[dmproske]

So the power went out this evening and stayed out for a couple hours. Now the pc will not boot. Nothing else in the house was effected including our other computer that I am typing this on.

The effected pc will do this when I power it on... It powers up for a couple secs (lights and fans), speaker beeps 3x then powers down for a couple secs, powers back up for a sec then back out...does that 3 or 4 times. Then it powers back up and stayes on but will not boot. I see my dvd drive light up, and I can hear the HDD spin up. My monitor flashes no signal. Any ideas on whats up?

Western digital black. 1TB HDD.

. 1 LG DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH24NS70 - OEM
Item #: N82E16827136236


. 1 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1-Pack - OEM
Item #: N82E16832116986

. 1 CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8
Item #: N82E16820233147

. 1 Thermaltake VL84301W2Z V3 Black Edition with 430W Power Supply ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Item #: N82E16811133185

. 1 MSI Z68MA-ED55 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813130596

. 1 Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500
Item #: N82E16819115073

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Not good. I would consider a good UPS with AVR. Sadly and too often when power goes out, and again when it returns, it is not a simple cut and restore but may be several very erratic "make and break" connections, in effect, the power goes BANG, BANG, BANG in less than a second - very hard on electronics, including power supplies so that would be my first suggestion - test the PSU, or swap in a known good one, then go from there.

Sadly, if the power anomalies were severe enough, worst case scenario is motherboard, CPU, and RAM are all gone too. Sorry, but I want you to be prepared for the worse. Hopefully, just the PSU.

Note the PSU must supply +12V, +5V, and +3.3V. The motors trying to spin up indicate there is some voltage on the 12V rail, but we can't tell if the other voltages are present, or good.

[Digerati]

Not good. I would consider a good UPS with AVR. Sadly and too often when power goes out, and again when it returns, it is not a simple cut and restore but may be several very erratic "make and break" connections, in effect, the power goes BANG, BANG, BANG in less than a second - very hard on electronics, including power supplies so that would be my first suggestion - test the PSU, or swap in a known good one, then go from there.

Sadly, if the power anomalies were severe enough, worst case scenario is motherboard, CPU, and RAM are all gone too. Sorry, but I want you to be prepared for the worse. Hopefully, just the PSU.

Note the PSU must supply +12V, +5V, and +3.3V. The motors trying to spin up indicate there is some voltage on the 12V rail, but we can't tell if the other voltages are present, or good.

[GhostToast]

Yes, what Digerati said. An item like a UPS may seem expensive but they are well worth it when it comes down to it as they can often be much cheaper than purchasing new components for your machine.

Edited by GhostToast, 06 July 2011 - 12:39 PM.

[dmproske]

Well I took the pc to a shop today. The tech said it looked like my bios had got corrupted. He R&R'd one of my ram dims and turnd the pc on. It booted up and works like a champ. He said my MB has a duel bios and it is now on the backup bios.

My question is can I flash the bios chips with the newest available from MSI and overwrite the corrupt bios (so i again have a spare) or would the corrupt bios chip have to be replaced?

And, can yall recomend a good budget UPS? I only need one big enough to give me enough time to walk across the house and power down my pc when the lights go out.

[Digerati]

Well I took the pc to a shop today. The tech said it looked like my bios had got corrupted. He R&R'd one of my ram dims and turnd the pc on. It booted up and works like a champ.

Well, I don't want to doubt a fellow technician - maybe we don't have all the story. It is not normal for a BIOS to become corrupted, unless there were some major hardware changes and the BIOS did not update that information correctly, or a BIOS update failed.

I would also wonder why the technician did update your BIOS for you, and make a new backup.

Can you update the BIOS? Maybe. Again, what's wrong with the primary? If read your motherboard manual, it will tell you how to create a BIOS backup on that board. If you feel comfortable doing it, then I think it should be fine. Just move cautiously so you can back out, if necessary.

And, can yall recomend a good budget UPS?

Sorry. I don't know of any budget UPS that would be "good" for a computer. The budget UPS makers might disagree with that however. But the fact of the matter is, like many things in life, the better quality and power is found in the more expensive model lines.

So a "good" UPS with AVR is not cheap. We don't have to spend $400 for the best UPS, but I have no problems recommending these. I have the 1500 model, the 1300 is fine for most. That will provide about 780 watts of power, enough to power your computer, plus your monitor (or two, if LCD) (always nice) and all your network equipment, which is nice too - especially with DHCP IP assignments.

Unless you are always home and in the room when your computer is powered on, having enough time walk across the house and power down the PC is not good enough. What if you are using the computer at the time, working on something important that is time sensitive? What if you are not home? Although Windows has UPS management, it is pretty basic. The better UPS with AVR have UPS utilities that will save your data, close your applications and "gracefully" shutdown Windows for you, then turn off your computer.

The downside to an UPS is that the batteries need to be replaced about every 3 years - but this is a user task.

[dmproske]

Well this computer did this same thing the other day. I checked email then powered down. Came back that evening and it would not boot up. Took it into a different shop this time as I have moved since the 1st time. All he had to do was clear CMOS and the system booted right up. What could be causing this problem with the BIOS?

[Digerati]

My first thought is the battery is no longer strong enough to hold the CMOS settings. At this point, I recommend you power down and unplug the computer from the wall, open the side panel, touch bare metal of the case to discharge any static in your body, then carefully remove the battery, observing the polarity (where the + sign is).

They typically are CR2032 wafer batteries and can be found at most any battery/camera/watch counter. Take old one with you as most counters recycle.

Do NOT touch new battery with bare fingers as skin oils promote corrosion and attract dust - I put a clean sock over my hand. Insert new battery, again observing polarity.

Ensure interior is clean of heat trapping dust, all cables are securely fastened and routed to minimize restricting front to back air flow.

Reconnect power and boot directly into the BIOS Setup Menu. Reset date and time and ensure drives are detected. Then Save and Exit to [hopefully] boot normally.