POST Not Running!?!?!

[B_ScaredLittleBoy]

Okay so last night I realised why my monitor doesnt turn on after a reboot or even after a shutdown (I have to wait fifteen or so minutes each time I turn the bastard off).

The keyboard doesn't flash, which I only noticed last night. Which means POST isn't running and it isn't checking the keyboard or the video. I thought POST was automatic...what does this mean and is there any way to fix it?

This site says its a power supply problem: will a new power supply fix it? Or should I just get a new PC?

Power On Self Test

And while I'm here:

I've been messing around with partitions and my main hard drive (about 75GB) has become Inactive OS/2...how do I make it bootable/visible?

I have a 1GB partiton that has become RAW (I was on it last night on XP but couldn't see the other partition). I assume I can format the RAW drive in the recovery console? I hope I can

And thats about it. I did read something about ptedit being able to recover OS/2 Boot drives.

But my main concern is this POST not running...I'm really getting pissed off with it now. There's a lot of restarting involved when formatting and creating partitions. And having to wait 15-20 minutes to reboot each time is annoying.

Thanks.

 

[dong20]

Welcome, SLB - LPSG (PC support division) here, how may we help? ...

 

[B_ScaredLittleBoy]

Funny guy, eh?

I thought of the thousands of members someone would know the answer or want to help :redface:.

I thought that perhaps it could be a problem with the BIOS firmware? I updated it ages ago and cant remember but perhaps that could be the issue? I updated it from the manufacturer's website and I don't see how anyone would release new firmware with such an annoying bug/problem.

When I get home I'll spend all night fuckin about with it again. Fun :biggrin1:

 

[HazelGod]

Be very careful with your partition table...do not make any changes to it unless you know absolutely, positively, 100% without doubt what you're doing.

The type and whether it's inactive is simply a bitfield in the table record. I'm not sure what you're using to read it, but I would recommend that you boot from a Linux Live CD (like Ubuntu or Knoppix) and use the fdisk utility to examine the partition table....but I'd wait until after you get your POST problems sorted out. In the meantime, take your HDD out (or just pull the data / power cable) and just boot to the CD.

As to the POST issues, yes faulty or underpowered power supplies can do weird shit to your system. You mentioned it's an older machine...have you upgraded it to a newer video card? Or made any other changes that would increase the current draw from its original configuration?

Actually, would you mind posting your current config? Include PS wattage rating, motherboard make/model, CPU, size and number of RAM modules, any expansion cards (like network or video), HDD make/model, and optical drives.

 

[dong20]

I thought of the thousands of members someone would know the answer or want to help :redface:.

There's a reason I stopped doing technical support years ago. From this remove it's very difficult to identify, much less resolve your PC problems.

Most likely (non mainboard) culprits are PSU, RAM and VGA. Does the CPU fan spin up - is a PS2 or USB keyboard, IDE or SATA drives?

Have you cleared the BIOS to default, tried to POST with no peripherals (no HDD, CD, KEYB, MOUSE) etc? If the board will still not POST then likely either it's fried or the PSU isn't putting out a decent supply.

If it does then add peripherals back one by one until it either works properly or falls over.

 

[B_ScaredLittleBoy]

Okay so I think I recovered the drives. I downloaded ptedit and made a bootable CD. Now they're both Primary but I can choose which partition to load...just need to finalise the XP installs/repairs.

Now the main issue is this POST not running. Do you think removing my PCI video card and just using the onboard would help? That would release the strain on the PSU I think. Or should I just get a bigger PSU? Cos every man wants a bigger PSU

When post doesn't run there is just a constant, light spin noise from the fan. When the video turns on/POST runs there's a slightly louder noise as if its doing more work then a beep and it goes back to a light spin noise.

I also have a PCI Soundblaster card though so if it was struggling with the PCI video card...how/why would it run both of them?

This is whack.

 

[B_JasonDawgxxx]

I wish I could help you.My last lap top kept shutting down.They told me it was the battery.So I bought a new one as it was cheaper in the long run.I hope you figure out whats wrong with it.Jason.

 

[D_Tintagel_Demondong]

As to the POST issues, yes faulty or underpowered power supplies can do weird shit to your system.

I had to change my PSU last week. All kinds of random errors were occurring. I have an old pc with an ASUS mobo, which is very picky about voltages, especially any under 12V. In fact, my 5V was running at a respectable 4.95V, but I think this is what was causing the problems.

Anyway, the new $30 PSU fixed everything. I will never buy another ASUS mobo again.

 

[Industrialsize]

get a MAC...

 

[B_ScaredLittleBoy]

I'll look at buying a PSU. Does anyone know what µATX means? Is that standard ATX or some other form factor? Never seen that symbol before.

 

[HazelGod]

I'll look at buying a PSU. Does anyone know what µATX means? Is that standard ATX or some other form factor? Never seen that symbol before.

That's a lower-case Greek letter mu, used in this context to mean micro.

Micro-ATX is a motherboard form factor which, as the name implies, is smaller than the standard ATX form factor...although it is backward-compatible, so you can fit a µATX board into a case designed for an ATX board.

 

[camper joe]

I understand > 1% of whats been discussed in this thread.

 

[HazelGod]

I understand > 1% of whats been discussed in this thread.

Same here. :biggrin1: