My screen freezes at startup.

[Deano3]

I can get into BIOS and everything, but it gets to the screen where it starts listing IRQ's and it wont get past one that says ACPI controller. Everytime it freezes there, does anyone know whats causing this?

[flanzig1]

Try clearing the BIOS by removing the battery for a few minutes.

[Deano3]

Will do! I will post the results when I get back from dinner.

[Deano3]

I did that, left it out for a while, but it didnt fix the problem I'm having... Any more ideas from anyone?

I can't think of anything, I looked into possibly turning ACPI off, but apparently it's not possible in new motherboards. This is making me sad because I thought I finally had my system running.

[Deano3]

I'm going to try and update my BIOS, would that work? I have to go pick up a floppy drive a little later, and then I'll try that.

[Cricket]

Please post the complete system specs for this computer. List the parts by brand and model including the power supply.

Cricket

[Deano3]

These are my specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Video Card: eVGA nVidia 7900GT
Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
RAM: 2x Patriot Signature 512MB
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SATA 250GB

Someone said something about my PSU being a Turbolink, which I found out is not a good one, but it seems to be running fine right now, and I even checked the voltage and it looked fine. Oh, and it's 500w. This is the link to the case on newegg incase you wanted to check for yourself: http://tinyurl.com/9tppa

[Alfie]

What operating system?
Will it run in safemode?

[Deano3]

I can't get to the screen where it says INSERT SYSTEM DISK. It always freezes right after the POST. Well, it goes through POST, I can get in BIOS, then a screen comes up about RAID and how I can hit ctrl+F or f4 to get into the setup for RAID, but after that, it lists things really quickly, and it starts listing PCI devices, their name, and some other info (I can elaborate later if needed) then it lists their IRQ on the far right of all the information. The problem is, it gets to the ACPI controller every time, and it freezes there. It might have nothing to do with the ACPI controller (the IRQ the ACPI controller is assigned to is 9, does that mean anything? I tried setting 9 to reserved but that didn't do anything), I have no idea, but it just stops there. The longest I've let it sit at that screen is like 10-15 minutes, should I wait longer?

EDIT:: I have to go to work until 10 (in about 6 1/2 hours) but please, post any ideas!

[Cricket]

So, you haven't even installed the OS yet, right? What OS are you planning to install?

Did you go into the BIOS and set the first boot device to the CD-ROM drive yet? If you did, do you have the OS CD in the CD-ROM drive?

Cricket

[Deano3]

I plan on installing XP Pro (not the 64-bit though). I have set the first boot device to CD-ROM, but I'm not sure if I put the OS system disk in too. I'll go try that now.

[Deano3]

Nope, that didn't work. I can't get to the screen where it tells me to put in the system disk.

[Mesaeus]

Try disconnecting all storage devices like dvd, hard drive, floppy etc. Does it get to the System disk error now ?

[Deano3]

I called ASUS tech support and they told me the same thing. I was wondering though, if I remove my hard drive, how will I install the OS in the first place? The tech support guy told me to do that, and if it gets through POST, then I should start reconnecting my drives one-by-one. If that doesn't work, he said its possible memory error. Does this seem like memory would play a part in this?

[Mesaeus]

We're trying to determine which part is the troublemaker. Until we can get you to a System disk error, it's useless to worry about installing the OS, let's take one baby step at a time

[Deano3]

Ah, my bad good sir . I'll have to try this after school tomorrow.

[Deano3]

I did that, and nothing. I disconnected my SATA drive and my DVD/RW/CDRW drive. I don't have a floppy drive so those were the only two drives I had. Should I have disconnected anything else?

[flanzig1]

Try one stick of ram at a time, one of them may be flacky.

[Deano3]

Alright, but I should start in the B1 slot, right? (Assuming the order from closest to CPU is A1, A2, B1, B2)

[flanzig1]

Shouldn't make a difference with one stick but can always try it in each slot.

[Deano3]

I tried each stick in every slot, one at a time, and still nothing, freezes at the same spot. The RAM I have is not listed as compatible in the manual, but I read about this online and a lot of people have RAM that isn't in the manual but the motherboard recognizes it anyway. I don't know what to try next. I was thinking a total rebuild. Maybe somewhere theres a short or something I can't see. I guess I'll do that if there aren't any more ideas here. What do you think?

[Deano3]

Alright, so I rebuilt everything, and unfortunatley, to no avail. However, I do have some things I'd like to note, as they could lead to figuring out what component is being stubborn (if that's the case).

1. I now get a beep confirming POST completion. I never got that before, so I'm unsure what this means at this point.

2. I tried taking both sticks of RAM out at the same time, and the system would not boot. My case and everything turned on, but there was no beep, display, etc.

3. Lastly, I unplugged the HDD and the CD/DVD drive. My HDD is SATA, and my DVD drive is the only IDE I have, so I put that on the secondary IDE slot on my motherboard, that's what I'm supposed to do, right? Anyway, the system will get to the point where it always freezes if I leave the DVD drive plugged in, however, if I unplug the HDD, it gets to the screen I think is before POST, where it lists devices such as: RAM, Hard Drive (in this case, none) sec/pri IDE drive, and whatnot.

Does this mean anything? I want to find the part that is causing this and at this point, I don't care about spending the extra money to get it replaced/ a new component.

Thanks as always,
-Deano

[Deano3]

Woot! It worked!

I'm not sure what I did, but ever since I rebuilt it, it got to the ACPI controller, then would skip a line, then it would ask for a system disk. I am so happy right now! I will post any new questions I have