PC boot up / bios problem?

[hawkwind dave]

My pc is driving me nuts!

I've no idea what the problem with it is, but I'm gonna try to describe it in the hope that someone has had a similar problem with their machines;

ok, here goes;

when I turn it on, it shuts itself down on boot up (when it says 'windows xp professional' (balck back ground with the l'il green bar)

So in order to make it boot properly, I turn it on, hold delete to open the bios, leave it in the bios for about 5 minutes, then boot it from there, and it works fine (ish), (if only leave it in the bios for say 2 mins, it still shuts itself down)

however, once i've done the bios thing, and it's booted ok, when I go to turn off the pc, it shuts itself down (black screen lights off, down) before it gets to the 'windows is saving your settings' screen).

not only but also, it sometimes shuts down when I right click on a desktop icon, and when I goto programs from the start menu.

some people tell its a power pack problem, some say it's a bios problem, me, I've no idea, except buying a new pc, which I can't afford (hot news just in) change the bios battery, I'll try that)

[paulhiles]

Hi Dave, I'm afraid I can't answer your question, but I think the bios sounds a likely culprit. Let us know if replacing the battery cures the problem.
In the meantime, I've moved your post from the Break Room into IT Discussion.

Paul

[mushroom]

Hi Dave, I had a problem like that many years ago, It turned out that the hard drive had a problem and would not read properly untill it had warmed up. The computer would never boot if cold so warmed up the hard drive with a hair dryer and it booted. New hard drive problem gone.

Be safe if you don't have your data backed up do it now.

[redcircle]

So in order to make it boot properly, I turn it on, hold delete to open the bios, leave it in the bios for about 5 minutes, then boot it from there, and it works fine (ish), (if only leave it in the bios for say 2 mins, it still shuts itself down)

Check any fans in the machine. Some fans are slow to startup when cold. same goes for fan in the powersupply. Alot of new machines have an autoshutdown if the temperature is too high.

however, once i've done the bios thing, and it's booted ok, when I go to turn off the pc, it shuts itself down (black screen lights off, down) before it gets to the 'windows is saving your settings' screen).

not only but also, it sometimes shuts down when I right click on a desktop icon, and when I goto programs from the start menu.
This problem sounds like memory to me. check out DOC memory http://www.simmtester.com/page/produ...c/download.asp

some people tell its a power pack problem, some say it's a bios problem, me, I've no idea, except buying a new pc, which I can't afford (hot news just in) change the bios battery, I'll try that)[/quote]

The bios battery just keeps time when there is no power to the unit. If it were the battery you'd get eabios checksum error on inital boot.

My suggestion would be to check the fans and memory. Another thing you can try is reseating all the components in the machine by taking them out and putting them back in. There is a phenomenon called chip creep that can cause all sorts of wierd things. It's basically that the components aren't getting good contact. Usually happens with heating up and cooling down of compents. It can also be cause just by moving the pc around or inadvertantly bumping a card during an upgrade.

[hawkwind dave]

Hey, thanks for the input guys,

I'll work on your suggestions over the next week (holiday, woo hoo!) and report back with my success/failure rate.

cheers for this, it's really quite useful
(and thanks Paulhiles for moving it to the right place)

dave :-)

[pedstersplanet]

Originally Posted by mushroom

Be safe if you don't have your data backed up do it now.

Oh, how I wished I did that with my old drive before it *poofed* lmao......
I'm now setting my new PC up, needed a break, so I thought I'd have a read on here........

[hawkwind dave]

I'm dreadfull for backups, I've not had the hard lesson yet though and lost everything.

must get into the habit before that day comes.

:-)

[jdiben]

I bought a Maxtor One Touch backup drive about a week before my computer finally crashed. I was terrible at backing up and my last full backup hadnt been for at least a year. With the backup drive I scheduled nightly backups so when my computer crashed I didn't lose anything. I paid $150US for a 120 GB drive but it is worth it. I would recommend that anyone who puts off backing up buy some sort of automated backup drive. You could probably set up an internal drive as a backup drive and spend less money but for backups I prefer external.

Joe

[Dragonsi]

A couple of weeks ago, I had a very similar problem. When booting up from cold, the unit would reset on the windows logo screen (after installing SP2 for XP). Like the above mentioned problem, after 2 or 3 attempts of booting, eventually it came on and stayed on all day.

You would think from this sort of problem, it was hardware related. So I fully tested the HDD and cleaned out the base unit. No joy - same problem.

So with my work load over-running, I reformated and re-installed XP - since then, everything has been absolutly fine. The unit boots-up first time evan from cold. Since then I have re-tested the HDD for bad sectors etc, nothing, everything is ok. The unit is only about 18 months old.

I put the problem down to either a very vicious virus, which stripped out windows components or some form of voltage surge while the unit was booting or shutting down.

PS - while I had the problem, it would not boot into Safe Mode nor could I repair windows from the original disc - everytime I tried any of these, the unit would reset again. But as I just said, since reformatting - everything has been fine.

[hawkwind dave]

turned out to be a dodgy power pack, 15quid later and it's running like a dream (ish). Wish I'd got 'round to it 5 months ago!

[redcircle]

Good to hear you finally fixed it