XP nearly loads - BSOD - now no splash screen...

Discussion in 'General Hardware' started by fiddler, Nov 17, 2012.

  1. fiddler

    fiddler Newbie

    Hello KL friends! Hope you are all well :wave:

    GA-P35C-DS3R
    Win XP

    I've been having some intermittent problems. First XP would load but sometimes crash (BSOD) then boot again after coaxing by first booting to Safe Mode, then normal.
    But it got worse, so I replaced the PSU, and all seemed fine, but not for long. Same thing to start with (nearly complete XP load, but auto-reboot and DOS screen "Windows did not start correctly last time ....." etc.)

    But now it won't even load the XP splash screen or the DOS screen, or even the BIOS screen display, and I get a single beep, not the usual short blip that says all is OK, but a slightly longer beep, like nearly 1 second, and the BIOS seems to not complete the normal procedure.

    Do you think it's a RAM failure? Or is it the mobo? I tried reseating the RAM modules.
     
  2. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    If I'm not mistaken, that motherboard is using an AWARD BIOS. If so, here are the beep codes :

    Sounds like your motherboard may be the problem here. :(
     
    1 person likes this.
  3. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Yeah, most likely motherboard issue.
     
    1 person likes this.
  4. fiddler

    fiddler Newbie

    Thanks for the replies guys :) OK. No messing about - I'll get a new mobo, hard drive, and finally make the move to Win7. Data is backed up to an external HD, but am I right to assume that I will be able to connect the current HD (SATA) and access data on that?
     
  5. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Yup, should work fine.
     
  6. fiddler

    fiddler Newbie

    Thanks Chai and Adrian :wave:

    Order placed. Won't be able to have it ready for Catherine's return though :( She's back on Wednesday from 2 months examining in S Africa. She's got used to Win7 on her laptop, so will have to show me (XP is my limit) how it works :mrgreen:
     
  7. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Wow, that was fast! :thumb:
     
  8. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    Sorry for coming in late - I suspect it was the RAM or motherboard. Anyway, since you bought a new set, just skip my suggestions. :)
     
    1 person likes this.
  9. fiddler

    fiddler Newbie

    Thanks TYG :thumb: Good to get a third reassuring confirmation of the diagnosis.
    Should have said I did a memtest a while back, that showed no issues. Memtest86.com - Memory Diagnostic

    (Maybe I can add that RAM to another computer here and see what happens.)
     
  10. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    No problem. Many years (16 years ago) back when we got our 30-pin SIMMs (the PC was a 486DX), these little things are very hard to seat. I remember one of the sticks didn't sit properly on the slots, and guess what - all of the bootup screen is peppered with random letters and something I've seen in the Matrix. :faint:

    Malfunctioning RAM or poor connection will cause a short beep too - even in AMIBIOS systems.
     
  11. fiddler

    fiddler Newbie

    New system up and running :D
    It's fast! (Middle of the road Intel Core i5)
    Just installing applications etc. Haven't tried connecting and accessing data on the old XP drive yet.
    I had a narrow escape over the CPU frying though - I'll create another thread.
     
  12. fiddler

    fiddler Newbie

    It certainly did Chai :) I just connected it (both drives are SATA), entered BIOS first to check that the new Win7 drive was the first boot device. Booted up, Win7 saw the drive (automatically relabelled the partitions) and all the data files. Those not in "My Documents" were instantly accessible, those in "My Docs" just needed one click to mark them all as having permission to access, I copied across to the new drive with no problem. Imported the saved WAB file across to Win7 Contacts, and into Thunderbird.

    Catherine really missed our old Agfa Snapscan 1212U that had somehow lost communication with the old XP system, despite uninstalling, reinstalling driver etc, so I dug it out, connected it, loaded the driver (that I'd carefully saved in a Drivers folder and backed up :D ), Win7 saw it, didn't like it, and offered to try an earlier version of Windows. I chose XP SP3, it opened the programme, and now all she has to do is rt click and Run as Administrator :mrgreen:

    Very pleased with Win7 so far.
     

Share This Page