computer can't boot up :/

Hello!

I have a desktop I built myself a few months ago. It has an ASUS P5AD2 mobo, 3.4ghz, 1gb RAM, dual hard drive. It ran fine until today. All of a sudden my computer freezes while booting up or as soon as it enters windows. 1/2 the time when I turn it on the computer itself will boot but my screen will remain off. The computer's lights will be on but no sound of the hard drive working. After numerous restarts it'll eventually boot into windows but then freeze again.

I once got an error about overclocking. I never overclocked my system so that seems a bit strange. The system will also freeze in the BIOS setup utility.

I'm out of ideas :? and any advice is appreciated. I have windows xp home. Thanks
-Ap

Sounds like symptoms of a power supply gone bad... Bad power supplies will cause alot of weird things, some of which you have described...

I would get a new power supply, or a power supply you know works and swap it with the bad one and see if the symptoms still occure...

Ack =) I was fearing that answer. I actually believe its the same thing :/ I bought a 400W power supply just a few months ago :/ its also hooked up to a surge protector. has PSU's been known to randomly give out with this small of a lifespan use?

Thanks!
-Ap

Well it depends on the circumstances, was the power supply you have came with the case you bought? if so those don't last long... Was the power supply you got made from a known good company? If it's a no named brand, then I wouldn't be surprised if it died early...

It is a Thermaltake 400W power supply. It came with my Tsunami case

Well, that seems to be the problem, many companies will throw in a PSU so the case comes with a power supply and it helps marketing and such, but they usually throw in a cheap power supply to cut costs. Thermaltake is a known company, but that doesn't mean they don't make cheap power supplies... Much like intel is a known processor company, but they still sell celerons lol...

Grrr that makes me a bit angry. A faulty power supply could've seriously damaged my entire PC. Curse you thermaltake! (nice cases tho).

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll be replacing my power supply. if it doesn't work I'll repost here =)

Thanks again
-Ap

My question is this:Do you get that dreadfull blue screen of death..??If so your ram might be the culprit as well..Do you have 2x512,s or 1x1gig ram..??Remove one by one if so and check again.Try safe mode boot as well..
hope it helps..

Hi all, I've had the exact same problem with one of my pcs. At first i thought it was the power supply aswell and checked all the connections, even fitted a nice 500 watt one in to check and it still didnt work. Changed bios, didnt work. The last thing I thought it would be were virii. I took it into the local pc shop because i knew that whateva i was scanning it with - McAffee and spybot wasnt working. They scanned it for me and found over 40 Trojans, worms, the works really. This software is free aswell, its called avast and at www.avast.com , i would recommend it to anyone and apparently its as good as avg and norton!

So if the psu isnt faulty aperson, you should really get it scanned mate.

~Archer~

Last time i checked virii did not crash a bios or make your pc refuse to give even when not even in windows.

There are a very small amount of bios viruses out there. But that is very rare to occur.

Not saying it cant happen but it is RARE to occur and most likely not the case. Go with the psu first.

Hmmm,

Yes stuff can fail, but it usually does it in the first 3-7 days. Remember only a small sample are tested.

What you are describing could also be your video card............I have seen several of those that are actually sold in an overclocked condition.

I would EARTH (ground?) myself. Remove the memory, clean & re-seat it and do the same with the video card. Check that all the fans are working whilst you are at it.

Then see if you can borrow a spare video card and try with that. It does not have to be anything fancy, a PCI one will do.

just a thought :)

So apearson, how bout it? Was the PSU the culprit? If you got the new PSU and it still didn't work, try nihil's suggestion...

I as well reccomend Avast, I install it on every computer I service that's lacking AV software... But I doubt this is the work of a virus...

BTW, nihil suggested that it could be a RAM problem, I'm assuming he got the idea because of the freezing up in windows, if that's the case, then it would be more likely that it's a mobo problem... meaning you have a faulty RAM slot... And the idea of the overclocked video card is a good idea, as alot of them DO come overclocked... and since you've only had it for a couple of months... it kind of makes sense.

Thank you nihil for catching the things I missed, I have a habbit of jumping to conclusions a bit early... :)