Computer Freezes

Hello,

Last evening my wife was typing a document on Word Perfect 6.0a and the computer froze. She said pressing ctrl-Alt-Delete did nothing so she pressed the reset button and the computer would not come back on. I tried putting in the Floppy M E startup disk and nothing happened. The monitor light stayed yellow and the floppy drive light never came on. I tried running the Windows M E installation disk an nothing happened. Today when I came home I turned the computer on and it started going through the disk error check and froze about half way through. I pressed the reset button and it went through the whole startup. So I decided to run my virus program (AVG) and the computer froze up about 90% of the way through. Now I am back to the same thing as last evening where nothing happens. Any ideas?

P4 2600
512 mem
Radeon 7500 video
WD hard drives

First thought that came to mind was a flaky/failing hard drive. Might want to test it first and see if it's ok:

Hard Drive Diagnostic Tools

Hard drive diagnostic utilities are used primarily for determining the physical condition of your hard drive, (drive integrity and read/write verification). If you are having computer problems which you suspect are hard drive related, you can test your drive with the following:

• Fujitsu "Diagnostic Tool"
  http://www.fcpa.com/support/hard-dri...utilities.html
  
  
• IBM/Hitachi "Drive Fitness Test"
  http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
  
  
• Maxtor "PowerMax"
  http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/ma...&downloadID=22
  
  
• Seagate "SeaTools Desktop"
  http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/
  
  
• Western Digital "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (Floppy or CD)"
  http://support.wdc.com/download/inde...pid=999&swid=2
  
  
• Fujitsu "Diagnostic Tools"
  http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/c...utilities.html

Note: In most instances you download the file to your hard drive then (extract)/execute it to create a bootable diskette or ISO CD-ROM image.

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If you don't know the Manufacturer/Model# of the hard drive in your computer:

1. Download and install EVEREST Free Edition 2.20
   http://www.majorgeeks.com/EVEREST_Fr...ion_d4181.html
   
   
2. Start Everest and go to Storage > Physical Drives > Drive. To the right of "Drive #1" should be the model number of your drive, (for example "ST3250823AS").
   
   
3. Type that model number into Google (http://www.google.com) and you should be able to tell who the Manufacturer was.

Thank you for responding.

My Hard drive is a Western Digital. I downloaded the Fujitsu file to a floppy but since I cannot get the computer to do anything (It won't go through any of the startup proceedure nor will the green light come up on the monitor) do I need to take out the hard drive and put it in another computer then run the Fujitsu diagnostic file?

Thanks

I took the hard drive out of the computer and put it in another computer. It booted just fine. I also ran scan disk and it found no errors.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pipercub

Thank you for responding.

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You're welcome. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pipercub

I took the hard drive out of the computer and put it in another computer. It booted just fine. I also ran scan disk and it found no errors.

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That's good news. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pipercub

My Hard drive is a Western Digital. I downloaded the Fujitsu file ...

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To perform hard drive diagnostics on a Western Digital hard drive, you need to use Western Digital's hard drive diagnostics:

• Western Digital "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (Floppy or CD)"
  http://support.wdc.com/download/inde...pid=999&swid=2

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pipercub

... since I cannot get the computer to do anything (It won't go through any of the startup proceedure nor will the green light come up on the monitor) ...

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If the computer is doing absolutely nothing, (no lights/LEDs, no fans/motors running, no beeps etc.), I would start checking the power source. Is there voltage at the receptacle the computer is plugged into? Is there voltage at the female end of the power cord that plugs into the back of the computer? Is the little 115/230 switch on the back of the power supply set correctly? Is there voltage from the computer's power supply to the motherboard? (And, are the voltages within tolerance)?

If there is no power coming from the power supply, or the voltages are incorrect, the power supply needs to be replaced.

Let us know what you find and we'll take it from there ...

Thanks for the reply!

My mistake by saying "doing nothing". When I turn the computer on the monitor which shows a little led stays yellow instead of changing to green. In the computer the power supply fan, cpu fan and video card fan all run. The led"s come on momentarily on the two cd players. It doesn't come on the floppy drive at all and I am fairly sure my bootup sequence is "A" then "CD Rom". There is no "beep" and nothing shows up on the monitor. The hard drive led stays on for at least five minutes. I always shut the computer off by then. I changed the floppy drive with no luck. I tried running a windows ME startup disk and it did nothing. I tried running the M E cd and all it did was run up and then stop because it wasn't being read. I took the hard drive out and put it in another computer and it booted just fine. I also ran AVG and found no viruses.

Thanks

In that case I'd try getting into the CMOS/BIOS Setup, reset everything to factory defaults, save and exit.

BTW, while you're in there, if you notice that the date/time is way off, (like January 01, 1980), replace the CMOS battery.

Thanks for your reply!

Since nothing appears on the screen when I turn on the computer I don't know what the date setting is. Can I change the battery anyway? Will I lose the BIOS or just the current settings?

Thanks

It won't hurt anything to replace the CMOS battery. The CMOS will simply be reset to factory defaults.

Have you checked the video cable, the one that goes from the back of the monitor to the back of the computer? Check to see if any of the pins are bent and then make sure it is attached securely.

If the monitor has multiple input capabilities, check to make sure it's set for the proper input, (usually VGA or DVI).

Thanks again for the reply!

I replace the CMOS battery. Nothing changed.
I have another video card in this computer so I took it out and put it in my problem child. Nothing changed.
I unplugged and plugged all connectors and cards in the computer. No changes.
I looked for damaged ends (bent or broken pins etc.) on the connectors and didn't find any. Could a part of the mother board be damaged? Can the BIOS be corrupted?

Thanks

Yes, part of the motherboard could be damaged or the CMOS scrambled. But first, have you tried the monitor on another computer? You'd only have to have it attached long enough to see it start the POST output (to know that it works). Then imediately power the PC back down before Windows starts to boot, (so you wouldn't have to setup the new hardware [monitor] that Windows will discover).

This morning I tried another monitor and this monitor's (Smile brand) led has a green one and a yellow one. It started our green but as soon as I turned the computer on the led went to yellow and the same thing happened as before so that wasn't the problem. Then I switched the power supplies (something you suggested in your first post) but that did not help either. I'm assuming a mother board can be tested. I have never messed with upgrading or installing (if that's the proper term) the BIOS.

Thanks!

Hopefully someone else we jump in here with some more/better ideas pretty quick. I'm headed for the great outdoors up in northern Michigan for at least a week starting early tommorow (Sunday).

I took a gamble and bought a mother board. Problem solved. I would still be interested if maybe the BIOS is all that is messed up. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me. I did learn things. Enjoy the great outdoors! To me "roughing it" is sleeping in a motel without a remote control.

My guess would have been a bad motherboard, but it could also have been a scrambled BIOS. If you replaced the CMOS battery with a new within a minute of taking out the old one, you BIOS would not have been reset. If you still want to check the old motherboard, you can reset the BIOS by either putting the jumper on the reset pins and putting it back on the regular pins, or by keeping the CMOS battery out for at least a minute, but better 5 minutes just to make sure.