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From: Jack Ouzzi on 4 Jun 2010 02:50
On Jun 3, 2:14 pm, FP <f32pnos...(a)eircom.net> wrote:
> On 03/06/2010 11:08, Chris Whelan wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Thu, 03 Jun 2010 09:57:50 +0000, root wrote:
>
> >> Jack Ouzzi<mick.stur...(a)gmail.com>  wrote:
>
> >>> A friend has a PC which 'fails to boot' ... blank screen - nothing -
> >>> power is OK and running.
> >>> After a few attempts at the Delete and F keys whilst running&  booting
> >>> I eventually got into the BIOS .... however after a short while
> >>> (checking settings) it hangs, then goes back to it's 'nothing' state.
> >>> Hitting Delete and F keys during boot are only about 20% effective
> >>> ..... its turn off and on again to restart the process .... I have also
> >>> tried HD diagnostic software (Spinrite) but that loads into memory and
> >>> also hangs .....
> >>> Managed to start XP installation with manufacturers rescue disks ...
> >>> hangs
> >>> Managed to install Linux Mint 8 (after 4 goes) but during boot up it
> >>> hangs .....
> >>> Any possible ideas please??
>
> >> Disconnect the disk drives, remove all the cards except the graphics
> >> card and see if the machine will reliably start and get into the bios.
> >> If not the mother board is bad. If the MB is ok, then you can start
> >> adding stuff back and see what causes the problem.
>
> > To which I would just suggest trying another PSU as a last resort.
>
> He didn't mention RAM. If it powers up sometimes, but dies after a while
> then I would suspect PSU first, then RAM. Especially after the bit about
> the diagnostic loading into RAM and then the machine freezes -- one
> would hope that a HD diagnostic would report a faulty HD, not freeze the
> machine, so I'd have the drives lower down the list.
>
> So if it powers up reliably when you take the drives out, suspect the
> PSU (with the drives gone, the PSU may be able to cope). Otherwise, can
> you swap the RAM around? What sort of RAM is it?
>
> FP

Thanks for all the replies .... tried the CMOS battery to no avail,
but not had a chance to try the other helpful suggestions.
Will post back later when it is fixed :-)
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