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Won't boot after shutdown


xboxboy
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Hi all,

 

If I use the windows or mandriva reboot option in the shutdown menu my pc will reboot. If I shut the pc down and try to restart it, it wont for perhaps 15 minutes.

 

Is this a sign my hardware is on the way out? It always boots first time if it has been sitting for a while, only causes grief if its "warm" it appears. It fails to even do the bios checking beep.

 

I cant remember this ever occuring until recently, the board and cpu are about 5 years old now.

 

Thanks all.

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I would guess your hard drive is on the way out. It is having problems spinning up. If you have smartmontools installed, you can check for smart errors. Smartmontools is available from the Mandriva repositories. http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

 

You can also run drive diagnostics from a floppy. If you want the links to the tools, I will post them.

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With the symptoms you describe, I have usually found it to be memory problem. Either the stick is on its way out or sometimes it just needs re-seating in its socket.

Remove it and clean the contacts with pure alcohol or methylated spirits ( these do not leave residue) then plug in and out 4 or 5 times. Also run Memtest overnight to check out the memory operation.

If you have multiple sticks that are not physically identical then the speed setting in the bios may be causing one stick to run a little hotter as it gets older.

I have often found that setting the memory speed a little lower will fix the problem.

 

Cheers. John.

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So it doesn't sound good then. I've had that much trouble with hard disks over the last five years its depressing.

 

Also run Memtest overnight to check out the memory operation.

 

I'll get memtest running soon...in process of moving, everything packed up.

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If I use the windows or mandriva reboot option in the shutdown menu my pc will reboot. If I shut the pc down and try to restart it, it wont for perhaps 15 minutes.

I have had a similar problem in the past and it was due to the memory. Try 'reseating' the memory as AussieJohn suggested.

I doubt it is your hard drive as from what you say it is not even trying to boot up, but you could check this by trying to boot from a live CD.

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I've had similar problems and sometimes it would never power up. What is the rating of your power supply in watts? And what have you got in your machine, processor, memory, hard disks - how many, cd/dvd drives - how many. Each component takes juice, and when you power it on it wants to take all at the same time. If your power supply is not powerful enough, you're machine won't start. My friend had similar, only he couldn't start it again for much longer. And it was because his power supply was not powerful enough for his system.

 

Have you added anything to the machine recently?

 

I also don't think it's your hard disk, or even your memory. If it was your memory, your machine would start, but you might get beeps if it's faulty, or if not, your machine would at least crash or be a bit unstable.

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Ian, I often found that when the problem was memory the system would not start up. I certainly have never had the symptoms you describe.

If it thinks there is no memory then it won't start and only occasionally gave the long beep indicating memory trouble.

 

The power supply could be inadequate and overloaded but usually you get system instability indications. Would be good to check out its size though.

Anything less than 400watts is running with little room to spare. I run 450watts and my system consumes about 250/300watts so the power supply is idling all the time.

 

Cheers. John.

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From memory my power supply is over 400 watts. It is an athlon xp 2000+. With a 80gb and a 40 gb hard drive. Using on board video and sound. A lg cd drive and a lite on dvd r. I have 1gb ddr ram plus 256mb ram. The one gb stick was added recently.

 

Thanks for help so far guys, lots of good possibilities

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Processor can take about 80 watts, video card can also take around 80 watts. Memory about 15 watts per stick = 30 watts. Hard disks and CD/DVD drives around 30 watts each = 120 watts. Anything else installed? Any other PCI cards, etc?

 

This currently totals 310 watts or thereabouts. Leaving a supposed headroom of 90 watts if there's nothing else installed.

 

A system should power up without memory, it just won't do much or get to the BIOS screen, as it'll complain. Lack of memory won't stop you from turning it on - at least it doesn't on mine. When I had these symptoms it was my power supply. Even if you have a capable power supply, if it's a crap one it can't take the load when turning it on. I have a 500 watt now. Before it was juicing 300 watts at power on, and my cheap 350 watt couldn't cope - yet it supposedly had 50 watts headroom.

 

My friend built an Athlon 64 and put in a 400 watt. It wasn't enough. Googling showed everyone using 450 watts or higher. 450 watt seemed minimum when I worked it out, so I told him to get 500 watt. His works fine too now.

 

Test the memory when it's powered up, like John says, but I reckon if you've got power instability problems - this could cause irregularities in the memory testing because the regulation of power won't be constant and might give false results. If you have access to a higher rated power supply without having to purchase one, give it a go and install and see if it's any better. I wouldn't suggest buying parts at this time until you're completely sure of where the problem is.

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Ian, I often found that when the problem was memory the system would not start up.

I agree! When I had the problem (on an HP Pavilion) it simply would not switch on. I had about five days left on my warranty so I phoned HP customer support. When I gave them the model number the immediately told me to "reseat the memory". No 'check the fuses, plugs' etc so it was obviously a known issue.

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I agree! When I had the problem (on an HP Pavilion) it simply would not switch on. I had about five days left on my warranty so I phoned HP customer support. When I gave them the model number the immediately told me to "reseat the memory". No 'check the fuses, plugs' etc so it was obviously a known issue.

 

Ah, it must *always* be memory then - I guess it was the memory that stopped mine from booting, which would explain why my power supply being replaced fixed it? :huh:

 

Don't discount other peoples replies, just because memory was a problem for yours, doesn't mean that others aren't valid. You'll also note, I said to check it before looking at your power supply.

 

Test the memory when it's powered up.....

 

Funny that I could turn mine on though, even when I've had memory problems. As is always, hardware certainly isn't always the same - hence why some people can do some things, and others can't. Hence why I could still turn mine on, yet it wasn't a memory fault like it was for you. Hence why I could still turn mine on when it was a memory problem as well. Don't think that all memory faults stop you from turning your computer on.

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