Boot Problems

[malsphone]

Hi,

Got a weird boot problem. Built my own PC around Xmas 2002. Never any problems until around a week or so ago, and the problem is intermittant.

Whenever I start to boot up, the bios screen shows that it has detected my CPU, the HDD Led comes on and stays on, then the screen just freezes there. Keyboard is locked and can't do anything.

If I open my case, remove HDD power leads and ribbon cable, also main power motherboard connector, then put them all back on, reboot and fix BIOS (clocks, boot drives etc...) it boots up.

If I don't open my case and just reset, it might boot up, but it recognises the CPU as a different one (clock speed wise).

I have scanned the PC with NAV but it didn't show anything.

MY PC specs are (if it helps) AMD XP2400, ABIT KX7-333 (which I have flashed BIOS to B6), 384 MB of RAM, WIn XP Home, Seagate 20Gb Drive, Soundblaster 4.1 Sound Card, MX420 64Mb Video. I know people in here sometimes recommend the stay away from VIA chipsets and the MX420, but to be honest its worked fine till now for my usage so i don't think its them.

Any advice?

[regans cortina]

are all your bios settings correct , and you havent messed with them??? try loading setup defaults in !!

[ktkendall]

It almost sounds like a dead CMOS battery. Actually though since you should be within your 1 year warranty on that motherboard, you may want to get it replaced while you still can under warranty..Especially if you have tried everything else, like disconnect everything except video, memory, and processor, then do several reboots. If it is stable then put back 1 device at a time and should pinpoint the device that is causing lockup. Of course if it does it with nothing attached then it's either memory, or motherboard..

[malsphone]

OK thanks. l will try those things.

[GUNIT]

Originally posted by malsphone If I don't open my case and just reset, it might boot up, but it recognises the CPU as a different one (clock speed wise). Any advice?

probably when u resetted everythang in the bios screen..you resetted the cmos crap...it will set ur clock speed to the default..

probably ur default is at 100?...and maybe you got to change it back to 133 b/c thats your real clock speed for ur cpu?

..and about the freezing in the bios..that happened to me a couple of time..just like how you did..i unplug everythang out and plug it back in..and then the comp booted just fine...i think i took a power plug from one of the drives when the comp was shut down. And i guess the bios tried to detect the drive which i unplug and it froze in bios screen. The unplug and plug the cables back in worked for me..