Stuck in boot cycle

Phog · August 27, 2007, 11:25:05 AM

I had a weird problem a couple of mornings ago which I dismissed but I got it again this morning so think it may become a bit of a pain in the arse. So I want to see if I can nip it in the bud before I kill it. :ranting2:

When I turn the computer on, I get the customary beep followed by the usual burst of the CPU fan on full speed. The monitor clicks on and shows a flashing underscore in the top left of the screen. The boot cycle then repeats with another beep and the fan burst. Occasionally it loads half of the bootscreen (the screen where you hammer F1 / Delete to get to BIOS menu). It seems unusual that this would happen but is also quite random. But other than that, it is stuck in this cycle of rebooting itself every couple of seconds.

I left it going in a hope that it would sort itself out but it didn't. I switched it off by just pressing the power button and pressed it again (as opposed to using the reset button). It then worked. Maybe after it had warmed up...

I've had a think about what might be causing it and the only thing that I can relate the two mornings by is the temperature... Both mornings were cold. Could it be a lose connection in the system somewhere that's causing the system to overload? Once it's warmed up it's absolutely fine, there's no crashing / instability. The warm system will mean the connection has expanded a tiny bit and the connection is good enough to run the system? Or am I completely crazy?

Anonymous · August 27, 2007, 11:29:56 AM

Remove and refit each connector in the computer (power and data cables) and unplug/reinsert each card. This "cleans" the contacts.

If it still happens we'll have another think

delanvital · August 27, 2007, 11:41:09 AM

Aye, re-seat the cards if you haven't done that already

Graphics card, RAM, especially. Maybe leave out all add-on cards that you can spare for a few boots to see if it can give you an indication of what is causing it?

Maybe even reset the mobo if nothing else helps, and you can be asked to punch in the bios specs again...

lionheart · August 27, 2007, 02:25:51 PM

Could well be a failing PSU.

T-Bag · August 27, 2007, 02:32:22 PM

It's definately a hardware thing. Check your Mobo manual for what a single system beep indicates.
My guess would be PSU as you have no instability when it gets past the bootscreen. Might want to try switching it out, new ones don't cost a whole lot and even if it doesn't fix the trouble it'll never go to waste.

kregoron · August 27, 2007, 02:38:15 PM

Quote from: T-Bag;203227It's definately a hardware thing. Check your Mobo manual for what a single system beep indicates.

In 99% of all mobo's today, a single beep indicates POST initiated.. but try have a look, you might have a odd mobo

What hardware are you using?

spiritus · August 27, 2007, 02:41:44 PM

a mate had a similar problem and when i was to what was wrong i found out his keyboard wasn't realy connected.. so his pc just restarted after a few sec after bios load. so check you keyboard conection. and hope it helps

edit: he had stepped on the wire so the pins were a bit bent, and had just luck that there was conection sometimes.

Lee · August 27, 2007, 03:34:36 PM

Quote from: kregoron;203230In 99% of all mobo's today, a single beep indicates POST initiated.. but try have a look, you might have a odd mobo

What hardware are you using?

:withstupid:
Could also be a Fan not spinning properly, maybe some dust or something in there. I'd go with the others first, check everything is plugged in correctly.

kregoron · August 27, 2007, 04:01:09 PM

Lee could be right, a failing fan could send the POST into a reset cycle, if the mobo supports fan controll/monitoring

would help if knew what mobo he is using

delanvital · August 27, 2007, 04:38:37 PM

Quote from: T-Bag;203227It's definately a hardware thing. Check your Mobo manual for what a single system beep indicates.
My guess would be PSU as you have no instability when it gets past the bootscreen. Might want to try switching it out, new ones don't cost a whole lot and even if it doesn't fix the trouble it'll never go to waste.

If you can't find beep codes in the manual, check the vendor's site. I had a case where the beep codes were not in the manual (ASUS) but could be found in the support section on the site...

And yeah, a PSU about to fail sounds like an option to. I guess the reason we haven't heard from Phog is that he's busy trying all our suggestions

T-Bag · August 27, 2007, 05:54:00 PM

It's about the most annoying thing in the world having a problem you can;t recreate. Atleast if it won't boot at all you can switch components about etc, intermittent mean you can never be quite sure if it's worked.
But you've got a lot of suggestions, so it's most likely been listed, test them all if you can and good luck.

Phog · August 28, 2007, 09:01:30 PM

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! I've been in London past couple of days so will begin working through all the suggestions tomorrow morning! (While babysitting so that might be interesting...).

:huggy::wub:

kregoron · August 28, 2007, 11:11:55 PM

well you got a helping hand then

ghoule211 · August 29, 2007, 06:59:59 AM

if it only does it during the cold morning's it could be condensation on the compenents or in the power supply...

the last time i had something like this it did actually end up being the psu but it was due to a spider being fried in there (a big one aswell)

kregoron · August 29, 2007, 07:19:21 AM

if its condensation, then the PSU just wouldnt boot, due to the failsafe popping, or at least it will if the PSU is no more then 10 years old...