I am getting peculiar start-up problems which results in my PC often (but not always) refusing to boot into Linux/Windows when it is first switched on. Usually the problem occurs after the machine is switched off overnight and is then switched back on again the next day.

The POST is okay and all the hardware is recognized. When the machine hangs it is just before the point where the OS is booted. Then nothing further happens and I have to depress the start button for at least 4 seconds to force the machine to switch off. If I just press the hard reset button the machine will lose the video signal and the monitor goes into standby mode leaving me looking at a blank screen!

To get restarted I have to actually power down the machine. Typically after waiting for 30 seconds and switching back on again the PC will then boot straight into the OS with no problems.

System :
FIC KA-6110 motherboard with VIA Apollo Pro+ chipset
P3 CPU, 600MHz
256MB PC133 (running at 100MHz)
ATI Rage Pro 32mb AGP 2x card
Soundblaster 64 PCI card
US Robotics 56k modem ISA card
20GB IDE hard drive 5400 rpm
16x DVD ROM drive
Floppy drive
250W PSU

I have run diagnostic software on the memory chips (MemTest86 v3.0) and it reports everything okay, as does Norton Utilities. As far as I know the various adapter cards are working okay. I have run the ATI diagnostic software for the video card and everything tests out okay. I am not sure about the Motherboard or PSU.

Any ideas on what the cause of this problem is?

Thanks, Alan

Hmmmm, just how long have you left the machine?

The only reason I'm asking is because that my machine often sits there a while trying to access the hard drive for about a minute or two before it finds it.

Also, does the dvd rom drive make funny noises? does it have a cd/dvd in when it fails to boot? when my dvd drive started to fail it wouldn't boot if there was a disk in the drive.

Sorry I couldn't be any more help. I'm not a hardware guru.

Alex

Hi,

Usually the machine will be off for maybe 8 hours before it is switched back on again. There are no strange noises coming from the DVD drive and it appears to be working normally.

I found out that the BIOS was flash upgraded and the machine subsequently fitted with an AGP 2x card. I understand that the original specification for the M/B was to only support AGP 1x. I am wondering if this could be causing a problem bearing in mind that when the machine hangs it always loses the video signal on a hard reset.

Alan