Windows Won't Load

[wgdz]

Here is the scenario:

Sometimes bios loads and windows loads great! Other times boot up computer, bios loads and then screen goes blank booo. Holding the power button and then turning it back on doesn't work. Have to go to the back of the pc and turn off the power supply, wait ~10 second and turn it on then power the pc again. If I only let it off for like 5 secons it sometimes doesn't work too.

E4400 OC'd to 3.0Ghz with Speed Step on so when not in load it's at 1.8 Ghz
Abit IP35-E
2gb of Ballistix DDR2 667 underclocked to 600 for a 1:1 ratio with CPU
Windows XP Pro 32 Bit
7900 GS

I originally installed windows vista then reformated and installed XP. I then also had a 2nd HD with windows XP already but using that as slave drive. For some reason then when I boot up windows it kept asking me to choose which windows XP to start (assuming the one on my main and the one on my master). Then when I removed the 2nd HD it still asked me that so I made a script change so that it doesn't wait 10 second for an answer but just turn the time count to 0 so it goes to the first choice every time after start up. Anyone knows any reason why this is happening or will I need to reformat again due to possible issue with my OS install...?

 

[g-paw]

Try clearing the CMOS. If this doesn't work, try another PSU

 

[cyberjock]

I have seen this problem before on a computer I owned. It drove me crazy because turning off the PSU and turning it back on was the only way to fix it. I tried everything. I replaced the PSU, tried stripping out all of the components except the few required to POST, changed RAM, went from quad processor(yes, it was VERY expensive) to dual and even single processor, changed video card, removed SCSI RAID controller, everything. Played with BIOS settings going to the absolute most compatible settings I could and still nothing. Even to this day I could never determine the exact cause. My personal thoughts are that it had to do with IRQ assignments and something was conflicting. I say this because the way I could cheat the cold boot of the PSU was to go in and reset the configuration data so that it would reassign the IRQs from scratch. Sometimes "reset configuration data" worked, sometimes I had to do it multiple times. The only thing I could determine for certain was that it would never ever do this if I just was rebooting, but the second I was turning the computer on via the power button it was like playing roulette. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I am much more knowledgeable than I was 2 years ago when I had that machine, but I always wonder what could possibly have caused it. It really made me mad for spending $4500 on a computer.

My advice is to get one of those cool diagnostic cards and see what error code you get. I didn't have one because they were hard to find and expensive at the time.