Computer freezing on startup

I have a Dell Dimension 8400 desktop.

I had a computer virus a while back, but got that all cleared out.


In the last week though, when I would start my computer up, in the DELL STARTUP PAGE, which is the first thing you see when you boot up, there is a loading bar below the "DELL" name type. The bar would cross the screen, basically loading/booting up the computer. It would then bring up the windows boot screen, and then load the main startup/desktop screen.

Well in the last week, that "loading bar" upon starting my computer up, would freeze half way or stop 3/4's of the way. I would have to manually shutdown and restart. Only on startup again, the same thing would happen.

On the third time though, the computer would fully boot up. When I would shut down after the full boot, and then start it up again, it would boot up just fine.


The freezing if you will, only happens when the computer is shut down for several hours or more.

I don't believe I have a virus on my computer, but don't know, HOWEVER, I have run.... spybot, ad-aware, ewido, and a couple other spyware programs and haven't found any viruses or anything?

I can't seem to figure out the problem. Don't know if it's a BIOS issue or something else.

If anyone could help me out on the issue, I would appreciate it.

Somthing like this happend to me last week. I just removed the caseing and blew the dust off the motherboard and it worked fine for me after that. Maybe it will work for you.

bobobill said:

Somthing like this happend to me last week. I just removed the caseing and blew the dust off the motherboard and it worked fine for me after that. Maybe it will work for you.

Click to expand...

Well I just tried something.


I did a cold boot.


The same problem arose. On the DELL boot page, the loading bar froze.

I looked at the back of my computer and there are 4 lights in the back....A, B, C, D

A and D lights were green

B and C lights were orange


I waited for a minute, then shut my computer down. I then restarted and it boot up all the way.


I don't know what it means, that the B and C lights were orange...I'll have to call the Dell agent whom I've been working with this on, on Monday, but my primary concern is whether something like this could damage any files on my hard drives, or whether it's a hardware issue, like a bad fan, or usb hub or something.

For anyone who might know, I just wanted to see what it might be and whether it might pose any major threat to any files or the system.



ALSO....

I don't know if it's a dust issue. There are at some times, where the desktop makes a low level buzz sound. I go to the back of the tower and jossle the monitor cord that plugs into the tower and the buzzing stops.

And also, my wireless adapter which is plugged into the tower as of recently, on after full startup, doesn't have turn on. It usually does, as indicated by the two green lights, but when it doesn't, I have to manually unplug it, and plug it back in

I don't know whether the two to three issues are all related.

I know on my dell, an Optitron something or other, green means you have something plugged into the USB slot, and the ones where I don't have something plugged in are orange, so I don't think it's that.

awdawd said:

I know on my dell, an Optitron something or other, green means you have something plugged into the USB slot, and the ones where I don't have something plugged in are orange, so I don't think it's that.

Click to expand...

well, even if there are things not plugged into the ports, they still should be green.

Mine are all green, even though I have 2 ports open, when it boots up all the way.


But this is on a startup issue, and the dell guy told me to check the lights when it freezes on startup.

it looks like something is freezing the startup
on startup a computer runs a series of lines.
(they are there but dont know where)
during this, something is making the processor to halt.
On your new windows system a wait-state flag is set.
If during the validity of that flag a reboot is encountered then the processor will recognize that point and skip it.
But i don't know what line / program is causing this.
So don't know an answer.
But hopes this helps

GrapJ said:

it looks like something is freezing the startup
on startup a computer runs a series of lines.
(they are there but dont know where)
during this, something is making the processor to halt.
On your new windows system a wait-state flag is set.
If during the validity of that flag a reboot is encountered then the processor will recognize that point and skip it.
But i don't know what line / program is causing this.
So don't know an answer.
But hopes this helps

Click to expand...

Well, I got a new message this morning that says that my usb has malfunctioned.


