PC shuts off right as its about to boot

[AphexDreamer]

I did some diagnostics, RAM is good, HDD's are good, PSU is good but whenever it boots up to windows 7 it just shuts off before it can even get away from the welcome screen.

I have a miniXP that I tried to load from a USB and right as its about to begin loading XP, all you see is the windows xp logo and it too then shuts off.

But when I use Hiren's boot cd or spend any amount of time in BIOS everything is fine. Settings are saving in BIOS so the battery is still good on the MB.

Anyway to narrow it down between the CPU and the MB? Aside from switching systems? Anyone have personal thoughts or input regarding this situation?

ITs an old AM2 system running an AMD Athlon 6400+ everything on stock. Some GB MB, don't recall the model.

[theubersmurf]

Could be your HDD controller, do you have an add-in HDD controller you could try?

[AphexDreamer]

Nope, but I found an old AM2 board in my closest. I'm going to try it out and assuming its not dead see what results from it.

[bmaverick]

I once had a system with a similar behavior. Ended up being a thermal issue and not the OS. Is the BIOS reading the temps of the processor(s)?

Are there any dip switches or jumpers not set on the MB correctly?

[pigulici]

Check your ram with memtest and hdd with the tool from producer...

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by AphexDreamer

I did some diagnostics, RAM is good, HDD's are good, PSU is good but whenever it boots up to windows 7 it just shuts off before it can even get away from the welcome screen.

I have a miniXP that I tried to load from a USB and right as its about to begin loading XP, all you see is the windows xp logo and it too then shuts off.

But when I use Hiren's boot cd or spend any amount of time in BIOS everything is fine. Settings are saving in BIOS so the battery is still good on the MB.

Anyway to narrow it down between the CPU and the MB? Aside from switching systems? Anyone have personal thoughts or input regarding this situation?

ITs an old AM2 system running an AMD Athlon 6400+ everything on stock. Some GB MB, don't recall the model.

Check the motherboard caps, reset the CMOS, remove the CPU cooler, clean it thoroughly, clean the CPU- reseat CPU in Socket- apply fresh thermal compound. reseat the ram, power connectors, PCI/PCIE devices, other chords. use the reset switch as the power switch on mobo

[AphexDreamer]

Ok so I switched MB and cleaned the heat sink and CPU and redid everything basically and it worked. Was in windows great, also despite the heat sink not covering about a quarter of an inch of the CPU BIOS temps show it to be idle at 37C (have yet to manage to check this in windows).

So after windows got done rediscovering the hardware changes I began to try and install some Drivers for the old MB. Turns out is has no Win 7 Drivers (This is for the M3A32-MVP). I tried to force install vista 64 bit drivers for the wireless card and it BSOD half way through instillation (regarding ndis.sys). Upon restart PC spat out BSOD regarding ndis.sys again (apparently network related) so I did some research and someone recommend updating their BIOS to 1902 but I went ahead and updated to 2202 (latest) and even though that was successful it is now even freezing in startup repair and the Windows 7 loading boot screen whereby in both places the video feed glitches gradually before freezing making this nice pattern of red streaking lines around the boarder of the screen.

I have a few more trick up my sleeve though.

I'll either downgrade the BIOS (last resort though), disable the integrated wireless card through BIOS (see if it helps it boot), try re installing drivers in safe mode (assuming safe mode will work) and if need be I found a spare heat sink around I'll try using that one if its fits. I'm not entirely convinced yet that the oddly mounted CPU heatsink is the culprit since that's the same heatsink the Computer used for about a year now.

All that is on the list for tomorrow, well technically later today.

[AphexDreamer]

Replaced heatsink loaded into windows, crashed with lines vertically going through the screen.

Downclocked 6400+ from 3200 to 2800 and lowered the volts it finally booted into windows and has remained solid so far.

I suppose its a heatsink/CPU issue afterall.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by AphexDreamer

Downclocked 6400 from 3200 to 2800 and lowered the volts it finally booted into windows and has remained solid so far.

Was 3200 the stock speed or overclocked?

If stock, then it wouldn't surprise me if the chipset on that mobo isn't properly supported by Windows 7.

[DRDNA]

Will it boot into safe mode? Did you try yet?

[AphexDreamer]

Yes but interestingly enough I set the MP to 14 and the FSB at its default 200 and CPUZ and windows is reporting it as 3200Mhz not 2800mhz. The voltage decrease is recognized though.

I might just tell her how to change these in BIOS. Kinda of scared to run a benchmark but I'm going to have to else she will just bring it right back.

EDIT: So for those who are tuned in. Its booting into windows after I lowered the volts and replaced heatsink (should have just tried lowering volts first but I didn't). I'm currently running a scheduled disk check which is almost done. I have yet to try safe mode or startup repair again but I have no need now that I am in windows.

[Pehla]

u should make ur self some live linux distro on usb..,so u can chek if it is OS problem!?i had that issue once but that was when i install windows in ahci mode and sometimes i get error for oc failure then bios set it back to ide mode,then i get to windows logo and restart every time..,and after a while i remember i had to change hdd to ahci mode again!!

[AphexDreamer]

Originally Posted by Pehla

u should make ur self some live linux distro on usb..,so u can chek if it is OS problem!?i had that issue once but that was when i install windows in ahci mode and sometimes i get error for oc failure then bios set it back to ide mode,then i get to windows logo and restart every time..,and after a while i remember i had to change hdd to ahci mode again!!

Thanks but I did do something similar. I disconnected the drives and tried to boot from a USB miniXP to verify that it wasn't any HDD problem. It wouldn't boot even to that so I knew that the HDD's were most likely ok. Now I'm in windows and scheduled a disk check which is on stage 5 at 30 percent, after that I'm going to run a few minutes of OCCT and see what happens.

EDIT: Well I ran an hour of OCCT and it passed and successfully completed the windows hardware assessment.

I went back and loaded BIOS defaults and it froze at the windows logo again (no bsod). I turned on Cool and quite to see if that was the culprit and it BSODed with the same ndis.sys error. So I went back and lowered the volts and changed CPU clock and it booted up fine again.

In conclusion, for some reason (maybe the CPU is seeing the end of its days or MB hates win 7) it will only boot under these settings, maybe lower settings as well but at its default it will not boot.

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by AphexDreamer

Thanks but I did do something similar. I disconnected the drives and tried to boot from a USB miniXP to verify that it wasn't any HDD problem. It wouldn't boot even to that so I knew that the HDD's were most likely ok. Now I'm in windows and scheduled a disk check which is on stage 5 at 30 percent, after that I'm going to run a few minutes of OCCT and see what happens.

EDIT: Well I ran an hour of OCCT and it passed and successfully completed the windows hardware assessment.

I went back and loaded BIOS defaults and it froze at the windows logo again (no bsod). I turned on Cool and quite to see if that was the culprit and it BSODed with the same ndis.sys error. So I went back and lowered the volts and changed CPU clock and it booted up fine again.

In conclusion, for some reason (maybe the CPU is seeing the end of its days or MB hates win 7) it will only boot under these settings, maybe lower settings as well but at its default it will not boot.

if it comes down to it a fresh format might be needed.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...1-7bac3de67561

http://www.file.net/process/ndis.sys.html

[AphexDreamer]

I'll try deleting or copying over a clean file.

Maybe run a scan too.

[bmaverick]

Woot! Seems the thermal issue your system has was like my system. Hoping your work the bug out on that.