[SOLVED] Computer taking a long time to power up

[Merovie]

I inherited a computer from my guitar player to be solely used for music after we assumed the power supply had gone out because when we tried to start it up - nothing. I took it home and when I turned on the power switch in back I noticed the green LED light had come on. After awhile the computer finally started up. (fans, etc) I noticed in the BIOS that the clock was off. WAY off. As in, 2005 off. So I replaced the CMOS battery and then synced the clock to the internet. After the thing started working again this time it was giving me this a message about the CPU fan but the CPU fan seemed to be running just fine. I have a picture of this screen (telling me to hit F1 to continue) but the attach image option seems to only be for internet images and not from my phone.

As I am writing this I've had the thing powered on (green light showing but no fans or startup) and have pushed the button in front a few times (sometimes that makes it kick in sometimes it doesn't) but nothing now. I think it might be the CPU but I am not sure. I also have not yet tried re-seating the memory cards (there are 4) but when my regular computer that I use for everyday use needed a memory card re-seat after a move where it probably got jostled a bit that didn't cause the thing to not power up. I just got a beep code that told me the problem. This computer isn't doing anything or if it does it takes anywhere from 5 minutes to what it is doing now which is nothing.

The MOBO is a 2005 ASUS A8N-E(Quiet & Cool Tech - YAY!)

When it was on I had to have a friend remotely install drivers and stuff and I installed my music programs (Cubase, Halion Sonic) fine and Windows updated 170! updates fine. I am just having problems with my computer being possessed by mischievous hardware demons whole sole purpose in life is to irritate me.

 

[USAFRet]

"I inherited a computer from my guitar player "

The very first thing you needed to do was a full wipe and reinstall.


"and Windows updated 170! "
That just supports the fact that it needs to start over with a clean isntall.


Please do this now.
Assuming Windows 10, this:

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Merovie]

"I inherited a computer from my guitar player "

The very first thing you needed to do was a full wipe and reinstall.


"and Windows updated 170! "
That just supports the fact that it needs to start over with a clean isntall.


Please do this now.
Assuming Windows 10, this:

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

My guitar player took the old hard drive out because it had all the music programs (Cubase, etc) and albums worth of songs. (Of course we both have these things on external backup drives) so when I began this process I began it by replacing the PSU and getting a new SSD and installed a brand new copy of Windows on it. So I didn't need to wipe the hard drive because it was brand new in the first place. So I DID do a clean install. After, of course, waiting forever for it to power up and start running the fans and stuff. Then I went into bios mode and switched it from booting from the hard drive to booting from the DVD/CD player so I could do exactly that: a clean install. Then I switched the BIOS back to boot from hard drive once Windows was installed.

It was having this problem before I did anything software-related.

Is there a way to add a picture? I took a picture of the screen saying something about the CPU fan not going fast enough although it seemed to be working fine to me but then what do I know?

Also it isn't even turning on even after a long wait so I don't know what I did wrong. I DO know that when we took the computer to ALTEC the people there tested the power supply and said it was bad and convinced my guitar player to buy a new 1000 dollar computer and I am thinking they just said that to get him to buy the new computer.

 

[USAFRet]

Ok, new OS installed on a new drive.

To post a pic, upload it to imgur.com and port the BBCode link here.

 

[stonecarver]

That board was always on the touchy side. Last time I fired up ours was 2009 and was my daily driver. We had 2 one worked like a charm and the other was new adventure to get it to boot weekly.

Is the smaller chipset fan spinning?

We never did have an SSD on those machines just standard Hard Drives. Is that what guitar player had in there before you got the computer an SSD?

 

[Merovie]

OK. Here's the image.

That board was always on the touchy side. Last time I fired up ours was 2009 and was my daily driver. We had 2 one worked like a charm and the other was new adventure to get it to boot weekly.

Is the smaller chipset fan spinning?

We never did have an SSD on those machines just standard Hard Drives. Is that what guitar player had in there before you got the computer an SSD?

Yes standard hard drive. Also which is the smaller chipset fan? The big fan on back and the CPU fan are/were spinning but I'm not sure which one is the chipset fan but my buddy gave me everything related to that computer so I have the motherboard manual. I got the EXACT SAME PSU as the one that was in it before and one of it's lines is a six-pin one called the PCI Express connector but there is no power port with six slots so I am guessing it is for certain graphics cards. Also here is the warning I got (which shows the graphics card is working, too)

https://imgur.com/a/L42rBVJ

View: https://imgur.com/a/L42rBVJ

 

[stonecarver]

The first thing that stands out is you said you have a new motherboard battery but the date is still 2005.................change that in you bios set up.

you use your Tab and arrow keys

find your fan settings in bios and set the RPM warning to a lower value on both CPU and chipset save and exit.

 

[Merovie]

The first thing that stands out is you said you have a new motherboard battery but the date is still 2005.................change that in you bios set up.

you use your Tab and arrow keys

find your fan settings in bios and set the RPM warning to a lower value on both CPU and chipset save and exit.

I thought that when Windows synched the clock via the internet that was done automatically but the problem at this point is that it won't power up (fans, etc) to even get to the BIOS menu.

Those pesky demons possessing the computer that I thought were merely mischievous seemed to have escalated to murder LOL


I unplugged it for awhile. I'll go back and plug it back in and turn it on and wait and see but I am pretty sure the motherboard is @#$&%

 

[Merovie]

If I had some compressed air I would attempt to clean out the CPU but I've never removed a CPU fan much less a CPU before. I could try reseating the memory chips but I don't think that would do much. Like I said before when I had that problem on the computer I am using right now it turned on and gave me a beep code that told me what the problem was.

Here's something I didn't bring up. My friend hadn't worked on music in MONTHS before he fired it up again the day it refused to power up. Thing just sat there for three or four months unused. I've been thinking about how if you don't start a car up and drive it at least every couple of months it will die also

 

[stonecarver]

So at this point you can't even get into bios? was that just luck that it did earlier and now it is dead

 

[Merovie]

yep

 

[Merovie]

It has two optical drives in it (I don't know why) and since I have been using wonky external CD writer drives for this computer (the one I am using now) I am thinking of salvaging one of the ones on the dead computer and installing it on this computer. Perhaps that would free up some power on the computer. I was also wondering about the power setting on the PSU. It is set at 115 which is American standard. Would it fry the computer to change the setting on that?

I am trying to set up a music studio basically and want that room specifically used for music creation and recording. My other option is to haul all my musical instruments into my bedroom and use the computer I am using to post here