boots every other time

[nutz4drumz]

im working on this xp machine that consistently fails to boot except evey second time. no error codes, no funny beeps, it just sits there with a black screen with the cd/cdrw/and hdd leds working back and forth.

its an aopen p3 600 with 64 megs of pc100 ram aopen mobo 16meg nvidia tnt graphics card.

ive tried cleaning and even swapping out the video card for a known good unit.

ive installed a known good 128meg stick of ram.

still no joy.

he upgraded win98se to this xp installation. could this be caused by that. or do you think the mobo is tired and needs to be swapped out. thanx for any advice in advance.

[Darren Wilson]

Try a different PSU (if you have not already done this). Sounds like either a power issue (boot up power signal timings not correct) or it could be that the CPU may need replacing (after gently blowing any contaminants away from the socket & off the contacting edge/pins of the chip itself).

[nutz4drumz]

would a power supply issue be this consistent? i mean you can rely on it powering up consistently on the second boot, i would think a psu problem would be more intermittant? he said this only started happening when he shipped it over here from the states. (i'm in abu dhabi UAE) perhaps a good jolt got to his psu. ill give it a shot.

[Wyckyd1]

Could be corrupt ntldr file,mbr ie. somthing with the boot. Something like this could be sporadic and consistent. You may want to view the following:

<a href="http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q314503&" target="_blank">http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q314503&</a>

Good Luck!

[Darren Wilson]

[quote]Originally posted by Wyckyd1:
<strong>Could be corrupt ntldr file,mbr ie. somthing with the boot. Something like this could be sporadic and consistent. You may want to view the following:

<a href="http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q314503&" target="_blank">http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q314503&</a>

Good Luck!</strong><hr></blockquote>

From the way I read the original post it isn't even posting, until the next reboot and the optical drive LED's are just flashing. If this isn't the case, can the original poster please verify?

[nutz4drumz]

that is correct its not posting. nothing but a black screen till i reboot then it comes up like everyting is rosy. leds on both cd drives and hdd are blinking back and forthe like theyre having a party but nobodys going home

[ilovetheusers]

[quote]Originally posted by Darren Wilson:
<strong>

From the way I read the original post it isn't even posting, until the next reboot and the optical drive LED's are just flashing. If this isn't the case, can the original poster please verify?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Hey! You're alive!