Failure to boot, even to BIOS screen

[Nemor]

First of all I'd like to state that I have searched forums and stuff for this topic before, and have found them elsewhere but it seems to be a problem specific to each user.

 

So I thought I'd post here see if someone could help me out.

 

Ok, so nothing has changed that I can think of that could have caused this problem. I remember purchasing an old win98 game called Jagged Alliance 2, which I installed and played with no problems.

 

Then I remember getting home from work one day, booting up the game and eventually the computer completely froze. It didn't reboot or log an error, just froze.

 

I rebooted once more and the problem began. Either I would get as far as Desktop and it would freeze, or I wouldn't even get the initial beep from boot or see the BIOS screen.

 

I have had this problem before on an old computer, which I had put in for repair. When I got it back, all was well until about 3 days later when it flared up again.

 

I've tried a variety of things, first and foremost (when I had access to the desktop) I restored it back to a point 3 days before the first crash. It worked well again until I had turned it back on the next day to find out that I couldn't even get it to BIOS.

 

I'm at wits end trying to figure this out...

 

My system:

 

Operating System:

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600)

 

Motherboard:

Board: AOpen AX4SPB-UN

Bus Clock: 133 megahertz

BIOS: Phoenix/Award Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 09/06/2004

 

DDRAM:

1024 Megabytes Installed Memory

 

Slot 'A0' has 512 MB (PC3200)

Slot 'A2' has 512 MB (PC3200)

Slot 'A4' is Empty

Slot 'A3' is Empty

 

Hard Disk Drive:

Maxtor 6Y160P0 [Hard drive] (163.93 GB) -- drive 0, s/n Y47XF2ME, rev YAR41BW0, SMART

 

Central Processing Unit:

2.80 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4

8 kilobyte primary memory cache

512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

 

Graphics Card:

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS [Display adapter]

 

Monitor:

ACR AL1916W [Monitor] (19.1"vis, s/n 6380B4B34010, September 2006)

1280x720 32-bit 75hz

 

Sound Card:

MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device

Realtek AC'97 Audio

Sound Agent 2 for Audio Set – Connected to Philips M589 Gameport System

Standard Game Port

USB Audio Device (USB hook-up to PC, through Philips M589 Gameport System)

 

Removable Media:

Generic DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]

TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H552U [CD-ROM drive]

3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

MAXTOR STM305004EHCB01-RK 500GB 3.5" BASICS EXTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE

 

Network Adapter:

Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC

 

USB:

Apple iPod USB Device [Hard drive] (4.09 GB) -- drive 1

Saitek EVO Flightstick

Philips Composite USB-Hifi Device

USB Mass Storage Device

USB Root Hub (5x)

 

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

Regards.

[maynardvdm]

Is your pc getting hot. Heat can also cause alot of problems. Also any spikes and surges or alot of power failures can lead to problems. If it is none of this check the psu first.

[danzil]

at first power on.(post) do you receive any bios beeps at all.

i would try changing memory i noticed you have to 512mb in there try just one on its own,and different slots etc.....

may also want to check the thermal paste under your cpu heatsink and fan,,,make sure it is not dry etc...

post back if none of the above help

regards

danzil

[Nemor]

It's not hot, this much I do know.

 

It's possible it's alot of electrical surges but I have it connected to a surge protector, so it shouldn't be that but still a possibility.

 

I'll check the memory and paste tonight. Is it worth plugging the pc into a plug socket on it's own rather than in an adapter?

[danzil]

you could try running it straight into the wall socket but i dont think that is the issue...

the main thing we need to know is are there any beeps coming from the machine....is everything sat in correctly...maybe worth resitting your ram and cpu,as a quick test...

let me know how you get on

regards

danzil

[Nemor]

Everything is sat correctly, nothing wrong with thermal paste.

 

Tried removing one stick of ram at a time, and replacing with new.

 

Tried taking out the motherboard battery to reset the cmos.

 

Nothing seems to work.

 

On my old one (which I still have) after removing the battery it now works, only it won't ever detect the keyboard anymore :/

 

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you, just been busy lately.

[danzil]

busy lol like wise...

ok can you boot into safe mode...tap f8 at startup.

let me know..

soz been up sinc e 5am

danzil