Blank screen on startup

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

I've got this problem where my machine is sometimes blank when it first
starts up. The BIOS work fine, but when when Windows tries to load it
dies. I can't remember whether it's while the Windows logo is on the
screen or whether it's before then.

I know this is slightly OT, but you guys will know about this stuff
(and the machine is homebuilt). It has happened twice so far, and
worked fine on both occasions after turn off, and on again. Today was
a bit warmer, so I don't know whether that is related. Anyway, there
are two possibilities I can think of Windows, or my PSU. I'm running
XP pro, and it is a clean install though (only a few months old).

My specs are :
300W AOpen PSU
Abit KD7 motherboard (with a passive Zalman northbridge cooler)
Athlon XP 1700+ (48.9 Watts IIRC)
512Mb DDR 333MHz Samsung
MSI Geforce FX5500 128Mb
SB Audigy 2 ZX
LG DVD-ROM
LG DVD-RW
Floppy drive
120mm Akasa Amber fan (my only fan)

Would you expect my PSU to struggle with this? My PSU (and m/b) is
about 2.5 years old, but the graphics card and sound card have only
been in there for a few months.

 

[jad]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

I would start at the driver of the vidcard
then a PSU check.


<petermcmillan_uk@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1123007885.033293.253200@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> I've got this problem where my machine is sometimes blank when it first
> starts up. The BIOS work fine, but when when Windows tries to load it
> dies. I can't remember whether it's while the Windows logo is on the
> screen or whether it's before then.
>
> I know this is slightly OT, but you guys will know about this stuff
> (and the machine is homebuilt). It has happened twice so far, and
> worked fine on both occasions after turn off, and on again. Today was
> a bit warmer, so I don't know whether that is related. Anyway, there
> are two possibilities I can think of Windows, or my PSU. I'm running
> XP pro, and it is a clean install though (only a few months old).
>
> My specs are :
> 300W AOpen PSU
> Abit KD7 motherboard (with a passive Zalman northbridge cooler)
> Athlon XP 1700+ (48.9 Watts IIRC)
> 512Mb DDR 333MHz Samsung
> MSI Geforce FX5500 128Mb
> SB Audigy 2 ZX
> LG DVD-ROM
> LG DVD-RW
> Floppy drive
> 120mm Akasa Amber fan (my only fan)
>
> Would you expect my PSU to struggle with this? My PSU (and m/b) is
> about 2.5 years old, but the graphics card and sound card have only
> been in there for a few months.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

JAD wrote:
> I would start at the driver of the vidcard
> then a PSU check.

The video card has had the same driver since it was new, and it plays
games without any problem. It's the Nvidia driver. This is starting
to look like a PSU problem :-(

 

[Chris]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

On 2 Aug 2005 11:38:05 -0700, petermcmillan_uk@yahoo.com wrote:

>I've got this problem where my machine is sometimes blank when it first
>starts up. The BIOS work fine, but when when Windows tries to load it
>dies. I can't remember whether it's while the Windows logo is on the
>screen or whether it's before then.
>
>I know this is slightly OT, but you guys will know about this stuff
>(and the machine is homebuilt). It has happened twice so far, and
>worked fine on both occasions after turn off, and on again. Today was
>a bit warmer, so I don't know whether that is related. Anyway, there
>are two possibilities I can think of Windows, or my PSU. I'm running
>XP pro, and it is a clean install though (only a few months old).
>
>My specs are :
>300W AOpen PSU
>Abit KD7 motherboard (with a passive Zalman northbridge cooler)
>Athlon XP 1700+ (48.9 Watts IIRC)
>512Mb DDR 333MHz Samsung
>MSI Geforce FX5500 128Mb
>SB Audigy 2 ZX
>LG DVD-ROM
>LG DVD-RW
>Floppy drive
>120mm Akasa Amber fan (my only fan)
>
>Would you expect my PSU to struggle with this? My PSU (and m/b) is
>about 2.5 years old, but the graphics card and sound card have only
>been in there for a few months.

Peter,Just for the halibit,
Reseat your memory and cables in your box.Sounds intermittent.Do you
have a spare psu?Press F8 at startup and create a bootlog file and
post.

C.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

chris wrote:
> On 2 Aug 2005 11:38:05 -0700, petermcmillan_uk@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> >I've got this problem where my machine is sometimes blank when it first
> >starts up. The BIOS work fine, but when when Windows tries to load it
> >dies. I can't remember whether it's while the Windows logo is on the
> >screen or whether it's before then.
> >
> >I know this is slightly OT, but you guys will know about this stuff
> >(and the machine is homebuilt). It has happened twice so far, and
> >worked fine on both occasions after turn off, and on again. Today was
> >a bit warmer, so I don't know whether that is related. Anyway, there
> >are two possibilities I can think of Windows, or my PSU. I'm running
> >XP pro, and it is a clean install though (only a few months old).
> >
> >My specs are :
> >300W AOpen PSU
> >Abit KD7 motherboard (with a passive Zalman northbridge cooler)
> >Athlon XP 1700+ (48.9 Watts IIRC)
> >512Mb DDR 333MHz Samsung
> >MSI Geforce FX5500 128Mb
> >SB Audigy 2 ZX
> >LG DVD-ROM
> >LG DVD-RW
> >Floppy drive
> >120mm Akasa Amber fan (my only fan)
> >
> >Would you expect my PSU to struggle with this? My PSU (and m/b) is
> >about 2.5 years old, but the graphics card and sound card have only
> >been in there for a few months.
>
> Peter,Just for the halibit,
> Reseat your memory and cables in your box.Sounds intermittent.Do you
> have a spare psu?Press F8 at startup and create a bootlog file and
> post.

The only other PSU I have is 200W lol, so no I don't have a spare. I'm
suspecting Windows actually. My mum turned the machine off about a
week ago when Windows was starting up, so this could have cause a
problem! I could try reseating everything, although I did that just a
few months ago IIRC.