PC Won't Boot Up

It sounds like you had an "oxidized/loose" connection on one or both hard drives. I doubt it is the BIOS battery, if it now boots, and you can check the settings in the setup BIOS. If all there is normal, it most likely is NOT the internal backup battery. (If the battery were bad, you would have lost your HD parameters, and other settings, and the machine would have to re-establish those settings with each boot.) But keep an eye on it nevertheless; there could be a loose connection elsewhere. Have a spare power supply available if you can.

 

A bad CMOS battery does not prevent a computer from POSTing or running. BIOS will just go to default settings and the clock time will go to default.
I didn't read all the posts but reduce the computer to bare minimum it needs to run and see how it goes then add components like DVD drives, extra harddrives etc. one by one.
Suspect ribbon cables. They go bad sometimes. Power supply connectors lose connection too. It is always good to have spare parts you can swap out for troubleshooting.
I always keep an older vid card, power supply and various cables around.
I have had one of everything you can think of go bad at one time or another.

 

If it won't boot up, try booting it down.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

 

Hi,

As mentioned above, the disk drive connectors were dirty/loose/not seated properly. What happens is one of the first things the BIOS does after the memory check is drive detection. As the connections were dirty, it was having a problem detecting them properly and got stuck there.

In my experience, SATA connectors are not as reliable as the all the old larger ribbon cable connectors. These were always firmly attached while often the SATA connectors can be pretty wobbly and lame. I've seen several of them crack around the spring clip.

73,


Mark.

 

had the same problem with several PC's I fixed in the past, as long as the "off" time is less than the battery capacity, the pc will start. leave it off for a week and very same boot freeze waiting for a bootable drive. This usually showed up when someone came back from vacation

 

Ya mean from the 32nd floor of a multistory on to the pavement below.... there that will tell a longish tale.

Dave

 

I've had computers "down" for a year or more, and they still booted fine, with memory retained; it depends on the motherboard and type of "CMOS"memory is used, some store parameters in EEPROM, so don't need constant battery power, but some things DO, such as a clock. But clocks can be pretty long-lived, and some computers used a "clock on a chip," with it's own internal battery. Such would be immune to the back-up battery, but you would be SOL if the chip died; probably no longer available. Not sure there is a "work-around" in such a case.
My bet is still on oxidized or loose connections, and reconnecting things cleared things up.

 

Roger never came back.

His computer must be broke, And he is fighting to get a new computer with Win 10 to work.

 

? Is it legal to use the words "Micro*oft, Windoze 10, and 'work'" in the same sentence?

 

He'd be wantin a Window cleaner.