PC sometimes not starting up

quinnd6

I was wondering if you guys might be able to help me figure out what could be going wrong with my pc.
Sometimes when I turn it on the pc doesn't fully start up.

It will sometimes freeze at one of the startup screens or the screen will stay black and it never gets to the Windows XP loading startup screen.
Usually when it gets to that screen it doesn't stall and startups fine.

Today when I turned it on it froze at a screen showing the device controllers.
I turned it off and on again and it froze on a black screen.
I think it was the 3rd time I turned it on that it on that it started up ok and I got into windows.

It has been doing this for ages now usually 3rd time lucky but I'd like to get it sorted as it is annoying.
As to finding the cause I really don't know where to start.
Fans start normally always; I can hear them running fine and the pc always powers on fine ;it just crashes during startup and you can still hear the fans running fine as if it was turned on normally; so I don't reckon there's any problems with the power supply.

It's a Medion destop pc bought in 2002.

Can anyone help?

Kevster

It could be due to many things, to be honest with you, but I'm sure you know this. Usually when it stalls like that, it's a hard-disk failure. I reckon you should consider reformatting the disk using the Windows install CD.

Kevin

wolfric

It will sometimes freeze at one of the startup screens

can you clarify this? Operating system or bios. I'm assuming it's operating system.

Can you try another? A live linux cd perhaps?
Go into control pannel ->administrative tools -> events and see if there are any that stick out. Hardware drivers and memory would be the first place i'd look. Hard drive errors second and anything else that sticks out third.

Take out all cards, all but one stick of ram and any additional drives that are not in use (obviously with the hard drive plugged in if you're doing this in windows) and do some test boots. Run a memtest (might be included on your boot menu on the bios or else download the "Ultimate boot cd" http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/). It'll have a lot of diagnostic tools there ready for you.

quinnd6

Cheers guys.
I tried doing a thorough scan with avast and it seems to be starting properly .
It picked up a couple of files it recognised as viruses whether they were the cause or not I don't know but it's starting ok now.

That looking for errors tip is a good idea I'll give that a go if the problem comes back and the other stuff you said.

quinnd6

It's been happening again.
I checked the error logs.
It has an error that says
"The ip address lease 1xx.xxx.xx for the Network Card with network
address xxxxxxx has been denied by the DHCP server
xxx.xxx.xx (The DHCP server sent a DHCPNACK message)"
Would this kind of message cause the computer to crash before even booting up?
When it fails it doesn't even get to the windows booting screen.
Sometimes it will crash at the pci device listing screen or will move past that and then go black.
Once it gets to the windows booting screen it always starts up ok but a lot of the time it doesn't get there.
I had to turn it on and off 4 times yesterday before it started up properly.

Deano12345

quinnd6 wrote: »

It's been happening again.
I checked the error logs.
It has an error that says
"The ip address lease 1xx.xxx.xx for the Network Card with network
address xxxxxxx has been denied by the DHCP server
xxx.xxx.xx (The DHCP server sent a DHCPNACK message)"
Would this kind of message cause the computer to crash before even booting up?
When it fails it doesn't even get to the windows booting screen.
Sometimes it will crash at the pci device listing screen or will move past that and then go black.
Once it gets to the windows booting screen it always starts up ok but a lot of the time it doesn't get there.
I had to turn it on and off 4 times yesterday before it started up properly.

Could be an IRQ error,or that device failing.

Chances are with the age of the PC,it will have a PCI network card,take that out and then boot it up and see what happens.

The PSU may also be on the way out

quinnd6

Ok thanks.
If it was the power supply unit that was starting to go I'm wondering how much it would cost to replace it.

Deano12345

quinnd6 wrote: »

Ok thanks.
If it was the power supply unit that was starting to go I'm wondering how much it would cost to replace it.

Not much,a good Corsair unit like this CX400 would be perfect (Even a little overkill)

Encoder1970

My suggestion is to start with the hardware and move towards the software.
Run a chdsk to rule out hard disk issues. You could also run memtest to check RAM.

quinnd6

Yep I ended up bringing it in for repair because when it got to the stage where it was shutting itself down immediately after being turned on.
Anyway I have it back from repair and it's still the same.

I turned it on twice and it didn't get to the windows booting screen.
On the 3rd time then it turned on successfully.
I was on it for about an hour and a half and I was typing on a form on some site and noticed my pc was pressing space all by itself.
I pressed back space and it kept inputting space while I wasn't pressing space at all.
Then my pc closed down firefox and shut itself down.
I tried turning it on again and after a little while it shut itself down and started beeping multiple times.
Theres no pattern in the beeps it just seems to beep randomly.

I don't know what to do with it at this stage I'm well annoyed with it as it took 2 weeks to get it back from repair.
If the repair guys can't fix it when I bring it back to them I may have to scrap it.

Anyway keyboard input getting messed up , shutdown and random beeps anyone any ideas what might cause this?

fuelinjection

I have had 3 laptop meltdowns where I just had to buy a new laptop. Pain in the ass.

But I think that your problems are software related and not hardware related, because you can start up your laptop with the power button. So keep your computer and format the hard disc (sorry if you have not backed everything up but you will learn your lesson like me), boot from Windows XP/Vista disc and start again. The laptop itself sounds fine, which was not my problem 3 times, and you can bring it back to life with a format.


p.s. worst case is take the hard disc out and bring it into work and get the company nerd to copy it for you. Hint : tell him your sister is hot and is attracted to men who know what SATA means.

polyfusion

quinnd6 wrote: »

Yep I ended up bringing it in for repair because when it got to the stage where it was shutting itself down immediately after being turned on.
Anyway I have it back from repair and it's still the same.

I turned it on twice and it didn't get to the windows booting screen.
On the 3rd time then it turned on successfully.
I was on it for about an hour and a half and I was typing on a form on some site and noticed my pc was pressing space all by itself.
I pressed back space and it kept inputting space while I wasn't pressing space at all.
Then my pc closed down firefox and shut itself down.
I tried turning it on again and after a little while it shut itself down and started beeping multiple times.
Theres no pattern in the beeps it just seems to beep randomly.

I don't know what to do with it at this stage I'm well annoyed with it as it took 2 weeks to get it back from repair.
If the repair guys can't fix it when I bring it back to them I may have to scrap it.

Anyway keyboard input getting messed up , shutdown and random beeps anyone any ideas what might cause this?

Sounds to me like a problem with the keyboard. Sometime you'll get beeping if a button is stuck, and can stall on startup as well (you'd need to see the POST screen and check for keyboard errors. Is the keyboard PS/2 or USB? Any possibility of getting another keyboard to test it and rule this out as the cause?

Any spills into the keyboard recently, or has it been hammered, or something dropped onto it? Dodgy cable? Not fully plugged in? If it's USB, try it in a different port. Do other USB devices work ok (mouse, printer, memory sticks, etc)?

quinnd6

Thanks you were right; it was the keyboard that was causing all the problems all along.
I'm after changing to a new keyboard and it's been working fine for the last 3 hours.
Thanks.