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Computer Booting Issues
Seafroggys
Ranger
in Zocalo v2.0
So my computer has been having troubles turning on. I figured I'd live with it, but today it took me 12 hours to get the thing to boot (not constantly, I was doing other things).
So here's the problem I've been having. I turn on the computer, I hear 'low-power' fan noise, then quickly goes into 'high-power' fan noise and goes into BIOS. That's how it used to work. But then, it wouldn't go into high gear. It stayed in 'quiet' mode and not do anything. I'd manually restart a few times, and then it would boot into POST.
Its slowly been getting worse. Usually it takes 10 or so boots, but one day a week or so ago it took me something like 2 hours of turning it on and off on average probably every 2 minutes. And today, as I said....I started at 11, and its just now 11 pm and I got it on. What the hell.
I did some troubleshooting, took off the side and listened and felt what fans were on. I could hear the hard drive active, the DVD drive was working. The case fan and CPU were turning. I felt under the GPU and felt that fan spinning too (my brother figured it might have been a GPU issue), and I can feel air coming out of the PSU in the back. So all fans are working. But not in 'fast mode' where I can audibly hear the fans get louder right before the computer starts up POST.
All the lights are on. The fan lights are on, the ethernet light flashes, and the motherboard has a green LED that's always on....that was on too. There is power being distributed, but for some odd reason, not booting most times.
Usually if there's hardware issues to prevent booting, there's motherboard beeps....nothing. No beeps whatsoever. And once it boots, it functions 100%. I can play heavy duty games, everything. When it automatically goes into standby after being idle, it boots right into Windows login.
Only when I shut the computer off and try to turn it back on later does it give me troubles.
HALP!?
So here's the problem I've been having. I turn on the computer, I hear 'low-power' fan noise, then quickly goes into 'high-power' fan noise and goes into BIOS. That's how it used to work. But then, it wouldn't go into high gear. It stayed in 'quiet' mode and not do anything. I'd manually restart a few times, and then it would boot into POST.
Its slowly been getting worse. Usually it takes 10 or so boots, but one day a week or so ago it took me something like 2 hours of turning it on and off on average probably every 2 minutes. And today, as I said....I started at 11, and its just now 11 pm and I got it on. What the hell.
I did some troubleshooting, took off the side and listened and felt what fans were on. I could hear the hard drive active, the DVD drive was working. The case fan and CPU were turning. I felt under the GPU and felt that fan spinning too (my brother figured it might have been a GPU issue), and I can feel air coming out of the PSU in the back. So all fans are working. But not in 'fast mode' where I can audibly hear the fans get louder right before the computer starts up POST.
All the lights are on. The fan lights are on, the ethernet light flashes, and the motherboard has a green LED that's always on....that was on too. There is power being distributed, but for some odd reason, not booting most times.
Usually if there's hardware issues to prevent booting, there's motherboard beeps....nothing. No beeps whatsoever. And once it boots, it functions 100%. I can play heavy duty games, everything. When it automatically goes into standby after being idle, it boots right into Windows login.
Only when I shut the computer off and try to turn it back on later does it give me troubles.
HALP!?
Comments
Booting issues like that are most commonly caused by a bad PSU or a bad motherboard.
You can also try placing the entire CPU in a circle of sand, stripping down and doing the Ancient Egyption Computer Dance... Sometimes that helps...
It doesn't sound like a bad power supply if when you can get it up it operates fully at load. That leads me to believe your motherboard is going tits up the slow way.
Any crashes once it is up? Any file read errors (due to bad writes and such)? If not, it probably isn't the PSU since those are also symptoms of a bad PSU.
The idea of turning it on and off and on and off and on and off and on to get it to boot definately leads me to suspect either the Mobo, especially since it is happening during post. It could be something plugged into the Mobo (CPU, memory, video card, etc.) but that is less likely. One thing to try is to remove each card one at a time and see if it comes up at all (gets to BIOS at least). If you have a spare video card that you can use, try that. Also try removing memory (the system won't boot, but at least you will know the memory isn't causing the issue since you will get to bios).
