Possible bad power supply? Help Please

[mikes442]

Hi, I just inherited a P4 3GHz PC with 512Mb RAM, WinXP Pro, onboard video, audio, and ethernet. I'm not sure of the motherboard brand and chipset because I just haven't looked yet. Here's the problem. The computer will get passed the post and the windows splash screen, but will stop as windows attempts to load at the blue "Welcome" screen. I say that it stops because it doesn't die, shut off, or reboot. The monitor goes black saying there is no signal, but the computer remains powered up. Even though the computer remains powered on, it isn't processing anything or "alive". Normally I would just hold the power button in until the pc shut off, however that doesn't work when the computer is in this suspended state.

So basically I'm not entirely sure if the problem is the motherboard, cpu, power supply, or RAM. Common sense says the power supply, but with the way the computer remains powered up I'm not sure. Is it possible for the power supply to spit out enough power for the fans and lights to remain powered, but not anything else? and if so then why does this only happen when I get into windows? Could it be the onboard video card? but then again why does it only happen when I get into windows? Any help is appreciated. For all I know it could be software related and I just need to format and reinstall. Thanks.

 

[badge]

I would try going into BIOS and check around. Reset the CMOS jumper and maybe try and get into Safe Mode. I would try some different RAM and see if Windows would load with it. I would try and get the system to boot to the system disk or win xp CD. If nothing, I would try a different hard drive and try and load windows. HTH.

 

[Onus]

The machine is dying during the load of Windows. Do you care about what is on the HD of this machine? If not, boot a WinXP CD and do a fresh install; start clean. Who knows what's on there now?

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

I would say the issue is more related to RAM, rather than power. If a psu has enough power to provide for the POST, then there should be no problems with it during the startup otherwise. The only other time a psu would have serious issues is when heavy loads are being placed on it, such as during heavy gaming.

Bad RAM, on the other hand could easily mess you up at loading. During loading is when the ram gets used, and when it is most likely to fail, depending on what part of the RAM has failed. You may want to try memtest.

Also, as jtt283 stated, a fresh install of windows wouldn't hurt either.