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Computer Sometimes not starting, and sometimes freezing, maybe a BIOS problem?
Well I posted here very long ago about this, but that post is lost now. I think I might know more of what the cause could be now...
My computer is totally messed up now. I turn it on, and the power LED doesn't light up most of the time, so nothing happens at all. The monitor says no signal.
Sometimes the LED does turn on and the computer works fine for a bit and freezes randomly. Sometimes I have to hit the reset button many times for the computer to actually start when the power LED is off, and it finally lights up.
So when the LED is off, the computer doesn't POST, and when it finally lights up the computer works normally for a bit.
The HDD light stays on usually, if I have the harddrives plugged in, or when I'm pushing the reset button.
The problem is very bad now because I can't even get into Windows to find out what MOBO I have or try to do anything like Flashing the BIOS to try to fix that maybe... I can't find ANYWHERE on the mobo what the make is. It just says VIA KM400 all over it, and that's the Chipset.
Here's how it all started. Time for a story...
Very long ago, I used to be able to actually use the computer. Sometimes it wouldn't start or POST at all and I'd hit the reset button a few times and it would work perfectly. That was a couple months after getting the computer. There were periods when the problem wouldn't even occur for a while, and periods where every single time I turn on the computer I'd have to deal with this.
So then eventually last summer the computer started freezing randomly, and that's when it all went to hell. I actually wasn't having any of those POST problems. The computer would just turn on perfectly. My Dad tried reinstalling Win XP. That didn't help. There were many times when windows would be loading and it would start scanning the harddrive because it detected errors and fixed them.
Then eventually the problem with not POSTing and the freezing seemed to coincide. The computer would freeze, and I try to turn it on and after that it just wouldn't POST. I'd leave it off for like an hour and get back on and it would usually POST again.
It started to get unbearable so my Dad bought a new computer. Now I get this one. I want to make it work because the computer I had before is ancient, 450 Mghz Pentium III and stuff, and wouldn't even work with my ATI Radeon for soem reason. So I really want to get this to work. I gave up on it for a couple months because it just totally stopped working. I was just like, forget it, I'm just gonna use my old shitty one for now.
Then I try to get it to work again... It wouldn't POST because the RAM was bad or soemthing. I tried many RAM chips and nothing worked because it would jsut give me the beep sound. After a while I tried again. Nothing... Then I decided to try clearing the CMOS. Totally didn't think it would work... The computer worked absolutely perfectly after that. No freezing, no POST problems. It was beautiful. I finally had a fairly modern computer that I could call my own. Sure it was about 2 years old, but better than my 6 year old comp.
Then I went back to using my shitty comp for a week or so since it had all my music and documents for school on it. I decided to plug all the hard drives from the old computer into my new one a week later so I could finally stop using the old one. I was having some trouble getting the Hard drives to be detected, and had a few headaches. I realized I didn't set some of them to master and slave correctly and stuff like that. And I kept having to turn my computer on and off to get them to work. Suddenly my computer started having the no POST problem again. I was immediately filled with dread. So then I cleared the CMOS and stuff, and it still wouldn't work. I cleared it some more, still wouldn't work. I got it to POST a few times, but it always would freeze shortly after. Before, it would freeze after using the computer for a while or while loading Windows. But now I nver even got a chance. It froze like minutes later.
So now my good comp is useless again...
Any ideas?
I think it might be a BIOS problem. I just can't figure out what motherboard I have. I was thinking of Flashing it or something to maybe try to fix that. Too bad I can't seem to even get my computer to stay on long enough to do that, or run a utility that scans the make of my motherboard. Flashing it might not even fix it, it might be a problem with the chip itself because it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. And it's not one of those removeable chips either, it's soldered on.
I also thought it might have been a CPU problem so I tried unplugging the CPU today and blowing on that a bit and plugging it back in. Heh, sometiems my random ideas work. That one didn't. I guess if it was a CPU probelm tha twouldn't have fixed it anyway, unless it was a contact issue.
I also jsut found out about doing a blind flash. I don't know if my problem calls for it though.
Well anyway, I am gonna get a brand new comp for college, but for now I want to at least make this one work...
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