[chew]

Hi everyone

I bought my PC a few years ago (a few days after XP was released) and it's never run very smoothly, there seemed to be a minor problem every few days. Just today, it's refusing to boot up at all.

Just for reference, I've changed the CDR drive once, added a slave HDD and upgraded from 256MB to 1GB RAM. Just a few months ago, my master HDD died and I replaced it, but that's where my boot up problems really started. (I'm pretty sure I haven't touched anything else - I wouldn't dare!)

Right after I'd replaced the HDD, my PC refused to boot up, but I (somehow!) worked out that pressing the eject button on the DVD drive would give it a kick and make it boot. After a few days, I didn't need to do anything like that, but instead, it would reboot itself a few times before starting up Windows properly. It would do the normal beeping (2 beeps separated by a pause), and after the second beep it would reboot and go back to the start of the sequence. Sometimes, it would reach the "Welcome" screen for XP, and then it'd reboot again. Sometimes, it wouldn't boot at all (no beeps), but after turning it off at the mains and leaving it for a while, it'd work again.

But today, it's not beeping and my monitor is receiving no signal, although the fan is working. I'd left it for a while, tried again several times, and it's still not working. I also tried using a different PSU, and it still wouldn't boot up (I know the PSU I tried works, because I'm using it on this PC that I'm using right now). I tried disconnecting all drives and cards, but it still wouldn't boot.

Does anyone have any ideas what's wrong?

(could I just emphasize the point that this PC was not built from scratch by me)

[Advertisements]

if you pull all cards out ( including video) and memory and you are not getting some kind of beep sound it is likely the motherboard is out but it could also be the cpu or even something more unlikely ( short under the board somewhere ) etc.

[shard92]

if you pull all cards out ( including video) and memory and you are not getting some kind of beep sound it is likely the motherboard is out but it could also be the cpu or even something more unlikely ( short under the board somewhere ) etc.

[warriorscot]

Did you install xp fresh on the pc with both service packs when you replaced your master HDD. Also try it with just the old slave. It would only beep if there is a speaker attached and working, something to check. Also try it with only one stick of ram.

[chew]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I also installed XP fresh onto the new HDD. And yep, I also installed both service packs as well.

I've tried it with the slave (as a master), and also with just 1 stick of RAM. Still no luck.

I suppose I might have to buy a new motherboard then

[lionelhutz5]

Are you sure that the boot sequence in BIOS is correct? When you say that it would boot after pushing the DVD button, it sounds that when you took out your HD, your computer thinks that it needed to boot from the disc drive. That is why it would boot when you pushed the eject button. Ejecting it would tell it to go to the next line down for boot, which would be your hard drive. Try putting your hard drive first under boot sequence in BIOS and see if that does anything.

Of course, all; of this is reliant on that once you hit the BIOS hot key, your screen will show!! But hey, we may have solved the mystery of why it would boot when you hit the eject key.

Peace,
Jared

[chew]

I did change the boot sequence when I tried installing linux on my old master drive (it's a long story, but I gave up in the end). I'm sure I changed the boot sequence back, though.

When I pressed the eject button to start the PC up, this would be to make it beep for the first time, so I doubt that's why it refused to start until I pressed eject...

But no, the monitor's receiving no signal from the PC, so I can't try changing it anyway. (and pressing eject doesn't help it boot anymore either!)

[lionelhutz5]

Huh...then I guess that your assumption may be accurate - the mobo I mean. But man, I hope that you get this thing figured out. I have an old Hp that wouldnt boot, and it annoyed me for a week beofre I gave up trying to fix it until I rendered the Mobo useless. Anyway, best of luck to you.

Jared