Gowator Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 My GF's shuttle started acting strange. When she switches it on it takes a loing time to actually start booting. Sometimes 2-3 minutes sometimes 20-30 ? I suspect something on the power good on the PSU or the Mobo but both are a pain to replace and both are expensive and its easier to buy a new box/mobo combo! My GF reckons the time to start is proprtional to how long its been switch ed off.... open to all ideas... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 What are the proportional times based on how long it's been switched off? Has any new hardware been installed into it? When you press ESC and view bootup sequence, is it pausing and any particular places? And is it always the same places? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 (edited) What about replacing the BIOS battery (if feasible) and see what happens? It happened to me just once in the past, and after a lot of wild guessing there was found that the bios/cmos battery was ready to go tits up... If it doesn't work, you can find another gf with a newer computer! Edited December 19, 2005 by scarecrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted December 19, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 What are the proportional times based on how long it's been switched off? Has any new hardware been installed into it? When you press ESC and view bootup sequence, is it pausing and any particular places? And is it always the same places? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Its pre-boot. Before the disks spin up and before even the graphics card bios. It started all by itself but there was a prob with a usb keyb which confused it. Taking that away let it boot but my GF didn't bother to mention the prob with powering up for a long time ???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Whats the wattage of the PSU? What components are in the machine. A rough guide for some components: AMD processor - approx 80-90w. memory - 20-30w hdd - 30w cdrom - 30w video card - 80-90w. nics and others - 30w. When you mention pre-boot, I'm assuming it's actually turning on, but then not actually doing anything as such? If it's not turning on at all, then it could be if all the components add up close to/exactly to or over the wattage of your PSU, that is likely to be the reason it can't be turned on. Reason is, that when you turn it on, all power is taken straightaway for every device connected/installed in the system. At present, I'm assuming your able to turn it on, but it takes ages to pass the first initial POST test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted December 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Nope it is before the disks start to spin ... no light on the power etc. just the internal power LED. I changed out the last CPU (AMD 1250 Mhz - 1400+) for the AMD 2000+ which takes half the power because it was cutting out when rununbg 100% CPU. I have tried removing the big power suckers like the disks but it still does the same thing before even hitting the BIOS check of the graphics card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Have you tried another graphics card in case there is a problem with the current one? Is the memory OK? What might be worth running is memtest, to see if there is a hardware prob perhaps. Maybe memtest will find it, although it takes ages to run. I can't think of what else it would be other than main board, processor or memory. I wouldn't have thought video card, but it's worth a shot if you have a spare one, or one you can utilise temporarily from another machine. I'd hazard a guess at the main board though, since this is what is likely to process everything to get to the stage of showing the graphics bios, etc. Is there a BIOS update for the board you have in the shuttle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted December 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 I guess its worth a go taking the graphics card out and running memtest but she's atch ing Seinfeld on it right now :D Thx... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AcuraRBKG6 Posted January 1, 2006 Report Share Posted January 1, 2006 That is definitely indicative of a bad power supply. I believe what happens is that when your girlfriend presses the power button to start your computer 'cold', the power supply starts to gradually power up. I'm not entirely sure of what exactly causes this, but I am definitely sure it has something to do with power received. If you hear a really faint noise coming from your computer, I am sure this is the issue. The reason why her computer takes a shorter time to 'warm' with less devices is because the PS has to distribute less power. When her computer has been on for a while, however, it's already 'warm,' so it doesn't take as long to boot. I would highly recommend to at least try and replace the power supply. I would also take a look at the motherboard's capacitors; they might be shot. If the replacement of the power supply doesn't work; I'm sure the motherboard is faulty at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.