Need techie help, computer hangs up

I have a computer I am trying to fix.

I installed a new hard drive, the old one apparently died, and couldn't even be read through a IDE to USB converter on another computer. (another hard drive read just fine)

Anyway, I started to install Windows XP, the drive formatted just fine, etc. After the auto reboot, I got a black screen. The cpu fan was running, and the hard drive was spinning, I think.

So, I shut down the computer and restarted it. Now, it starts to finish the installation, but hangs up at "preparing for installation." I waited for a while. Same thing, fans are spinning, hard drive is spinning, but nothing is really happening on the install.

I'm leaning toward the power supply or something with the motherboard.

What do you guys think?

Troy

[edit on 27-6-2008 by cybertroy]

[edit on 27-6-2008 by cybertroy]

I had a problem like this when i was fixing an old pc years ago....really embarrassed me cause it took three days to figure out that it was because theyre was a disk in another drive...ya u can imagine how ticked off i was :bnghd:

It may also be that you might have a problem with the processor??? if it were the pwer supply you'd have problems with it turning on and off. The only real problem i could think of with the motherboard is static, in which case you would have blown it along time ago

oh, and if you want to see if its the mother board just look at it and see if there are any "burn" marks near the processor or any of the transistor/resistors

[edit on 27-6-2008 by Secret Shadow]

I think it might be overheating and auto-shutting off.

Sometimes computers get just a little bit of dirt in the wrong place and .. well, you know what happens.

Look through the cpu cooling fan (or take it off) and see if the cooling sink fins are clogged up with dust.... brush it all out and give it a good blowing off...

Remove the RAM, and with a soft brush, clean it up a bit. Brush off the motherboard too where you can. DO NOT use hard bristles and scrub away like a man posessed... a soft brush gently brushing loose dust is enough.. then blow it off...

Basically give the entire insides a good clean..remove the graphics/sound or modem cards, clean them too.

Remove the watch battery from the motherboard and replace it 5 minutes later.

Once all this is done, you might even find your old drive will work now too.

I've had a few instances where the removal of the RAM and the watch battery have solved several different issues. It's a bit like a memory wash.. ressts a lot of stuff it seems.

I just tried reseating a lot of the connections including the CPU and ram. It's a little dusty, but not like some I have seen. In the past I resolved a non starting computer by reseating everything.

But, unfortunately, now, I'm just getting a black screen. It's worse

I'll try pulling out the CMOS battery, and put it back in, like you suggested, and see if that does anything.

I tested the RAM with no errors.

The old hard drive is dead in some fashion as far as I know. It doesn't even show up in disk management on my other computer, attached as an external drive.

Troy

I hope you sort it.

I had a similar problem with the drive of another computer a few weeks ago.. ended up having to force a format on it and re-install windows.

BIOS settings should not have changed or cause any upsets on the graphic display side of things. I don't think this is a monitor problem either.

Did you remove the cooling fan from the heat sink and clean up the heat sinks fins?

Are you able to boot the pc in safe mode?

I'm just wondering also if you've got any programmes that auto load on startup that involve graphics or sound... say like Adobe or something.
You may need to updat the drivers..

This is, unfortunately, one of those problems that have many possible causes/solutions.

Yeah, I'm getting my feet wet in a computer repair business. I worked on them in a previous job. This problem has me a bit confused.

Ok, so here is the status now. I did take out the CMOS battery, and put it back in with improvement.

I started re-installing the operating system again. Again, it goes through the process with now problems up until it re-starts Windows to finish the installation.

See, it's doing something at this point of installing Windows that it isn't doing with the beginning of the installation. I may need to start taking out hardware, and see if the problem goes away.

Now, it's rebooting over and over. Bad power supplies can do this. Perhaps starting up an additional device is overloading the weak power supply?

We'll see what happens. I will also try a known good power supply.

Troy

reboots over and over are also to do with an error on a file reporting back to itself.

There may be too much info to dump into error reporting folder but the folder does not have enough capacity left.

check this page for that problem, if it is the same problem as you describe..
support.microsoft.com...

personally I wouldnt think it would be a heating problem if your getting these problems with a fresh boot up.If your using an old hardrive from another computer it may be that theres a file left on it thats not "playing well" with the other files on your OS lol, however if your using a new drive could it be possibly a file or document left on the RAM?

The reason i say this is because from my experience it seems that its not necessarily a physical problem, rather a problem with something that maybe on the disk or RAM that hasnt been wiped

[edit on 28-6-2008 by Secret Shadow]

Windows XP didn't get fully installed, I can't get to things like the registry.

I think it is the motherboard or CPU. I used my power supply off of my good computer, with the same results.

Troy

It may be verywell be the motherboard,but before you do anything to it try formatting the hatddrive again and reinstalling XP again or even try installing a different OS to see if thats the problem

I tried to install 3 times today.

It will run a diagnostic tool like The Ultimate Boot CD.

CPU tests, so far, don't seem to indicate a bad CPU.

I didn't have any luck with Knoppix, or Puppy Linux. These operating systems both run from CD.

Now, I have not removed the graphics card and tried to use the integrated card instead though. I think I should check this.

Troy

reply to post by cybertroy


Several suggestions:
1) is it a sata drive???
2) could it be the os disk-a scratch........do you have another os disk to try???
3)if you think it is a heating issue, open the side and place a box fan 2 feet from the inside running @ high.
That would resolve any heating issues and let you know if heat is a problem.
Also, when loading os, try removing all partions and recreate a new one, then proceed.

Personally, i think it is the os disk, i once had the same exact issue.

hope this helps.

I gave this machine back to the owner. I assumed it had something to do with the motherboard, perhaps it was something else?

She had no real understanding of computers, and wanted the old (dead) drive put back in. She is supposed to have someone else look at it.

Troy

You made reference to there being onboard video and another video card
That maybe where the problem was

was the video card agp or pci ?

From what you were saying the problem was you didn't have the bios set up properly

what is the date of the bios when the post started ?

It probably would of been a good idea to remove the other video card install XP
then install and con fig for the other card after





[edit on 4-7-2008 by The Utopian Penguin]

[edit on 4-7-2008 by The Utopian Penguin]