Author Topic: starting probs (Read 1492 times)

Albi84 · « **on:** March 31, 2008, 11:14:26 AM »

I got an older PC that always has starting problems when it was longer times off (overnight especially).

The PC: AMD Sempron 3000+, Mainboard ASrock K7VT4A+, 1 GB Ram, Nvidia Geforce 6600GT 128 mb(gigabyte), Win XP.

The thing that happens is the following. The first time I start it, you only see what bios it is, you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t even see the rams. The Second time I start it you can see the xp loading screen and then a black screen and nothing happens.
The third time it boots up to the desktop, but there is still a chance that the PC will freeze (not always). When I started it the 4th. time its boots normal and there never freezes anymore (after the 4th. time).

When shut the PC down for the rest of the day it boots absolutely normal and no freezing at all. But the next day the same procedure again happens.

Is there anything I could do, or is this just the beginning of the end of the PC?

JayFoxRox · « **Reply #1 on:** March 31, 2008, 12:19:18 PM »

if it is an old pc (from the hardware i wouldnt really say that - its as good as this one probably) i would recommend to check the battery for the clock. Its a small battery somewhere on the motherboard.

Albi84 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 31, 2008, 01:23:23 PM »

I'll try that.

Turtle Boy · « **Reply #3 on:** March 31, 2008, 03:00:23 PM »

Yep its like a C4 battery or something, one of those wide watch ones for me, Sounds to me its jsut resetting itself every night cause that batt is dead.

Neo Anderson · « **Reply #4 on:** April 01, 2008, 09:07:25 AM »

The BIOS settings for your PC are not stored in the system memory or hard disk. Instead, they are stored in a special reserved memory area that is commonly called the "CMOS Memory". A battery provides backup so that the settings are not lost when the PC is turned off or unplugged. Certain situations can cause the CMOS memory to be erased or settings lost. Usually this can happen when the battery fails due to some sort of malfunction, or merely because the motherboard is getting old.

Albi84 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 02, 2008, 02:28:40 AM »

I just changed the battery and this morning, there were absolutely no booting probs, everything went just fine.

There is just one strange thing. Like Neo said normally the bios switches back to default settings if the battery is too low. But not this time even after I change the battery there are still the bios settings I created.

Neo Anderson · « **Reply #6 on:** April 03, 2008, 03:04:39 AM »

When your computer first starts up press F2 and that should take you to the BIOS. At the bottom of the screen should be a bunch of options, includiing one to set the BIOS to all default settings. Just a word of warning. Changing settings in the BIOS can cause serious problems for your PC so if your not sure what your doing, don't change any.