Computer won't post, please advise

[Chowder Head]

Hey guys, long time lurker first time poster. I'm having a really strange problem with my computer and I'd love to get some feedback from you guys. First and foremost, here are the specs:

Antec P180
Opteron 165 with Scythe Ninja Heatsink
MSI Diamond Plus
2x1GB DDR500 G.skill
eVGA 7800GT
Seasonic S-12 600W
WD Raptor 74GB SATA (primary), Seagate 300GB and 500GB SATA (storage)
Windows XP SP2

Now the problem itself happened two days ago, when I encountered the BSOD; it's been working great for at least a few years now. After the BSOD occurred, I restart it. it loads fine, and acts normal for a few minutes or so then the BSOD occurs again. Now, today, it's having a very hard time even posting. Most of the time when I start it it just hangs without going anywhere. The few times it actually does something, it gets stuck at the POST screen or if I'm trying to access the BIOS or F8 options, the keyboard suddenly goes dead even if I unplug it and replug it. I've also noticed a BSOD occurring during this time which I find pretty odd and I'm not sure what that means. The only thing that happened that I thought fixed it was I was finally able to get into the F8 options, selected last know good config that work, and it booted completely just fine for about 10 mins or so, then another BSOD happened and now I'm back at a square one with a computer that won't even post.

Oh, and my MSI board has these diagnostic lights on the back that highlight problems if there is one and when the computer is just hanging, the bottom two lights are red which, according to the manual, indicate: "Decompressing BIOS image to RAM for fast booting " but I have no idea what this means.

I think that's it. If I left out anything I'll be sure to let you guys know but in the mean time does anyone have suggestions on what I can try or what the problem might be? The lack of a post screen is a problem but I just don't understand how it can work perfectly for 4 or 5 minutes (the very rare times it actually does load) and then BSOD soon afterward followed by not posting at all.

Any replies would be seriously appreciated, thank you all in advance!

Regards,
Michael

 

[tritonofg]

Hey guys, long time lurker first time poster. I'm having a really strange problem with my computer and I'd love to get some feedback from you guys. First and foremost, here are the specs:

Antec P180
Opteron 165 with Scythe Ninja Heatsink
MSI Diamond Plus
2x1GB DDR500 G.skill
eVGA 7800GT
Seasonic S-12 600W
WD Raptor 74GB SATA (primary), Seagate 300GB and 500GB SATA (storage)
Windows XP SP2

Now the problem itself happened two days ago, when I encountered the BSOD; it's been working great for at least a few years now. After the BSOD occurred, I restart it. it loads fine, and acts normal for a few minutes or so then the BSOD occurs again. Now, today, it's having a very hard time even posting. Most of the time when I start it it just hangs without going anywhere. The few times it actually does something, it gets stuck at the POST screen or if I'm trying to access the BIOS or F8 options, the keyboard suddenly goes dead even if I unplug it and replug it. I've also noticed a BSOD occurring during this time which I find pretty odd and I'm not sure what that means. The only thing that happened that I thought fixed it was I was finally able to get into the F8 options, selected last know good config that work, and it booted completely just fine for about 10 mins or so, then another BSOD happened and now I'm back at a square one with a computer that won't even post.

Oh, and my MSI board has these diagnostic lights on the back that highlight problems if there is one and when the computer is just hanging, the bottom two lights are red which, according to the manual, indicate: "Decompressing BIOS image to RAM for fast booting " but I have no idea what this means.

I think that's it. If I left out anything I'll be sure to let you guys know but in the mean time does anyone have suggestions on what I can try or what the problem might be? The lack of a post screen is a problem but I just don't understand how it can work perfectly for 4 or 5 minutes (the very rare times it actually does load) and then BSOD soon afterward followed by not posting at all.

Any replies would be seriously appreciated, thank you all in advance!

Regards,
Michael

Hi Mike,
You might want to try a few things:
1. Test your PSU (testers are sold at Frys or similar stores for 20 bucks or less)
2. Get an Ubuntu Live CD and Run Memtest 86 (checks your ram)
3. Reset the BIOS to use default settings
4. run the live cd to eliminate winxp as error source

 

[asdf634]

Seems like during POST your board is trying to access the ram and failed. Try to leave only one stick plugged in, if that doesn't work try each of the different slot. Do the same with the other one. If you're overclocking, set it back to normal once you get the chance. If all failed, get a ram from a working computer or your friend that you're sure is working fine and test each slot with it. If everything failed then it's highly likely that your mobo has gone bye bye, but just to be sure test it with a different, working PSU. Also, you may want to test your rams on another pc.

I had a similar problem ages ago, but I later found out that it was due to my dead, faulty HDD which caused the POST to hang and was unable to get into bios. Try disconnecting all your drives (dvd rom included) and basically just try to get the pc to POST first.

 

[Chowder Head]

Hey guys, sorry to keep you all in the dark but I fixed it. I finally got a chance to use system restore for a few days ago and when everything looked good for the day and I thought I fixed it, upon shutting down I noticed that Windows wanted to update some stuff before turning off which made me remember, a day or two before the incident, I'm pretty sure my computer accidentally shut off in the middle of this very same update which I'm guessing caused the problem.

So in short, never allow your computer to prematurely shut down during one of those updates haha. Thanks for the help though guys, it was appreciated.