I'm setting up a new computer and I'm having a strange problem. As soon as it begins to boot up it locks up. I can't get into the BIOS screen or anything. Just a straight lockup if I try to get into the Bios. If I don't it locks up a few seconds later. Any suggestions?


P4 1.8
GeForce 2
Intel Motherboard
4 sticks of RDRAM (128)
CD ROM
Floppy Drive
Hard Drive

Nothing else is in the comp. Anyone have some things I can try tonight...any help would be appreciated. Thanks again!

Jaykkub

 

It could be that a piece of hardware is just loose. Try reseating it all. If that doesn't work, start pulling out hardware one by one until it comes up or remove all the hardware and start adding it one by one until you find the conflict.

BTW - I would start with the RAM DIMMs.

 

this is what you do - pull cards, pull everything out except vid card and memory. while you are in there, reseat the memory and vid card. even the hard drives/cdroms/fdd's (just the IDE cables). yea, it might take some time to boot up even if it does hard lock like that, but let it time out. even try removing the mouse and kb! I've many several kb's that will hard lock a system like that.

 

The only components in the computer are the Ram and video card...besides the CDRom, Floppy and HD. I'll switch out the cables tomorrow and if that doesn't work I'll switch out the mouse and kb. Anyone else have any suggestions? Thanks again for the help...

Jaykkub

 

So, you get no beep codes or anything like that? (is your PC speaker hooked up?) I've seen CPU's become slightly unseated and cause this sort of thing... Try taking out your CPU and reseating it.

 

The last computer I put together would not boot at all as well. It would just emit a tone constantly. I discovered through much trial and error the DIMMs I had in it were too small for the motherboard. It required at least 128 sticks and I had 2 64's in it.

Just a suggestion.

 

I would do exactly what ltweintz and Schatten said

 

Try resetting CMOS completely. Unplug PC and take the CMOS battery out for 5 minutes. Can you boot to floppy? It could be a bad hard drive.

 

you DO have a heatsink on the CPU right? I know it sounds like a stupid question....

 

I have a heatsink hooked up. I tried pulling the battery out, but only for a few seconds. I'll wait a few minutes if that has any affect. I'll also pull the processor and put it back in to see if that helps out. Btw, the computer never reads the floppy drive. It just hard locks.

My second computer that I'm building is giving me probs too. That one just won't start. The box is hooked up correctly to the motherboard. Anyone know of any problems? I'm going to switch out the motherboard into another box tonight to see if that helps. Thanks for all the suggestions...

Jaykkub