As for beeps, etc. - those have been gone for years except in some rare really major cases. Most motherboards don't even have the PC Speaker module attached to make the beeps if they even support making them anymore.
And I now have 1.5 gigs of RAM :(
ENU Has mid level range for all 3 for $300.
:indyfused
although I do at least put the computer to sleep at night. I rebooted today for the time in about a week.
:p
That's on 2 Gigs of Ram, running Win XP.
And what I do is more memory intensive than most computer applications.
- Open Office
- Firefox (this steals between 2 and 5GBs of memory, depending on how recently it was restarted)
- Safari
- Webkit Alpha Build
- Chrome
- Mac Mail
- Google Earth
- iCal
- xchat (for Firstones IRC)
- RSS feed apps (two of them)
- iTerm (terminal app)
- Windows Virtual Machine (2GBs of memory goes there)
- EyeTV (currently using about 4TBs of data for recorded TV shows and movies that I grabbed over-the-air via this)
- Steam
- iTunes
- Pixelmator
- Skype
- Acrobat Reader
- Console
- Preview
- VLC
- Textedit
- Fugu (FTP app)
- Quicktime
- Activity Monitor
- DVD player
- Alarm Clock Pro
- Apache2 server
- PHP5 server
This doesn't include the game I was running a little bit ago.
It also is pretty typical of a light load for me...without anything special running.
I've run around with it sometimes, but sure mostly walking. Also some bicycling. ;)
Sorry, just trying to be a smart ass. It's my phone that has those specs.
Lets see, reference docs open that I reference regularly in Open Office.
Firefox has all my news, forum, weather, and other sources open for quick reference.
Chrome is on a separate monitor and has a lot of game references open (such as stats and such).
Safari is running a local weather radar loop that tends to crash browsers after a day or so, meaning I don't want it in any browser doing anything else.
Webkit is open for Netflix and flash video, since I have blocked those in Firefox due to CPU saturation and memory leaks from Flash.
Mac Mail...well, I want my email :p
Google Earth I use several times every day for reference, exploring and such or monitoring earthquakes, etc. It's not always running, but when I'm using it, it is.
iCal is my calendar app, telling me what I need to do when.
xChat is IRC - I'm not closing that :p
RSS feeds are monitoring weather information - reason I use two is one gives me a hook for Growl and the other is the viewer - no one has given me an app that does both well.
iTerm is because I'm constantly doing command line stuff on BASH.
Windows VM is because I have to fill out paperwork for work in IE (yuck!) due to ActiveX hooks (double yuck!).
EyeTV has to stay running since I record TV via it, and if it is closed, I can't control my recordings (though it will open to record).
I don't close Steam because I play games through it regularly (several times every time I sit down at my computer)
iTunes is running to sync my ipad whenever I plug it in.
Pixelmator is because I was working on a graphic.
Skype is Skype :p
Acrobat reader is for viewing a couple docs I am currently using as reference.
Console is to track bug issues with various apps - it only gets opened after I have a problem somewhere :p
Preview opens automatically all the time, so no sense closing it.
VLC should be closed - I barely use it, but needed it for something (forget what)
Textedit I am constantly using for notes about things I am doing
Fugu is because I've been uploading a few things to share with #firstones :p
Quicktime was because I was watching movie trailers
DVD player was because I was watching a movie :p (which I had paused to watch the trailers for a couple minutes)
Alarm Clock Pro is how I wake up in the morning - sets off between 4 and 8 alarms, depending on how tired I feel the night before :p
Apache and PHP are because I do web development and need to test m stuff.
So now that that is said, what would you close given that all that is open (with one or two exceptions) is ACTIVELY in use either for making something or for reference? And in case you are wondering how I can actively use this many things, remember I have 5 monitors on this box so I can actually see all this stuff :p