouble. It should look something like this>>>

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Hipster's Play Ground" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

See what yours looks like before you reinstall. It could be as simple as fixing the boot.ini

 

[Punkychan]

thanks for the info about boot loader but it isn't there...I think I would stick to another fresh insrtall because I did a big mistake when I did the installation the other day.During the installation all my usb hds were connected and seems like my OS was installed to 'H' drive instead of 'C' ( one of the usb was labeled as 'c' ) well...I thought I just give it a go and it worked for quite a while until now seems that the problems arised and persist..what do you say...Hipster ??

 

[Punkychan]

By the way , if my OS was installed in 'H' drive and all my applications are installed in the same drive , will affect the OS in any way ??