PC in coma

[radiogram]

My PC has new motherboard, CPU, RAM, PSU, HD. It has worked perfectly for a few weeks since built.

Turned it on this evening and little sign of life.

The HD and CD lights come on
At no point does the cooler fan on the CPU turn
Nothing appears on the screen
The HD does not appear to be doing anything
After half a minute, 1 long and 2 short beeps
Then it seems to give up

I tried
- reseating the graphics card - no change
- using the VGA instead of digital socket - no change
- removing the graphics card - no change

- removing one stick of memory (from socket 2)
- swapping the other stick into socket 1
(the manual does not mention a single stick so maybe it does not like a single anyway - so may not be a useful test)

- checked other connections.

I tried a boot disk ... it is set to boot from floppy first (I have an external USB floppy) .... but it seems to look last ... After the HD light and the CD light and after the Beeeps, it finally starts to read the floppy. The PSU is running but nothing else ... it does not run, nothing appears on the screen and eventually I switch off.

So,
a) Could it be the memory ? Would the cooler not turn ?
b) Could it be the CPU ? Would the Beeps not be different ?
c) HD ?
d) Surely not the graphics card ....


I've seen mention of graphics cards regarding long and 2 short beeps. My card is 2 years old, but would it stop the PC starting ? Seems unlikely ... and in any case, it was exactly the same with the card removed from the PC.


I will be very pleased to receive any advice.


STOP PRESS !!
- I had a last check wiggles a few wires - but I had done that before
- hit the start button - the fan turned for 10 seconds - stopped for 10 seconds - started again - plugged in monitor cable - no picture
- rebooted .......... and it seems to work !!!!

Just checked the Event Viewer. I last used the PC this morning and at the time I left it to close down, under Application is this entry:
Windows saved user XXX registry while an application or service was still using the registry during log off. The memory used by the user's registry has not been freed. The registry will be unloaded when it is no longer in use.

This is often caused by services running as a user account, try configuring the services to run in either the LocalService or NetworkService account.

There was nothing running at that time, apart from background stuff that mostly just sits there.

It seems the PC has awoken from the coma ... but I am probably going into one .... Any help will be much appreciated.


MOBO: Gigabyte GA-M52S-S3P
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Socket AM2 (&std cooler)
RAM: Kingston 1GB Kit (2x512MB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400

 

[wolluf]

Most likely you have a faulty mobo or power supply.

 

[wahnula]

From:

http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/post-beep-codes.htm

one long beep and two short beeps - Video error (reseat or replace video card)

So...try another video card. This is a typical symptom of ESD damage during assembly:

http://www.pcguide.com/byop/byop_ElectrostaticDischargeESD.htm

Best of luck.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[BadBigBen]

I tend to agree with Wolluf, in that it sounds alot like a PSU underpower or going out problem... as it seems that the GFX card is not getting enough power to fully come on...

and yes, it could also be ESD discharge, as wahnula mentioned...




Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[radiogram]

wolluf, wahnula, BadBigBen

All those were possibilities but it seems that the unusual behaviour (like trying to start an old car) was down to the BIOS. I updated it, and now all is ok ......... so far

 

[wolluf]

radiogram - hope its really has fixed it - but it would certainly go against my experience (bios upgrades are usually of use to supply updated functionality, like cpu recognition, large drive support etc - they don't fix hardware problem with the motherboard). You may just have had a 'glitch' in the first place, which has now disappeared.

If it is/was PSU issue, then it will probably reoccur. If it was a motherboard issue (slightly faulty component), then it will also likely reoccur. Good news about either is they shouldn't upset your data - and PSU in particular is easy fix.

So just repeat - hope its fixed!

 

[radiogram]

wolluf

I know it seems unlikely, but I googled and found some other cases where a PC was reluctant to start first time because of the BIOS.

Anyway, I shall bear in mind the possibility that there could still be a problem. I am looking out for minidumps.

As for data, I have Acronis True Image - image on a second drive, so restoring is no problem. (I recommend this arrangement to anyone)

 

[radiogram]

wolluf

Could be your prognosis is correct .....
Twice in the last couple of weeks, this has happened:
Shut down at night - all ok
Used it this morning, then shut down - all ok
Switched on this evening ... it froze as the Desktop appeared.

After a few minutes, hit Reset on PC
It automatically ran a quick CHKDSK
" ... deleting corrupt attribute ... "
" ... deleting index entry from index $0" etc
Rebooted itself
Before it gets to the Desktop it reboots itself again
.... and again .... and again


My 2nd internal drive holds an image
So I restored to 9pm last night.
And all is running perfectly again ........

So, what is going wrong ?
Is there a problem as it closes ? Or as it boots ?
Is it the HD ? Or the motherboard ?
Strange, because it runs perfectly otherwise, like right now ..

I am now beginning to suspect the motherboard. Before I remove it, has anyone seen this before ??

All advice much appreciated.