[Kurasaki_Ichigo]

I apologise in advance if this is already covered somewhere but it's 2:17am as I'm posting this and my reading isn't too good.

My system has been running fine since it's build a few years ago, it's not the best system but it'll do 'till money allows something better. Anways, recently it has started not booting on first power up. I press the power button, the cpu fan spins, the green and red front lights come on as does the light on my dvd writer. The monitor, however, stays black and I am forced to hold the power button untill the system powers off and to try the power button again.

After several attempts (the number often varies) the machine powers up, gives the 'OK' beep and everything runs as it should.

This only seems to happen if the system has been off for a number of hours. For example, I had the system running earlier, powered it off and then turned it on later and it started first time but yesterday I had to go through the above process after the machine being off from 8:30am to 3:30pm.

I'm not sure if this related to the first problem or not but ocassionally when I have to hit the reset button, the screen goes black as it should but the system doesn't actually restart and after a few seconds the monitor goes into power save as it would if i'd left it on after shutting off the system.

Thanks in advance and apologies for any inconvenience/annoyance caused.

Edited by Kurasaki_Ichigo, 18 September 2006 - 08:26 PM.

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sounds like it could be a few things. It may be your Power Supply Unit (PSU) is going out. Or u just need to reset ur cmos. Move to jumper to pins 2 and 3 with the power cord unplugged from ur computer. and then move it back to pins 1 and 2 also with the power cored removed. Plug in power cord. It may work. Worth a shot.

[Longhorns242]

sounds like it could be a few things. It may be your Power Supply Unit (PSU) is going out. Or u just need to reset ur cmos. Move to jumper to pins 2 and 3 with the power cord unplugged from ur computer. and then move it back to pins 1 and 2 also with the power cored removed. Plug in power cord. It may work. Worth a shot.

[Kurasaki_Ichigo]

Thanks I'll give it a go when I get back from work later today, it's 4:10am Then I'll get on with converting an old system I've got lying around into a NAS, been meaning to do it for a while.

[GadgetGidget]

This is my first day of hearing about this site which I found on Google in desperation over a topic that fee-
based "experts" are contradictory about. So, I started believing in my own logic about problems such as this one and here are a couple of things to try. I'm on the verge of doing Recoveries on two notebooks, both Windows XP with wireless DSL, not connected except for backup using PCLinq2 when it works. Backing up isn't the subject but it has led me to look into tons of solutions to my many problems. One is that my '02
model kept going into hibernation so it's a shut-down problem, not start up. However, it seems to me that some of the solutions could be similar. The first thing was to take out the battery and order a new one. I did research about the care of batteries and realized that worn-out ones could be effecting behavior. After that, I noticed more easily that when the power cord was touched too much by inserting into the USB port right next to it my external hard drives for backup or whatever hardware, it would blink right out, not even slowly warning you about impending hibernation. On that, the cord connection could be wearing out. But, the more interesting solution to constant hibernating was to start backing up and erasing as much data as I could as fast as possible. I was always getting the message that I had low disc space and wondered if the disk "got tired" having to do something with all that data. Like a person needing sleep-type-of-thing. It picked up speed each time I got rid of something. I went so nuts, and was so happy, that I ended up with about 50gigs
of extra space! While I was doing it, a tech from hp called back and I told him what I was trying. He literally yelled and pleaded with me to go to an expert for help and how he wasn't going to take responsibility if I wrecked my computer by erasing something really important. I told him I wouldn't and, besides, I wasn't allowed to do that, anyway. A message told me what I couldn't get rid of.

I did regret erasing Internet Explorer and had to do a restore to get it back. Plus, most of the stuff I'd gotten rid of and I'm getting the Low Space sign, again. I forgot to mention what else cleared up which I think is significant. I kept getting a message to plug in the cord because my battery was used up. Well, I WAS plugged in so that's when I suspected an old battery and maybe a bad cord connection. This never once happened again!! The last thing I'll say is that I unplugged the wireless modem, then back on. After that, I never had that message as well as it going into hibernation. A smarter tech from Microsoft called me back and agreed with everything I did and said that you will be fine if you always have about 8-10gigs of free space on your C Drive. Makes a lot of sense-it's like being sluggish because you're overweight. I got a 300gig external hard drive (Maxtor) and will always be keeping stuff on it so I can keep the C Drive "lighter".
I still have issuess but the Recovery will help tremendously. And, yes, I checked for all the usual suspects and don't have any. It would be a thrill if I helped you or anyone else because I have been a real novice for so long. Now, I work on problems night and day, like cramming for finals, getting some good grades here and there. Yay!

[Kurasaki_Ichigo]

Update:

The PC has started freezing ocassionally, I don't know if this is related to the previous problem or not.

Also, after a restart I had a look in my BIOS:

300W PSU

Vcore - 1.8v
3.3v - 3.38v
5v - 5.17v
12v - 12.66v (I have also seen 12.60v)


This is running:

Gigabyte GA-7DXE Motherboard (A couple of things disabled due to non usage - 2 Serial Ports, 1 Parallel Port)
AMD Duron 1.2Ghz
3 Hard Drives
DVD/CD Writer
Floppy Drive
2 Network Cards
2 Port USB 2 Card
Tv Card
Graphics Card

Any advice would be helpful. I remember reading somewhere about how to calculate what PSU you needed based of the power required by each component but I have no idea how to do this. I'm pretty sure that 300W is not gonna be a good one.

Edited by Kurasaki_Ichigo, 18 September 2006 - 11:20 PM.

[GadgetGidget]

I forgot to mention an important thing I did that helped with what we were both talking about above. I just checked it out to make sure where I went. On Control Panel at Power Options I changed things around there. I'd have to be looking at the choices to remember but you would know what to do, I'm sure. I checked that it NEVER go into hibernate and that it is always on when it's plugged in. That's the first time I ever did that and had always wondered why other people's computers stayed on all the time. Duh!

Just be sure not to change the "orientation" because everything is the opposite of normal and it made me sick to look at it. Same with changing the arrows to show their "path". Ugh. Also, I finally figured out how to get rid of the stupid banana I'd substituted for an arrow quite a while ago but forgot where I had gone. I changed problems with the mouse which has reacted faster plus you can make files open faster putting the "dolphin" over to the left on slow (for some reason but that's what it said to do). Playing around in that area could help with your freezing which I've gotten a lot, also, and just have to turn it off manually and then it's OK when you reboot.

On Microsoft.com they describe a new program called "One play" or something like that. It is a combination of everything good, according to all the testimonials. It does "tune ups" on a schedule you set up, it backs
up everything and then keeps that up-to-date on your own time schedule i.e. once a week back up everything that's new from the week. And, it's only $50, period. It's been out a few months but I just heard about it and am going to sign up. It's all about Preventive Maintenance and you're always ready for a Recovery. It does more than this such as keeping updates current, blah blah.

Supposedly, in the first month it was out, it took 15% of that market and the per cent keeps rising.