Interesting problem

[dpellegrini]

This is a problem that I encountered yesterday and today on 2 separate, unrelated, PC's.
Problem:
PC is booted (or rebooted) but never comes back up. It acts as though it's in suspend mode (harddrive light comes on, fan is running, etc). No post test, no beeps, no video, nothing. Not a problem that can be replicated on purpose. It's only happened to me2 times.
Incident 1:
PC locked up, reset button was pushed, problem occurred.
Incident 2:
PC was shut down already (totally cold boot). Power button pushed, problem occurred.

PC1:
Clone PC,MicroStar motherboard with 256meg RAM, AMD 1.43Ghz CPU, 80gig WesternDigital harddrive, Windows 2000 server (patched current), cable modem connection to internet w/ 3com Network card, no other network connection.

PC2:
Clone PC, EPOX motherboard, 128meg RAM, Intel Celeron 500 CPU, WesternDigital 6 gig drive, Windows 95, Kingston NIC, on company network.

Actions taken
Incident 1:
Unplugged power, let sit, plugged back in and turned power on.
Disconnected network card
Replaced video card
Removed all cards
Unplugged all drives
Unplugged all cables and attachments (keyboard, mouse, USB, etc)
Only unplugging everything and turning the PC on with just power (no drives, peripherals, kb, or mouse) allowed for a post test and life from the PC. Plugged everything back in, operating normal.

Incident 2:
Recognized symptoms from incident 1. Unplugged everything but power. Turned PC on. Got Post test. Plugged everything back in, operating normal.

Any clues on this one?
Domenick Pellegrini
dpellegrini@yahoo.com

 

[fritchdog]

Maybe your wall outlet or surge protector is on the fritz. Or maybe your power supply. Or maybe both boards got Electric Static Discharge (ESD). Are they on carpet or off the ground? Are they networked together or each hooked up to internet seperately? If so, was there a lightning storm recently? A computer system can obtain ESD and work for many years with only intermintent problems.

Also, Consider replacing the Bios battery. Bios batteries tend to die slowly. Usually your clock losing time is the first sign of a weakening battery. If that is the case be happy. They are relatively cheap and easy to replace, like a calculator.

Just a few thoughts.

fritchdog

p.s. cards and drives have nothing to do with the running of POST. If computer doesn't even reach POST, it is either your motherboard(ROM chips), or lack of electrical.

 

[dpellegrini]

One PC was at work. One at home. One had a brand new UPS, the other an older one, one was serviced at home(esd protection) the other at work with, one PC is brand new (5mths old) the other is 3yrs old, no weather in this area, one is on cable modem, one is on a corporate T1 connection. Good thoughts but went through that list already.
thx
Domenick Pellegrini
dpellegrini@yahoo.com

 

[ceh4702]

I use to see this problem on my IBM Aptiva. It had some setting for restarting at the program it was on last. Then it would not turn on right under certain conditions, like after a power failure or an illegal operation. I fixed it by starting to reload the operating system from the emergency boot disk and then cancelling when it asked me if I wanted to reformat the hard dirve. I think it was called resume after reboot or something like that.
If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[FatesWebb]

justy out of curiosity do you have the same kind of mouse or keyboard or scanners or anything on either of these bad boys? js error; 67 on line; 36 of signature.class

 

[ductTape]

In CMOS setup is it set to restart after power failure?

I would suspect a power problem. Possible bad power supply, or inadequate power supply to power all components.

 

[Guest_imported]

Check the cpu and make sure its not loose. I had this problem and it ended up being the cpu came loose.

 

[DMAN666]

I would start systematically swapping parts untill the computer starts working. I mean every part if you can including motherboard, powersupply, etc. I would start with the simple stuff like sound card, NIC, RAM and work my way from there.

 

[Chrissirhc]

I've got a similar problem. Except none of my fans work and the power led flashes. I have to completely turn off pc from mains in order to turn on the pc again. Very annoying. I change some bios settings and it works at the momment. I changed ram and system optimal to normal.

Don't know if its a coincidence that it works now.

Also my friend had similar problem when he upgraded his bios.

Cheers

Chris

 

[dpellegrini]

Well, since both PC's are back up, the problem has not reoccurred. Each PC is in a separate location, and on ups/surge protectors, so I wouldn't think it's a power problem. They both have completely different hardware from each other. The trouble shooting I did do, was rather inconclusive as to whether a certain device was at fault. All good thought, and thanks for the feedback. But whatever it was simply went away by itself. The only thing the 2 had in common was a little bit of dust on the inside. I'm guessing it had to do with either a quirky powersupply or ESD of some sort.

<shrug>
Domenick Pellegrini
dpellegrini@yahoo.com

 

[FatesWebb]

it was an overload of ethernet ions maybee.



js error; 67 on line; 36 of signature.class

 

[dpellegrini]

or a fluctuation in the time space continuum that created a negative ion pulse in the ethernet array.


lol

Domenick Pellegrini
dpellegrini@yahoo.com

 

[THOMASNG]

Somethings can't be explained. (The Zen of troubleshooting.)
Sometimes, simply removing, cleaning and re-installing
will fix problems of loosening connections (caused by
thermal cycling) or bad connections (caused by oxide growth).
In the future, I'd try substituting in larger, working
subsystems - like an entire monitor. That way you can rule in/out entire subsystems.

 

[Pilotek]

I had the same problem several times in totally different PCs (one standard &quot;office&quot; PC clone and three industrial PC's based on All-in-one CPU cards Advantech, ICP) in totally different areas (cities), PII and Celerons. Industrial PC's were powered through UPS. No connection (IPCs did it as stand alone and then as Ethernet BNC networked too), no repeatability, several weeks/months of nonstop correct work, then failure after reset and/or power off/on.
IPCs communicate with industrial PLCs through long distance (Twisted Pair) RS-485 (optically isolated ISA cards). No modems, no printers.
Office PC is in 100mbit Ethernet LAN and has a LPT printer HPLJ.
In some cases the PCs then couldn't be started until we pull off PCI VGA card (old fashioned S3 Trio 64V+ in two IPCs), sometimes we had to replace it, then start PC. The &quot;wrong&quot; PCI VGA card worked OK in another PC, of course.
Then we put the &quot;wrong&quot; VGA back and the &quot;wrong&quot; PC already worked OK.
Standard office PC had AGP VGA and the chandge for PCI VGA recovered the PC. Then we could return the original AGP and it worked OK too.

In one industrial PC the BIOS couldn't even &quot;see&quot; the HDD after the problem occured. We tried to connect it directly (not through the plastic swap drawer), BIOS detected it. Then we replace it to the same drawer and IPC works fine.

It seems like some incorrect status of the PC bus, maybe caused by some ESD?

Have you some ideas how to solve this time-to-time (but in industrial nonstop IPC service serious) problem?

Thanks