Author Topic: Weird bootup problem (Read 273 times)

Dead Man Flying · « **on:** March 06, 2005, 08:44:50 AM »

I'm inclined to think this might be my power supply or motherboard going bad, but I'd like some thoughts.

Here are my system specs:

ASUS A7N8X rev2.0 Deluxe motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ processor
1024MB PC3200 Corsair RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (128MB) AGP
2x120GB Seagate SATA drives in RAID-0 configuration
Plextor 8x DVD-R/+R/RW/etc.
Antec Sonata case with 380 Watt power supply

On initial bootup in the morning about five days ago, the system POSTed fine and then hung at the Silicon Image RAID initialization screen. It wouldn't detect the harddrives in the RAID array. After a warm reboot (I hit the reset button), it detected them just fine and then booted to Windows normally. I ran all sorts of system diagnostics in Windows XP Pro, but they didn't seem to detect anything wrong with the harddrives themselves.

This pattern continued for about three days -- cold boot failing to initialize RAID followed by a successful initialization and boot to Windows XP after a manual reset.

Then yesterday morning, I turned on the computer and it wouldn't even power up to the POST. Everything would light up, but the harddrives wouldn't spin. Hitting the reset button or the on/off switch did nothing here, so I had to turn off the power at the power supply. Once I turned it on again and did a cold boot, the system POSTed fine (although I had to reset the CPU speed), and then proceeded to the RAID initialization with similar results as before. After a warm reboot, the system would POST and initialize the RAID array and launch Windows XP. It did the same thing this morning as well.

Thoughts? I'm disturbed that this appears to be getting progressively worse. At this point, I'm inclined to just keep the computer on continuously until I can figure out what the problem is and fix it.

Thanks!

-- Todd/Leviathn

Kegger26 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 06, 2005, 09:14:11 AM »

I would keep your computer on all the time anyways. I have been doing that with every sytem I have owned now for the past few years and I have yet to have any problems. It really sounds to me like a HD problem. If I were you I would try checking out your HDs on the web to see if anyone else is having problems with that same type of HD. I dont use seagates stuff anymore becuase I got two bad HDs from them once. Now all I use is Western Digitals HDs. I never have a problem.
On a side note, I have heard somthing before on the barrings getting worn on some of the seagate HDs. What RPM are your HDs? Since you are running a RAID 0 set up it only takes one HD to not pull its weight to send the whole system down. Maybe when you shut down the HDs need to get warmed up before they can really go again.

Dead Man Flying · « **Reply #2 on:** March 06, 2005, 11:07:09 AM »

Thanks for the advice, Kegger. I'm still up in the air as to whether or not the harddrives are at fault rather than, say, the controller card. First, the failure of the system to boot to POST the last couple of days (until I reset it) does not seem indicative of a harddrive problem. If the drives were bad, I'd think it would POST just fine and then crap out upon failing to recognize the bad drives. Second, when I do boot to Windows XP, my computer runs exactly as it always has. The harddrives function flawlessly, and I'm able to use the system without any problems. In addition, I can restart the system after this point ad infinitum without any difficulties. The problem comes from shutting down entirely and then performing a cold boot with the on/off switch.

These are 7200RPM drives BTW. I'm running diagnostics on them right now, and I'll report back if anything fishy appears.

Thanks,

Todd/Leviathn

Siaf__csf · « **Reply #3 on:** March 06, 2005, 11:28:05 AM »

I have the Asus A7N266 board on my second box and it's showing exactly the same symptoms as yours.

It's worked for over 2 years now with the problem, just needing a cold start now and then.

GunnerCAF · « **Reply #4 on:** March 06, 2005, 02:04:04 PM »

It's possilble is could be a power supply. I have a Asus A7V8X-X with an AMD +2500. My power supply went bad last fall. When booting cold, it would stop before loading windows, but it would just go black and start rebooting again. It just continued go get worse with time until it wouldn't boot at all. My case and power supply (Antec) was about 3 years old. A new power supply took care of the problem.

About the only way to fix it is to start replacing parts until it works. A new power supply is not as expensive as a new drive.

Good luck.

Gunner