powers up, no post screen

[mala-d]

A couples of weeks ago, I put my computer to sleep and when I came back it wouldn't come out of sleep. I tried everything to get it back, but ended up shutting off and restarting.

Computer:


OS: XP
CPU: Athlon 2400
MOBO: Biostar M7VIG
Memory: 1.25 GB
Chipset: VIA VT8375
BIOS: Award (12/10/03)
Video: S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR / SupersavageDDR
some CD/DVD drives, a floppy, etc.


Anyway, no POST screen came up whatsoever, just flashing CD-Drives, a powered-on light, a backlight for the Ethernet plug in, and humming fans. I reset, and powered on and off multiple times, but no luck. I finally got the bright idea to try putting a disc in the drive and since I don't have a copy of XP, I threw in a Suse 10.1 disc. After several tries to read the disc, and more power on/off's, the Suse screen finally appeared on my monitor. I choose the boot from hard drive option, the POST screen appeared, and XP started. I thought I had found a reliable procedure for getting my computer started the next time.


But I didn't shut the machine off, because I didn't want to face the unknown again and wasn't sure my solution would work, anyway, it had taken a while to get the Suse disc to register in the first place. Then, in the process of setting up a DVD burn, I put a disc in the slave DVD-Rom drive and the computer lost all power instantly, and I was once again facing the prospect of starting via Suse: it didn't work. I thought the fact that using this drive had shut the computer off offered a clue as to what was making my computer malfunction, so I disconnected this drive and tried again. Still no luck. I left the thing off for a just used my notebook for a week. I opened the box up that next weekend and made sure everything was connected as it should be and cleaned everything up a little bit. I also reconnected the secondary DVD-Rom that I had unplugged earlier. When i turned the computer back on, the Suse disc worked.


Alas, the machine shut down again after a day or two(Windows update I think), and I immediately went for the Suse disc again. This time, no luck. The disc starts spinning for a 30 seconds or so, and then stops. Sometimes it doesn't even do that. No boot up to the Suse screen. I've tried:

1. unplugging and letting it sit for hours
2. making sure all power connections are cool inside the box
3. reconfiguring the master/slave configs of the disc drives.
4. Accessing BIOS

is it time for new hardware? It seems like it but since everything works after I get that Suse screen up has me scratching my head.


Any help would be appreciated. Sorry for the lengthy spell-out of this situation.


mala-d

[doddsy]

you try clearing cmos? or even fitting a new cmos battery?

[mala-d]

i'll give that a shot

thanks

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

you try clearing cmos? or even fitting a new cmos battery?

I know this is prolly a little of subject, but would this possibly also remove the multi boot type options..? I've tried re-formatting but that didn't do what I wanted to...

[RicheemxX]

sounds to me like the OP is having power supply issues, although I'm not certain why you wouldn't get a bios screen but you'd get a suse boot screen?? you sould start with some basic troubleshooting. Strip everything down to just the basics, cpu/hs/fan single stick of memory ect. and go from there. Are you using on-board video or is that a secondary video card?

NLM your post is completely off topic but no clearing the cmos doesn't fix your boot records and I'm assuming thats what you are talking about

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Sorry for being off topic, but as I saw that and I thought that it might do...

Yes, you were correct..... I'll have to either live with it, or search the threads/google/wiki...... I've done it somehow before, but I can't remember how....

Ta much anyway...

[mala-d]

yes, RicheemxX, that's an on board video card. I'll strip it down and see what happens. What is OP? Thanks for all of the suggestions so far.

mala-d

[RicheemxX]

OP = original poster