Booting Problem

check you fan and change one, check 12v power for fan. then check your cpu.

if your mainboard is AWARD BIOS, check your RAM.

I can only give out this suggestion.

Your CPU is overheating. Change your CPU fan

In order to help you, we would need to know more about your computer, like what brand and model it is, how old it is, and any other things that may have been happening before the final breakdown.

[sorry Sparky, i just had to do it]

not bad, I vote you. in spite I cannt read all of it.

I had the same problem with a Dell and it turned out the power supply needed replaced. After replacing it, everything was fine. Hope this helps. Let us know what fixed your problem.

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I removed the CMOS battery and reinserted it after 10 min.

I also removed my RAM and did some dusting.

My PC now works and this is the first comment I have posted after it started working.

If your RAM was dusty, did you also remove the CPU fan and suck the dust out of there too?

The CPU is more important to keep cool than the RAM (expense wise)

Another possibility is that your bios has been changed. This could happen with a weak Battery, Power surge, or a virus.

You may have to check your Bios setup. Your Bios may not even recognize your hard drive, or your memory CPU speed settings may have changed. Depending on your system, this is entered on power-up by hitting, delete key, F2, or F8 or some other key. Have the bios automatically detect the Hard drive, then exit and save the settings. Usually F10 will save the settings and restart.

If this corrects the problem but it happens again, you may have to replace the Battery for your Bios. It usually is a small battery on the motherboard that looks like a watch battery.

That RED LED isn't generally a "CPU PROCESSING" indication, its "HD Activity"

That Box commonly mistaken as a "CPU" is the case that holds the CPU, Video card, memory, motherboard and HD's (and any other wanky stuff people put in them)

The actual CPU is under a sizeable heatsink, generally loaded with a fan on top, or hoses running out of a smaller "Water Block"

I've been building my own computers since 1982. The suggestion to use beep codes to narrow the problem down is a good one.

Having said that however, my experience has been that the most common problems with PC's are generally due to a bad power supply or an improperly seated card or memory. Motherboard failures are rare.

There are very good power supply testers available for a modest price: generally about $20. Radio Shack sells an excellent one. It has ports for every conceivable cable out of every type of PS.

Another trick is to remove that thin battery that saves the BIOS settings. Leave it out of the socket for about 5 minutes. Then reinstall. Often this is all it takes to get a PC running. I don't know why.

L. J.

Hello, DrMoose here, just not logged in. I have also been building computers since the early 80s, usually from cast-off junk. In other places I am known as Dr. Frankenstein.

Anyway, the reason that pulling the battery from the motherboard solves so many problems is that the CMOS (BIOS) settings are in volatile memory, and that battery is what keeps that memory active. So, when you remove the battery, the memory goes inactive and the BIOS returns to it's default settings. Of course then one must needs reset the system clock and the BIOS settings. Most motherboards have a three pin header with a jumper cap for this purpose also. Set the cap to one side and it resets the BIOS, set it to the other for normal operation. But of course the computer will not boot if you fail to put the jumper cap back to the normal operation position.

Most motherboard manufacturers have manuals available for free download, which helps tremendously in troubleshooting and in setting up the BIOS after a reset. Look on the motherboard for the manufacturer's name and the model and version number of the board. This information is usually silk screened onto the board near the CPU socket or the the expansion slots. The same goes for any expansion cards (video, SCSI/SATA controllers, etc.), RAM, the CPU, and so forth.

Just be sure to find out exactly what you have in your computer and download every bit of information you possibly can before you start taking it apart. The more information you have before you start, the easier it will be to troubleshoot the problem, and the more likely your efforts will be successful.

Kudos to CHARSLEY99 for a really excellent answer, and I highly recomend that you use the troubleshooting procedure he has outlined.

must have been fun scavenging parts for computers back in the early '80s

And a BIG house to build them in, or are you talking about the early mini's like the Spectrum's, or Z-80 based ones...

REMOVE THE POWER CORD FROM THE SYSTEM AND MAKE CERTAIN YOU ARE NOT CARRYING A STATIC CHARGE BY TOUCHING SOMETHING METAL.

Removing the battery begins the process of discharging the cmos. To truly clear the cmos, you have to find a 3 pin cluster on the motherboard called jpcmos (jumper cmos) or CLRCMOS (clear cmos). Next, note that the jumper has 3 pins. Note which 2 jumpers are being jumped. Using a straight forceps or tweezers, move the jumper so it now spans the 2nd and 3rd pins. Wait 10-20 seconds and then move the jumper back to the original position (spanning pins 1 and 2). Finally, replace the cmos (round) battery.

The cmos contains the most basic version of a PC BIOS. There are 4 definite reasons for the CMOS to 'lock up':

Finds a device that is not recorded in the CMOS. - you installed something or the system had to start a service which required a reboot

Does not find a device that is recorded in the CMOS. You removed a device i.e. a USB memory device that has different settings than those recorded for it in CMOS.This can happen if you 'hot' change a device from one USB port to another. For instance, just pulling out the USB cord from one port an sticking it into another without shutting down the system.

Finds a device that has different settings than those recorded for it in CMOS: A close lightning strike or surge scrambles the settings of the CMOS. Also 'hot' swaps on large (266 Gig) external Hard Disk Drives.

Detects a CMOS checksum error. [1] [2] This is caused by gremlins infesting your system or something you might have downloaded - reboot into a virus scan - just to be safe (and get this blue stuff off my screen)

You can find the jumper by looking up the specs on your system, which you should always have at your fingertips, or on the web by searching for your mother-board model number.

Good luck and be careful.

/Ari (orpheuse)

I experienced the same problem with a Dell. The source of my problem was the video card. My video card has a fan mounted on it which has a filter. I cleaned the filter on the video card and all was good.

You have a CPU heating fan problem.

If this is a laptop, take it to the nearest computer repair shop.

If this is a desktop, open the case, gently remove the CPU fan and take a hop to the computer shop. Buy a new CPU FAN and a case fan, if you don't have one already on your computer case. Go home and install same.

Also, buy a bottle of compressed air and blow the dust off the fans, and the mother-board.

If nothing else works it's time to take it in and have a pro look at it.

/Ari (Orpheuse)

No, this could be a fan that is running without a problem.

If you have one of the newer mobo's, Auto control on fan, and fan speed detection by BIOS (BIOS FAN settings)

then while the system is under very low loads, and while starting up, the buzzer will sound as the fan hasn't started up.

The fan hasn't started up as the temperature of the CPU is below a certain threshold, once the temperature rises, the fan will start and stop (along with the beeper inversly, or as fan speeds up, beeper stops)

once the processor is at a temp that the fan will run continiously, no beeping, if the processor load drops, the cpu will cool, the fan will stop, and the beeper will start again.

How do I know?

it does this on my Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6

In that case, why not set the threshold to <null> or disable the monitoring? I still think the best way to see what's going on is to open the case and look.

Another factor might be the load. If your PC is crammed full of various cards and ribbon cable your power supply may be inadequate to deal with the demand. In other words, if your power supply is rated 350Va and you are pulling 375 then you need to upgrade your power supply to, at least 450 if not 500.

It's not horribly expensive but the shipping could be. If it's the power supply remove it and bring it with you as the motherboard comes in 2 sizes. I think is 20 and 24 pin. Even so, they usually ship with an adapter.

Good luck and keep us posted, when you can.

/Ari (Orpheuse)