I need some expert hardware help: my computer won’t boot and won’t even get to the Windows Startup graphics (i.e., no signal to the monitors at all - there’s not even an opportunity to enter the Bios). It starts to power up, then shuts down, and then restarts.
First, here’s my system: HP Pavilion HP-h8-1360t (http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03425388). Intel i7. Replaced main drive with 128G Samsung SSD and Windows 7 pro. Two optical drives, three HDDs. Factory video card. Started with factory Hynix 4G RAM cards; now have 4 4G Crucial Ballistic sport cards.
The timing of the shut-downs and restarts is consistent and seems to be a good clue – and I’m hoping someone here can what the clue might mean. There are two cycles, actually. The first short cycle is
Fan spin-up to shut down: ~5.8 seconds
Shut down to restart: ~4.8 seconds
The second, and currently most frequent cycle, is
Fan spin-up to shut down: ~33 seconds
Shut down to restart: ~4.8 seconds
In order to stop the cycling, I need to physically turn off the power supply with the on/off rocker switch on the back of the box. It will not boot from a CD boot disc, either.
The main question I would like answered is: What is the sequence of “hardware checks” the system does as it’s starting up? Is it, in fact, the RAM that is causing the restarts? Or is there something else in early in the power-up sequence that could be the problem and I’m barking up the wrong tree futzing with the RAM? Given the history of the problem, it seems like something (not the RAM) has been slowly going bad and the RAM-thing is just a fluke.
As I’m testing it tonight, a boot with a single card in the #1 slot starts with a short cycle and then repeats the long cycle. Cards in #1 and #3 repeats the short cycle. Cards in all four repeat the short cycle. (Though this does not seem to be consistent – earlier tonight I could swear it was repeating the long cycles with all four cards.)
Here’s the history, for more information. There have been two main “incidents” prior to today.
============ incident #1 around 6/15/15 ======================
Prior to June 15th, the machine seemed to have problems booting up, but after a couple tries it was successful. I don’t recall when this actually started happening. I can’t think of any changes I made to the machine since the initial physical changes made just after I bought the machine in 2013.
Around June 15th, there were a lot of Windows updates to install. (I usually keep the machine running 24/7.) So I shut down the machine and let them install. No problem. But, from there, the machine wouldn’t boot again – it would exhibit the startup-shutdown behavior described above. I talked to a tech friend who suggested the power was a problem; because of the three HDDs, I’d been concerned about the factory power, so this was a plausible cause.
I bought and installed a corsair 750 – plenty of power now. But the machine still wouldn’t boot up! I did more research and saw something about bad RAM, so I pulled the Hynix RAM card from slot three – and the machine booted!!! So I bought a new Crucial Ballistic card, put it in slot three and was able to boot and go. About a month later, I bought two more Crucial Ballistic RAM cards, put them in slots 2 and 4 and was able to boot up and go. Don’t remember if I had problems booting then. Everything was good until incident #2.
============ incident #2 around 9/9/15 ======================
On September 9th, we had some home network issues so shut down my machine. When I tried to restart, it wouldn’t boot – it went into the restart cycle described above. I started logically swapping RAM cards, testing Slot #1 only, #1+#3, and all four slot filled to see if my remain factory Hynix RAM card had gone bad. Inexplicably – truly inexplicably – after testing and retesting, it successfully rebooted with Crucial cards in #1+#3 on a the second restart of a test. So I was good to go until I had to shut down on 9/17 to clear some stuck browser processes that I couldn’t kill. (Which were weird, but I don’t think related – this really seems to be a hardware problem.)
First, here’s my system: HP Pavilion HP-h8-1360t (http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03425388). Intel i7. Replaced main drive with 128G Samsung SSD and Windows 7 pro. Two optical drives, three HDDs. Factory video card. Started with factory Hynix 4G RAM cards; now have 4 4G Crucial Ballistic sport cards.
The timing of the shut-downs and restarts is consistent and seems to be a good clue – and I’m hoping someone here can what the clue might mean. There are two cycles, actually. The first short cycle is
Fan spin-up to shut down: ~5.8 seconds
Shut down to restart: ~4.8 seconds
The second, and currently most frequent cycle, is
Fan spin-up to shut down: ~33 seconds
Shut down to restart: ~4.8 seconds
In order to stop the cycling, I need to physically turn off the power supply with the on/off rocker switch on the back of the box. It will not boot from a CD boot disc, either.
The main question I would like answered is: What is the sequence of “hardware checks” the system does as it’s starting up? Is it, in fact, the RAM that is causing the restarts? Or is there something else in early in the power-up sequence that could be the problem and I’m barking up the wrong tree futzing with the RAM? Given the history of the problem, it seems like something (not the RAM) has been slowly going bad and the RAM-thing is just a fluke.
As I’m testing it tonight, a boot with a single card in the #1 slot starts with a short cycle and then repeats the long cycle. Cards in #1 and #3 repeats the short cycle. Cards in all four repeat the short cycle. (Though this does not seem to be consistent – earlier tonight I could swear it was repeating the long cycles with all four cards.)
Here’s the history, for more information. There have been two main “incidents” prior to today.
============ incident #1 around 6/15/15 ======================
Prior to June 15th, the machine seemed to have problems booting up, but after a couple tries it was successful. I don’t recall when this actually started happening. I can’t think of any changes I made to the machine since the initial physical changes made just after I bought the machine in 2013.
Around June 15th, there were a lot of Windows updates to install. (I usually keep the machine running 24/7.) So I shut down the machine and let them install. No problem. But, from there, the machine wouldn’t boot again – it would exhibit the startup-shutdown behavior described above. I talked to a tech friend who suggested the power was a problem; because of the three HDDs, I’d been concerned about the factory power, so this was a plausible cause.
I bought and installed a corsair 750 – plenty of power now. But the machine still wouldn’t boot up! I did more research and saw something about bad RAM, so I pulled the Hynix RAM card from slot three – and the machine booted!!! So I bought a new Crucial Ballistic card, put it in slot three and was able to boot and go. About a month later, I bought two more Crucial Ballistic RAM cards, put them in slots 2 and 4 and was able to boot up and go. Don’t remember if I had problems booting then. Everything was good until incident #2.
============ incident #2 around 9/9/15 ======================
On September 9th, we had some home network issues so shut down my machine. When I tried to restart, it wouldn’t boot – it went into the restart cycle described above. I started logically swapping RAM cards, testing Slot #1 only, #1+#3, and all four slot filled to see if my remain factory Hynix RAM card had gone bad. Inexplicably – truly inexplicably – after testing and retesting, it successfully rebooted with Crucial cards in #1+#3 on a the second restart of a test. So I was good to go until I had to shut down on 9/17 to clear some stuck browser processes that I couldn’t kill. (Which were weird, but I don’t think related – this really seems to be a hardware problem.)
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