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Why won't my PC boot up?
System details:
- Asus P4P800-E Deluxe motherboard
- 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 (Socket 478 Prescott)
- 1 GB DDR400 (2 x 512MB)
- ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (AGP)
- Western Digital 160GB SATA hard disk
- ASUS DVD-ROM drive
When I power up the system, the POST screen appears and seems to detect all of my hardware normally. Then nothing happens. If I try to enter BIOS setup by pressing DEL, "Entering BIOS setup..." appears on the POST screen, but then nothing happens. If I press F8 for boot device selection, the same thing happens: "BBS setup selected..." appears, but nothing happens.
I've changed the CMOS battery just in case, but it still does the same thing. I've checked the hard disk on my newer machine, and it's fine (it's also blank--I formatted it in anticipation of installing a new OS on the old machine). I'm also quite sure the DVD-ROM drive is fine. The keyboard lights light up and as I mentioned, the system does respond to pressing DEL or F8, so I assume the keyboard is okay. The power supply is fairly new and has more than enough power (500W) to handle my system's setup.
Any idea what might be going on, and how to fix it? I'm trying to use this ancient PC as a very basic HTPC to stream Hulu, YouTube, etc. on my TV. If I can get it to work, I might even add a TV tuner and upgrade it to 2GB and use it as a basic DVR.
Thanks in advance for any useful suggestions! :-)
I forgot to mention that I know it shouldn't be booting off the blank hard disk. I've been trying to boot from a bootable CD (I've tried my Windows XP CD and a few Linux CDs) in order to install an OS onto this machine, none of which have worked.
6 Answers
- Anonymous10 years agoFavorite Answer
It sounds like you have a bad motherboard or possibly a bad video card. But first things first. You've changed the CMOS battery, which was good...but that's only half the job. You also need to reset your CMOS settings. Take the new battery back out. Leave it out. Find the little jumper near the battery and move it to clear_cmos position for about 60 seconds. Then move the jumper back and reinstall the battery.
If clearing CMOS doesn't work, see if you can borrow a known good AGP format video card from another system. Or go on freecycle and request one, I'm sure someone in your area would give you one for free.
If clearing CMOS doesn't work and changing the video card doesn't work...
You're probably looking at a bad motherboard.
- Anonymous4 years ago
All you receives once you attempt to start up the computing device without RAM is a beep code signifying no RAM put in. No RAM - no boot. an similar is actual even as attempting besides with no hardpersistent. It relies upon on the operating equipment you attempt to load to no matter if a computing device will boot on minimum RAM criteria. as an social gathering: the extra present day the operating equipment - the extra RAM required. you are able to boot homestead windows ninety 8 on 32 MB of RAM - will run sluggish - inspite of the indisputable fact that it truly is going to boot.
- FordryLv 610 years ago
ya, bad motherboard id say. changing out the battery will reset the bios anyway so dont bother with resetting. sounds like its time for a new system.
- Anonymous10 years ago
Cross check your MB, RAM and AGP
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