[NBLUG/talk] Weirdness: BIOS POST lockups

Sean seanvanco at gmail.com
Tue May 22 08:34:12 PDT 2007


I do have a few suggestions, but I don't know which of them you've
tried, so I'll fire away at the risk of seeming obvious...

In my experience startup problems at POST are usually caused by five
things: power, bad CPU, bad RAM, bad/loose video card and a bad BOIS
image.

Have you run memtest86 or some other RAM checker? Perhaps move the RAM
to different slots just in case one of the slots is having a problem?

As far as the video card, if it's on-board or AGP you could just slap
in another card for testing purposes and see how it behaves. If it is
PCI, try moving it to a different slot, as I've seen individual slots
give sporadic problems.

As far as power, have you tested the specific voltage output of both
PSUs? They may be fine, but I've seen good PSUs have incorrect
voltages cause odd behavior. Also, is your system on a UPS? An
unstable power system in the house (fluctuations, voltage too low,
etc) can cause system problems.

I'd hate for you to be having a CPU problem, as those are the tough
ones to nail down aside from installing it into another system to
test. Have you tried a stress test program to see if it makes the
system freeze or reboot once you've managed to POST? It may not rule
out any of the other possibilities, but it could still shed light on
the matter. I'm no as sure on this one, since you seem to indicate
that your system runs fine once it manages to POST.

The last thing I even think about trying is to flash the BIOS with a
current image. I'm always leery of doing this, since if the flash
fails part-way through your system could (depends on the manufacturer)
end up as an expensive paperweight. This last option, I find, is
rarely required, but if all else fails this might be a consideration.

If I think of something else I'll post again, and others may have
suggestions as well. Let us know which of these you've tried.



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