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Computer repair people please read LONG


87GT

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So I thought I figured out that my IDE cable was bad but this is not the case. I have reinstalled windows vista enough times that right now is a fresh copy with nothing done to it other then logging in and rebooting over and over.

 

My motherboard has only 1 IDE chain, 1 floppy chain, and 6 sata ports.

On the IDE chain DVD burner is master and a hard drive for data is slave.

On SATA port 1 is the windows vista drive

On SATA port 2 is another data hard drive

There is no floppy installed

I am using a KVM switch just for video and keyboard. Mouse is USB not hooked into KVM switch

 

The problem is simple. Randomly my computer will boot and other times it locks up. By random I mean I must reboot 2-5 times and/or turn off computer before it boots.

 

The computer turns on, it goes through POST test, and sees all the IDE and SATA installed devices. Then it switches to a black screen with one cursor flashing in the left corner. If the computer feels like working it checks for bootable CDs in the drive ("press any key to boot from cd-rom......."), then blinks for about 20 seconds, then starts the boot loader for vista. Then the windows bar scrolls on the bottom etc etc.

 

If it doesn't feel like working it will keep flashing forever and will never check for a bootable cd. It locks up my keyboard. I am not able to use the KVM keyboard command to switch to my other computer until I power the machine off. Other times it allows me to switch but it takes about 10 seconds to switch over.

 

I though it was something with the IDE chain so I first unhooked and hooked in the IDE wire. Then I ran the computer with no primary hooked up. Also no slave hookup. Then I ran with only the 2 sata hard drives hooked up. In all options above it will randomly work.

 

As a last resort I have only hooked up the sata port 1 operation system drive.

It still randomly boots.

 

Anyone know what the problem could be? :mad::mad::mad:

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Make sure you have the latest drivers/bios/firmware for all your devices. If my IDE cable is slightly loose windows will boot then freeze on me also and someones get stuck at the post screen. Make sure all your shits plugged in snug and do bios/drivers/firmware and see what happens.
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Does it ever hang in POST or pre-windows? If so, avoid updating your BIOS. If it doesnt, update it if possible.

 

It might be worth seeing if your RAM is the culprit.

 

http://www.memtest86.com/

 

Get the bootable CD-Rom image, burn it, and test it your ram out. Bad ram can cause all kinds of errors, some similar to your problem.

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Sounds like your problem is your CD drive or the IDE controller.

 

RAM is still a possibility.

 

Buy a SATA Dvd burner from newegg for $20.

 

EDIT: Is everything configured in bios properly? I wouldn't be able to tell you whats right and wrong but its worth looking through to make sure nothing stupid is turned on/off.

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Yes I have checked bios settings and it is all fine. Nothing changed. My computer was working in vista for months just now decided to randomly boot. If the only thing hooked up is one sata hard drive and not working then buying a new DVD burner will not fix.
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Try turning off the IDE controller in BIOS.

 

Also, try different RAM in it.

 

Without buying RAM I have no spares. I will turn off the IDE controller in BIOS. IF that doesn't work I will remove 2 of my 4 RAM sticks and see what happens.

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This isn't sounding good. Sounds like a motherboard problem.

 

Updating bios might help. What kind of computer is this? Custom built? Does it have a "Press button to enter bios flash" or anything like that? I think a BIOS update could be helpful if it has a bios flash thing like that, but its really starting to sound like the board is bad.

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This isn't sounding good. Sounds like a motherboard problem.

 

Updating bios might help. What kind of computer is this? Custom built? Does it have a "Press button to enter bios flash" or anything like that? I think a BIOS update could be helpful if it has a bios flash thing like that, but its really starting to sound like the board is bad.

 

AMD dual core motherboard is an ASUS m2n32-sli premium vista edition, 4 1GB corsair xms2 RAM chips, geforce 9800 GT PCI-E video card, and a samsung 250 GB SATA hard drive

 

There is an EZ BIOS update flash tool in the bios but it only wants to load the file from either floppy or cd rom. i guess i could make a cdrw with it on there. Oh whenever I make a change to bios and save and exit it takes at least 20 seconds or more to move away from the screen and reboot.

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Humm, try and flash the bios and see whats going on. when i had it it never had one issue so i wonder whats going on.

 

did you make any changes in the bios? do a bios reset and make sure.

 

do you have another hdd with another OS on it you could try instead of your primary?

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I usually don't recommend PSU right away, but yes, the PSU can be responsible for the strangest shit you can imagine.

 

I'll never forget the day I was seeing what was wrong with my moms computer and then smoke started pouring out of the back of it.. Fan stopped working, overheated to the point of solder melting, short circuited, smoke.

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