Locks up during POST

[donimo]

Hey all, so some how last night while the PC was shut off, it died. Worked fine (well if you call running Vista "fine") last night, this morning it locks up after "counting" the RAM during POST. I tried taking a stick out, and also swapping the one stick with the other, only difference is it locks up with "10****" instead of "20****".

Bad ram (both sticks at once?), or mobo (p35-ds3L) I guess?

[3.0charlie]

... or the PSU.

[CMetaphor]

I'll agree with 3.0Charlie on this one. Many times I've seen a system that will not post, but the power supply can be the culprit surprisingly often. A bad motherboard will normally not post at all. And bad ram can post without issues but cause your applications or windows loading to crash. If you can't get past the post screen, meaning it starts posting but doesn't finish, try a different power supply. I actually just recently was working on system with a similar problem, the one time I made it all the way to Windows I found out that the 3.3 volts coming from the power supply was dropping below 2.4 .

[donimo]

Also. can't get into BIOS or any of the boot options, just instant lock-up...

Please help, I need access to this pc tonight, argh, I hate this PC even when it works it is still a PITA

[donimo]

I could give it a try, but that is going to be a massive pain in the ass as my only other power supply is routed behind my motherboard and will require me to completely disassemble the PC and remove the mbo etc...

Antec Earthwatts is supposed to be a decent PSU too...

[donimo]

I have another power supply, but it doesnt have the PCI-E connector, will that be an issue? will it post without it? Or just nuthin...

[Tazer-[X]]

OMG Cmetaphore! to follow your logic im going to have to make algorithims on flow chart LoL. Im sure the logic is there buuut, flow chart it for us in the future if your going to include case, loops and variables in one paragraph:P

[donimo]

huh?:help:

[DarKStar]

Originally Posted by donimo

Hey all, so some how last night while the PC was shut off, it died. Worked fine (well if you call running Vista "fine") last night, this morning it locks up after "counting" the RAM during POST. I tried taking a stick out, and also swapping the one stick with the other, only difference is it locks up with "10****" instead of "20****".

Bad ram (both sticks at once?), or mobo (p35-ds3L) I guess?

Was your CPU or memory overclocked, was there anything unusual the last time your computer was functional (before you shut it off).

Do you hear any beeping or unusual noises before or during the lock-up ?

I would try putting in new RAM, remove both your sticks and use something else just to rule out RAM issues, I would then try clearing the CMOS (locate your reset pins in your manual) - but use at your own risk, (black screen of death on next boot).

I've had this happen to me on 3 occasions throughout the years and in one case it turned out to be a bad board (strangely, a faulty EEPROM) and the other times it was bad RAM.

[donimo]

nope, bone stock for about 6 months, could never get it orthos stable so I just retired it as my wifes PC and it has ran ok since. It will throw up a Vista "blah blah has stopped working" wrror every 15 min, but I assumed that was a vista thing.

No beeps at all, screent doesnt even come out of standby before it is locked up, instant almost.

I will try ram, but it is hard cause the crucial stuff I have downstairs takes like 2.1 volts to work at all...