Can't boot new PC

[Pandora]

Hi guys,

My husband bought a custom built PC. I think it needs an RMA, but here's what it's doing:

I can get the initial startup screen, listing the components, so it is seeing the DVD and HD. After that...first of all it's taking forever to leave this screen, as in a couple of minutes. If I boot from the HD, Windows (Vista) will offer the black and white screen with the option to start in safe mode. If I select this, it restarts the computer.

If I try to boot from the Vista CD, it will go as far as getting the pretty blue and green background screen for Vista (and it takes several minutes to get there, somewhere between 5-10 min), and then stop doing anything. The CD and HD are not spinning during this. Both LEDs are off.

I am not willing to disassemble this PC since I did not build it. Personally, I think the company who put it together should have to do the barebones boot sequence.

I would greatly appreciate any insight or suggestions before going through any more brain damage. I really want it to work, now, and not have to send it back (which will take weeks, I'm sure). But I have no idea how to proceed without disassembling the unit.

Thanks!

[sassie05]

I think the company who put it together should have to do the barebones boot sequence.


I think they should fix it.

You should take it back or exercise whatever warranty that should be available.

Did you purchase the Operating System separately?

[Pandora]

Update:

I've been able to start a Windows installation. However, even this has been an issue. I left the computer when the installation started, and came back later to find BOOTMGR MISSING. So I have tried again, a couple of times. At first the installation wouldn't even start. Now it has started, and gone through the first two steps (Copying Files, Expanding Files) and stopped before starting the next step, Installing Features. It doesn't appear to be moving.

What could be preventing Windows from installing? Really I just wanted to repair the installation that was there when the PC was shipped, but I've never had an option come up to repair Windows.

I'm thinking this thread should be in the Windows forum now.

[Paul Komski]

I think it is fine in this forum since it likely relates to bad hardware or possibly a bad installation disk. See if you can boot to some other bootable CD/DVD in timely fashion.

More specific hardware details never goes amiss.

[Graywolves]

Your heatsink/fan unit may not be making full contact with your CPU and it is throttling back, causing abnormally slow boot times. To verify without popping the case, enter the BIOS (F1 or delete key)...you'll see the instruction almost immediately at boot time. Depeding on the BIOS manufacturer, you will have one screen that allows you to view the status of your processor, specifically the temperature. If it is holding steady at a relatively low temp...anything below 50c for most processors, you should be ok. Overclocking can cause weird problems like this...one component is failing due to the clock rate...such as one memory stick is failing.

If you can get your hands on one, BartPE (winpe) or HawkPE and so on, downloaded from an assortment of sites, is a bootable ISO to be burned on CD or DVD. You boot the computer through the DVD, and enter an operating system environment (usually XP) where you can more closely inspect what is going on without making any changes to your hard drive.

Failing all that, I agree with an earlier post...bring it to the guys who built it for you before you crack the case...warranty and all that ya know.

[Pandora]

Thanks for the info so far, here's an update:

We have repeated lockups during the installation of Windows, at various points.

I finally spoke with someone at the company that put the machine together (CyberpowerPC). His initial thought was bad ram. I verified the timing and voltage on the ram last night (voltage was low in BIOS), but after making that adjustment, the installation would lock up as soon as I selected Next for the language selection.

So, I ran memtest. Weirdly, it locked up very early into the pass. I tried it a few times, and it would lock anywhere from immediately, to 8% of the pass. It also seemed to run rather herky-jerky.

SO...I pulled 2 1G sticks of ram out of my system and put them in this new one. Same results with the Windows installation, except we could get past the language screen to enter the product key, at which point it acted as if the keyboard wasn't attached (which it was seeing earlier, since I had to press a key to boot from the CD, and we swapped out for another keyboard with the same results).

Now, I did not have time to check/change the ram timings/voltage on the known good set of ram, nor did I have time to run memtest this morning. I have another email in to the tech guy I spoke with yesterday.

This may be a long shot, but I saw a post on Corsair's site from a while back where someone had the same problem with Memtest locking up, and it turn out to be a bad ram socket on the mobo.

Any impressions?

Edit: the CPU heat is fine, there is a monitor on the face of the case (I realize these things are not 100%) and I have not seen it over 26C. Usually running around 20-23C.

Also, I don't have specific specs in front of me atm, best I can do is the mobo: EVGA 750 sli nforce 750I lga 775 fsb 1333

[Sylvander]

1. How about making a "live" optical disk of a puplet of Puppy Linux, and see if that will boot OK and run OK?
Puppy loads totally into RAM, and doesn't need ANY storage location [partition on HDD, Flash Drive, or whatever] unless you decide to make and save configuration changes and/or install additional packages.
If any puplet runs there cannot be too much wrong with your RAM, and once it's up and running you can use it to test your RAM [HDD access etc].
You can use the included GParted program to partition [and format those partitions] if needed...
And copy the Windows installation fileset to some handy partition [other than C:], then run the Windows installation setup from there.

2. The latest 4.1.3 version of BoxPup can be downloaded from here (http://www.puppylinux.asia/tpp/NOP/).
Name = puppy [all lower case]
Password = linux [all lower case]
These must be input twice.

Here's the iso file for puppy-413-boxpup.iso (http://www.puppylinux.asia/tpp/NOP/puppy-413-boxpup.iso)

Here's the md5sum (http://www.puppylinux.asia/tpp/NOP/puppy-413-boxpup_md5sum.txt)

BoxPup includes in the "Setup->PetGet Package Manager" an item for a memtest program; just click on that entry to install it.
Then reboot and run it by clicking on it's shortcut in the main menu.

[Paul Komski]

Looks like this board (http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=123-YW-E175-A1&family=Motherboard%20Family). Suggest just one stick at a time (in each of the four slots) after setting BIOS to failsafe defaults. Or ... RMA.
Installing Memory DIMMs
Your new motherboard has four 1.8V 240-pin slots for DDR2 memory. These slots support 256 MB,
512 MB, 1 GB, and 2 GB DDR2 memory modules. They also support dual channel DDR2 memory
technology up to 10.7GB/s. There must be at least one memory bank populated to ensure normal
operation. Use the following recommendations for installing memory. (See Figure 1 on page 4
for the location of the memory slots.)
One DIMM: Install into slot 0. You can install the DIMM into any slot, however, slot 0 is pre-
ferred.
Two DIMMs: Install into either slots 0 and 1 or 2 and 3. The idea is to not have the DIMMs in ad-
jacent slots.
Four DIMMS: Install into slots 0, 1, 2, and 3

[Pandora]

Would slots 0, 1, 2, 3 be numbered that way left to right? So the left slot is zero, the one immediately next to its right is 1? Currently the ram is installed in the two blue-colored slots, which was how I thought ram should be installed, every other slot essentially.

[amysiko]

i have faced the same problem, im voting to the ram failure....memory generally are seperated to differerent block....so just a few block of ur ram are faulty, effected that installing process...thus it cant be completed, and if the installing process is complete, there will be some missing components, like driver or anything,...and in my opinion, there are no problem at all with the memory slot, since ur ram can be detected during POSTing....

[Paul Komski]

Currently the ram is installed in the two blue-colored slots, which was how I thought ram should be installed, every other slot essentially.
Edit/Delete MessageIt varies from board to board and on the type of RAM involved. On your board you can try a single stick in any slot. There is a difference between what is incompatible and that which is not ideal.

A single stick that works in three slots but not in the fourth would give you the answer to the "bad slot" question. The enumeration is normally silk screened onto the board itself.

The information is in the manual which can be downloaded from my previous link if you don't have one.