I had to unplug my wireless adapter and plug it back in to gain power and establish a link

Hobbam,

I really don't have enough info to make a good analysis of this problem but your one statement,

"The freezing if you will, only happens when the computer is shut down for several hours or more."

is somewhat indicative of a heat issue (but not entirely). What I would do, if I were you (and I was absolutely positive the virus problem isn't still lingering) is, initially, start removing all of your cards and peripherals one by one to see if one of them is causing the problem. Then start removing RAM chips one by one to check the same thing. Eventually (possibly) you may have to pull the mobo and PSU out of the machine to check.

I just ran into a similar problem and it turned out that two of the RAM slots (slots 2 and 3) on the mobo were fried. The person had let the machine get too hot. The problem could be RAM chips, mobo, PSU or possibly something else. You'll just have to get very systematic with your analysis.

I just say your last message, "Well, I got a new message this morning that says that my usb has malfunctioned." I think this is a pretty good indicator, since all types of components are being affected, that your problem is with the mobo, PSU or RAM.

Good luck.

mindido said:

Hobbam,

I really don't have enough info to make a good analysis of this problem but your one statement,

"The freezing if you will, only happens when the computer is shut down for several hours or more."

is somewhat indicative of a heat issue (but not entirely). What I would do, if I were you (and I was absolutely positive the virus problem isn't still lingering) is, initially, start removing all of your cards and peripherals one by one to see if one of them is causing the problem. Then start removing RAM chips one by one to check the same thing. Eventually (possibly) you may have to pull the mobo and PSU out of the machine to check.

I just ran into a similar problem and it turned out that two of the RAM slots (slots 2 and 3) on the mobo were fried. The person had let the machine get too hot. The problem could be RAM chips, mobo, PSU or possibly something else. You'll just have to get very systematic with your analysis.

I just say your last message, "Well, I got a new message this morning that says that my usb has malfunctioned." I think this is a pretty good indicator, since all types of components are being affected, that your problem is with the mobo, PSU or RAM.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

I JUST TALKED TO A DELL TECH.

I had to open up the tower, which I absolutely did NOT want to do, but did it anyway.

I had to pull out the:

modem card

sound card

hard drive cord

cd and dvd cords

then...

the memory cards.



The DELL tech wanted me to put one MEMORY card in at a time. 1 in, then power on, then turn off. 2 in power on, then power off. I had to do this several times, varying the what memory cards I put in and where....like put 1 in, lined up with the white holding caps, then put the same card in the black holding cap....and then put the other in so it would be one in black, one in white, then 2 back in white.


I didn't know exactly why he wanted me to, but saw that light "A" was the only one in green, while B,C,D were orange.

He said that the motherboard and memory cards need to be replaced.


Now if they were fried.....because I was having fan issues in the past, where on startup and through running my computer, my fan would go a bit loud, then soft, loud, then soft, so I don't know whether that issue with the fan, would cause the cards and motherboard to fry.....if you will.



A TECH is suppose to come out with a new motherboard and memory chips to replace the faulty ones. Should I ask, for him to bring out a new and possibly better fan as well? I wasn't sure.

Hobbam,

The procedure I described was exactly what you just went through with the Dell tech. It seems highly unlikely that the mobo and ALL the RAM are bad, but, as long as the machine is on warranty, let them replace what they want.

It does sound like a very good idea to get the PSU replaced at the same time since you've already been experiencing problems with it. I'd call them back and make sure they know about it as PSUs are cheap and easy to replace.

mindido said:

Hobbam,

The procedure I described was exactly what you just went through with the Dell tech. It seems highly unlikely that the mobo and ALL the RAM are bad, but, as long as the machine is on warranty, let them replace what they want.

It does sound like a very good idea to get the PSU replaced at the same time since you've already been experiencing problems with it. I'd call them back and make sure they know about it as PSUs are cheap and easy to replace.

Click to expand...

Well now I'm really confused. I'd really like to know what the problem is though.

I mean the tech guy, when I kept putting the memory cards in the different slots didn't really say why I needed to do this. We went through the different options, then he said okay. "It looks like you have faulty memory cards and a motherboard which need to be replaced."

