| Author |
Message |
Harry Lister
| | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 1:38 pm: | |
I have a HP pavillion something or other motherboard with a Pentium III. I think the board is an Asus built for HP. Anyway, it has 2 harddrives and 2 OS/dual boot with Win98 on primary and regardless of which OS I use when I try to restart without shutting down first, harddrive light and CD lights come on, screen blanks and then nothing. It will shutdown completey if shutdown is selected, but it wont warm boot. When it refuses to warm boot, I can wait for all the lights to turn back off and press reset button and it will restart, but not from software. If I hit reset button while everything is running(not a great idea normally) it will reboot and then scan drive of course. |
Harry
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 1, 2003 - 9:18 pm: | |
I need to add a little more info to the above. If I hit reset once it will not reboot - screen goes blank but does not complete the reboot. I wait for all the lights to turn off and then hit reset again and it will reboot properly. I also get strange dimming of video screen every once in a while. Could all this be the power supply? Or is there a missing piece of data on the MBR of the primary Hard drive which must be there to warm boot. The primary is where the boot info is for both Operating Systems. The restart function does not work for either win98 or Linux. The Linux OS runs from the secondary, which is why I believe it is something in the MBR of the primary drive which both OS share. The dimming video makes me think power supply. Is it likely that these are 2 distinct problems, dimming video and no restart? |
E.S.
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 1, 2003 - 9:32 pm: | |
I agree about the power supply possibly being an issue, how long has this problem been happening?
Inspect the mainboard carefully, look for any tell tale signs of bulging capacitors and such. a link here at http://www.careyholzman.com/ will give you an idea of what to look for. |
Harry
| | Posted on Thursday, July 3, 2003 - 7:38 pm: | |
Thanks E.S., but I think I fixed it. Yes, it was acting like the power supply and I took advice and opened her up and inspected everything. There was a ton of dust in the power supply and on the motherboard and cpu fan. I went to garage and got out 2 hp air compressor and blasted it. I dont know how the fans even turned with all the dust. I hooked everything back up and it still makes funky sound when it starts - maybe still the power supply, but the "restart" option works and I can feel fan on power supply box forcing air. Now, I guess a strange sound on startup could still indicate a dying power suppy? Could all that dust actually cause short circuits? |
E.S.
| | Posted on Friday, July 4, 2003 - 11:16 am: | |
Some dust is indeed conductive that sound you hear, is it like a growl or grinding noise? Could be the bearing on the fan going bad. |
Harry
| | Posted on Friday, July 4, 2003 - 12:27 pm: | |
The sound is both a growl then a grind and when OS is fully loaded it runs silent. If it "warm boots"  or from very recent complete shutdown it makes smooth whistling sounds. Maybe dust got in the bearings on one of the fans. I shall boot it with the cover off to see if I can pinpoint which fan CPU/Power/or GPU. Thanks for the help. |
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