Constant "freeze" at startup - can someone help please?

[Greypuffin]

Hi everyone, first post here so any help would be really appreciated;


A few months ago I built my first computer with parts I bought in Akihabara in Tokyo. Had a few problems (flaky Coolermaster Power Supply Unit) but recently reinstalled Win XP and things were OK. Then things started going downhill...

PROBLEM;
When I turn on the computer, the power light is on and the fans spin, but it won't boot, no bios, nothing.
■Press RESET switch, it might then start booting, but it will freeze halfway through the boot, getting me stuck on the boot screen, but with no keyboard reaction.
■Press RESET again, and I might get past Windows loading screen so I can see my accounts, but the mouse won't move, no keyboard reaction (ctrl+alt+del)won't work.
■Press RESET again, and I'll get INTO windows, mouse is OK, but then after 30 minutes the computer will screen.
■Press RESET again and I'll get all the way through, Windows is perfect, and I'll finally get to play Call of Duty 4 until I pass out with exhaustion just in case I can never get Windows to work again!

So the wierd things is that by restarting I can often get the process a little bit further along each time, until I'm finally in Windows!


SYSTEM SPECS
CPU: Intel Q6600 (stock Intel fan)
M'Board: Gigabyte N680SLI-DQ6
Power Supply Unit; Enermax 500W
RAM: 2x1 Gig (DDR2-800)
Graphics Board: Asus EN8800 GTX HTDP/ 768M
Pioneer DVR-112D
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 (HDT725050VLA)
CM Stacker 830 case
Win XP Professional (SP2)
Logicool G15 Keyboard/ Logicool G5 mouse.
(If you need more let me know)

SOLUTIONS?
1. I don't THINK it is heat. All my fans are turning. I have x3 120MM fans in the door, system fan and front and rear case fans...(What can I say, I'm a sucker for LED case fans)
2. Screwed up BIOS? I flashed the BIOS (twice) using the Gigabyte "@BIOS" software that downloads the latest Bios from the internet...
3. Flaky RAM?

I ran Memtest for 8 hours from boot but got no errors...

Any solutions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone in advance for your time!

Cheers,
Grey

 

[cfvh600]

What were the initial problems you had with the power supply? Check your hardware monitor in the BIOS to get some sort of idea on the temperature of the components.If all the fans are turning it doesn't neccessarily mean that your components are not overheating.

 

[Greypuffin]

Thanks for the reply.

I'll check the temperature using the BIOS and any other way to check the temp you suggest. I'll post as soon as I have it.

Cheers,

Gray

 

[koss63]

If you want to check the tempretures use the Gigabyte tool thats on the CD. Another thing you can do is load windows in safe mode and see if the problem occurs there. If it does remove some stuff from startup in msconfig and if that fails remove and update you chipset,sound and video drivers from nvidia and realtek.Another thing you can try is to do a full windows CHKDSK by simply right clicking on the hard drive icon in my computer then left clicking properties,check now and check the two options, it asks you to restart, say yes and restart, go make dinner or something as this may take awhile.Windows will try to fix any flaws on your disk automatically this way.

 

[Greypuffin]

Sorry it took me a long time to get back to you on this.

I checked my temps in the Bios and using the tool that came on the software on the Gigabyte CD but they all came up within normal ranges so I decided to get inside and move the Ram around...

I removed the second stick so I only had x1 GB, swapped the sticks around and by a process of elimination ended up with one of the sticks working solidly in the first RAM slot. Using that stick there were no freezes at ANY point from then on, either on start up, after POST or loading Windows - or after using Windows for a while . The other stick DID cause problems and freezes...

In the interim I had also ordered two more x1 GB sticks of RAM from a different manufacturer (making sure that the model and make was on the Gigabyte list of approved RAM for the board - as I had with the first set). I tried those x2 sticks of RAM and they have been solid too. I guess I just had a bad stick causing me all that grief. Interestingly I had run Memtest + for more than 8 hours with that faulty stick in the machine and there had been no problems...

Thanks everyone for the help offered. Much appreciated!

Grey

 

[Dirty_Harry2]

I had a bad ram problem also, I had 2 1gb sticks of the corsair value select, and 2 512 sticks. It turns out(this might have been my fault) but the 1gb sticks froze everything up and gave me the blue screen of death.