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PC won't boot

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Hi,

I have a custom setup which is nearly 2 years old now. The mobo is an ASUS P5N-E SLi.

When I first got the PC the graphics card (nVidia 8800GT 512MB factory O/C) never worked properly on Vista. It was the dreaded nvlddmkm driver crash which is still out there and no one is taking responsibility. So I thought I would wait for better drivers.

Now however my PC has completely run itself into the ground. It used to not boot occasionally doing a *beep* *beep* *beeeep* and not visual output. Now I'm lucky if it boots at all. Taking out one of my sticks of RAM (or putting it back it) sometimes helps.

It get's worse... Now it just does the normal single *beep* and shows the bios post message but then I'm left with a DOS prompt (which isn't really a prompt since I can't type anything). One fix is to boot with the XP SP3 CD in the drive but don't press anything when it asks if I want to boot from the CD.

How do I go about diagnosing the root of the problem? From the info I have found on all my various problems it seems almost any component could be at fault.

Tempted to ditch the lot and start again...

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The key to diagnosing a problem like this is spare parts! Believe me, when working in a tech shop, that's almost the only method used because it's the fastest.

I'd replace the motherboard and the video card at some point. But first I'd re-install Windows XP from scratch and see if that fixes the problem. You may even have a failure of the boot sector of the hard drive which would possibly explain why the CD works to help you boot.

Don't know what your DOS prompt is. If you can't type, likely because USB keyboard function isn't turned on in BIOS. But would likely mean you have an additional partition on the hard drive.

Try resetting the BIOS to turn off all but the primary boot partition on the Hard drive. Turn off other boot devices.

If you re-install Windows, re-partition and format the drive.

------------------------------ Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H, AMD Phenom II x2 550 BE (4 cores@3.6GHz), G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2 1066 (820@CL4), Scythe Katana3, Hec 585W, Samsung 2232BW+, WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA, Sea 500GB USB, 12 IDE HDs w/Masscool IDE-SATA Convertors, Ugly Old Case, Win XP 32bit
Reply to mongox

Hmm,if you can run memtest on each stick of ram,and if you do have to reinstall do the fdisk /mbr first just to clear up the master boot record..

------------------------------ When you obsess on your enemy,,
You become The Enemy...
Reply to dokk2

When my computer wouldn't boot, I had to re-install Win. But you may just need to go into Bios settings and change a couple of things to get it to the point where it will accept anything you give it. It may or may not work. My dad had build his own computer, and now it's like 10 years old. Ran great. But 2 years ago i had to dis-mantle it. All custom parts mostly. But yeah, go into your Bios settings and tweek with them and see if that solves it.

------------------------------ Life, what is life?
LIFE SUCKS, GET OVER IT!
Reply to Mikez

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Forum Motherboards & Memory : Asus - PC won't boot