If that is correct, is that the reason why, when I do a cold boot or whatever, that the loading bar halts/freezes, and I have to restart at least once or twice more, before if fully boots????

And sorry, but how does the PSU factor into this???

I notified them about the fan issue though.

Hobbam,

I can't tell you specifically why your machine is doing what it its doing, although I can speculate. The #1 "killer" of PC's is excessive heat. Very possibly, sometime this summer, the machine got too hot and slowly started to break down. Thats exactly what happened to the machine I mentioned ealier.

The procedure you went through with the Dell tech is the standard procedure for trying to locate a specific problem (is the problem the mobo, RAM or whatever) when you don't have the machine in front of you or don't have access to testing equipment. By pulling all of the RAM and then testing each chip and slot, the tech was able to narrow the problem area down.

More than likely you have some bad RAM and/or slots on the mobo which are intermittently losing contact. Thats why the machine freezes at start up. Once it warms up it works OK. The PSU is one of the most important parts of the machine as it supplies all of the power to the machine. If it starts screwing up, other components will start screwing up.

mindido said:

Hobbam,

I can't tell you specifically why your machine is doing what it its doing, although I can speculate. The #1 "killer" of PC's is excessive heat. Very possibly, sometime this summer, the machine got too hot and slowly started to break down. Thats exactly what happened to the machine I mentioned ealier.

The procedure you went through with the Dell tech is the standard procedure for trying to locate a specific problem (is the problem the mobo, RAM or whatever) when you don't have the machine in front of you or don't have access to testing equipment. By pulling all of the RAM and then testing each chip and slot, the tech was able to narrow the problem area down.

More than likely you have some bad RAM and/or slots on the mobo which are intermittently losing contact. Thats why the machine freezes at start up. Once it warms up it works OK. The PSU is one of the most important parts of the machine as it supplies all of the power to the machine. If it starts screwing up, other components will start screwing up.

Click to expand...

Could you tell me more about the PSU and how it could possibly effect my situation. If the PSU giving off too much heat, to which the fan is not possibly doing enough to cool the inside of the computer, then should the motherboard, memory cards, PSU, and fan be replaced?

Hobbam,

More than likely, the PSU isn't (wasn't) giving off any more heat than any other similar PSU. One problem is that you've mentioned that the fan on the PSU is running intermittently. Now thats a problem as that fans job is specifically to cool the PSU. If the PSU gets too hot it can do all kinds of things which are generally not too good for the rest of the machine.

I would just let the Dell tech swap out all the parts that you mentioned including the PSU. If they don't swap that out you could be experiencing the same problems again shortly.

If you want to know more about PSU's, here is a site with some pretty good info:

http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/Power-Supply.php

i dont know if this is still an issue but i am a computer tech and there are a few things that oculd be wrong.

1st and most obvious is that you might have a corrupt cd or disk or usb item plugged into your computer at start up.

2nd. your cpu fan may be filthy and just needs some simple condensed air to clean it out.

3rd. you could have a dying power supply
(not likely unless you keep the computer on 24/7 and are running intense programs [or you have way too many disk drives or random unecessesary stuff i.e. zip drive, dvd drive and a dvd-r drive] and have been doing so for more than a year)
keep in mind if your power supply was dead, you would be getting no juice.


4th. your ram could be fried. but if your computer is actually booting, your ram is not fried. (ram are the memory sticks) to check this, once you boot up right click the "my computer" icon and select properties. the system properties page will tell you how much ram you are running. if the number is less than what its supposed to be, one of your sticks has died.[most computers are running on 512 MB these days but yours may be old and may only have 256MB]

5th. your mother board could be damaged but you would be getting error messages up the ass and it would be unable boot at all.

6th. your processor could be damaged from over clocking (not likely if you dont know computers or dont have someone in the house who plays brand new computer games), or the heat sink on it could be broken and its getting too hot too fast.


let me know if any of this doesnt make sense.

once something familiar happened and i removed everything and pluged it again and booted.........it worked fine then