Computer locks up during intial boot, does not make it to post 2

[smaucutt]

I have an ABS PC with a 2.8 GHZ P4 with an Asus P4T533-C Motherboard, Rocket Raid Controller, PC is in a Raid 0 Configuration. I have 512 MB of RAM, and a 550 Watt Enermax Power Supply, with a DVD drive, and a CD burner, and a Radeon 9700 Pro Graphics Card.

My problem: My kids were playing a game and my 12 month old walked up and hit the power button, thus immediately shutting the machine down. When trying to boot the PC back up it hangs at the P4T533-C Screen. I have tried to reboot about 20 times since and no luck. Same thing. I do get one beep at initial power up which I believe is the power test, then the P4T533-C screen pops up. The DVD light comes on, then the Burner light, the burner light stays on. I can't do a darn thing from there. This happened to me about 45 days ago. I swapped out memory, took out the raid controller, unhooked everything from the computer to see if I could get the post test to come on and got nothing. Then I gave $150 to Comp USA, and asked them to troubleshoot it for me. They said they plugged it in and it worked. I was not happy, as I did not have a root cause identified, well here I am 45 days later (15 days past my warranty with Comp USA on their labor warranty) and the darn thing has happened again. If I try to get to the Bios screen it says "Entering Setup ...." and then refuses to budge.. with one exception. On one occassion today I tried to enter the bios setup screen again, and while still on the P4T533-C screen it said "Entering Setup ....". It hung again as usual. I went to eat dinner, came back and the Bios Setup Screen was up. I re booted hoping that something changed and the PC would now boot, but to no avail. Same error. I am stumped. I am guessing that it is either CPU, Mother Board, or maybe the Power Supply. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I hate the thought of taking it back to Comp USA and paying another $150.

 

[MrGreenleaf]

Have you checked the motherboard battery? Have you attempted to flash the firmware? sounds to me like the bios is locking up. Could have fried the firmware chip. you said you swapped memory? with a known good module?
my attack at this would be to replace and/or check the cmos battery, then memory, try a different video card, you can test the power supply for improper voltages. Other than that id say faulty bios. If you cant update or repair the bios----chuck the motherboard....its not worth the headache----for the 300 bucks you would have paid comp usa you could have purchased a much better board.

 

[Xemus]

Try resetting the BIOS to "Load Fail-Safe Defaults" to eliminate any possible misconfiguration settings.
If that doesn't work, remove the battery and check your motherboard manual for a jumper setting to "reset the BIOS".

http://www.closedsocket.com

 

[smaucutt]

If I can get back to the Bios screen I plan to reset it to factory settings, then I will update it. If that does not work I will buy a new battery, from there it looks like a new Mother Board. I have Rambus memory, any favorite MOBO choices out there?

Shawn Aucutt
Tallahassee, FL

P.S. Thanks for your help .. all! This is a great forum!

 

[paparazi]

smaucutt
$150 and they said they found nothing! ridiculous! if we don't find anything wrong we charge a nominal £15 plus vat for our time (about $25)
I suspect you have a piece of hardware that is causing this problem
Take it to bare bones! unplug everything, just leave CPU/heatsink/fan, PSU, graphics card and one stick of memory.
No hard drives, roms or addon cards.
Clear the cmos (use cmos clear jumper)or remove the battery for 10minutes.
Now try.
Add things back one at a time untill fault is found.
Martin


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