Cold boot problem, PC won't boot when cold.

[sehnbadt]

My friend's pc freezes during boot up when his computer is cold. When you first start it in the morning, you must turn it ON and OFF a few times for it to finally boot. Once warm the PC boots fine afterwards. I found out that when you unplug the main power cable from the PSU so that all the leds on the motherboard come OFF the pc will boot fine the next morning. What do you guys think the problem is?

Specs:

MSI motherboard
AMD Phenom quad core processor
GeForce 9600 GT
4GB Corsair DDR2 memory
Ultra 400 Watts PSU

[Keyboard_Commando]

Try another PSU, see if that fixes. Generic PSU's are pretty much no go if your friend is OC'ing, for instance ... can cause a lot of weird symptoms.

Could be a faulty connection/component somewhere in the PSU/ other Hardware - and once warm (expanding) is fully functioning. But kinda unlikely. The 'getting warm' to work is probably misleading, though.

Check/Reconnect everything you see. Cables, Connections, components - watch out you and the computer don't end up as toast = switch off power + use an anti-static wrist strap

See if your friend can find a spare hardrive and give that a whirl. Doesn't need an OS ... just a working hardrive. The HD might be dying.

Check the bios is up-to-date. And check out motherboard maker forum. Search for any similar symptoms.

If you can mix and match as many components, and try them, then you will have a better chance of finding the cause. Your one common component will be the motherboard. So if you rule everything else out, then you might want to RMA the board - if your friend still has warranty left on it. And be careful sending anything back to be RMA'd if overclocked, as that will negate warranty. To get around this clear CMOS before sending anything away = remove motherboard battery for at least 30mins or check motherboard manual and find the CMOS clearing jumper.

mmmm can't think of anything else. For now.

[Keyboard_Commando]

BTW. How far into boot sequence can your friend get, and does he/she get to the same point everytime and then fail ... or is there just random stoppages?

Software malfunction ... Doh! I nearly forgot that :D

[TechOutsider]

Sounds exactly like my Dell OptiPlex GX270. Takes forever to turn on when cold. By on, I mean getting to the BIOS screen. It would just sit there and the floppy drive would make a click click click sound.

Turned out that the capacitators were faulty. The ones with marked with a black "X" by a sharpie by some one (my system was refurbished). See if the caps on your MB have "X"s on them.

[mantra]

-{ Quote: "My friend's pc freezes during boot up when his computer is cold. When you first start it in the morning, you must turn it ON and OFF a few times for it to finally boot. Once warm the PC boots fine afterwards. I found out that when you unplug the main power cable from the PSU so that all the leds on the motherboard come OFF the pc will boot fine the next morning. What do you guys think the problem is?

Specs:

MSI motherboard
AMD Phenom quad core processor
GeForce 9600 GT
4GB Corsair DDR2 memory
Ultra 400 Watts PSU" }-
has an hitachi hard disk?

[NoIos]

About a year ago had a discussion on another forum. Then we were talking about cold boot issues with some Asrock motherboards. It came up that it was almost "normal" for some models. The solution then was to never put to off your power supply or stack the power cable.

[sehnbadt]

-{ Quote: "has an hitachi hard disk?" }-

He has a Seagate hard disk

[sehnbadt]

-{ Quote: "BTW. How far into boot sequence can your friend get, and does he/she get to the same point everytime and then fail ... or is there just random stoppages?

Software malfunction ... Doh! I nearly forgot that :D" }-

He gets only to the post message, when the PC is powered on you see the Motherboard Logo and then it hangs forever at post message, never random, always hangs at the same place at every cold boot, if you let it there for 20 minutes, once the PC is warm it will boot fine, my friend's trick is to completely remove power from the PSU before turning on the PC, unplug the main power from the wall and replug it and the PC will boot just fine even if cold.

[sehnbadt]

-{ Quote: "Try another PSU, see if that fixes. Generic PSU's are pretty much no go if your friend is OC'ing, for instance ... can cause a lot of weird symptoms.

Could be a faulty connection/component somewhere in the PSU/ other Hardware - and once warm (expanding) is fully functioning. But kinda unlikely. The 'getting warm' to work is probably misleading, though.

Check/Reconnect everything you see. Cables, Connections, components - watch out you and the computer don't end up as toast = switch off power + use an anti-static wrist strap

See if your friend can find a spare hardrive and give that a whirl. Doesn't need an OS ... just a working hardrive. The HD might be dying.

Check the bios is up-to-date. And check out motherboard maker forum. Search for any similar symptoms.

If you can mix and match as many components, and try them, then you will have a better chance of finding the cause. Your one common component will be the motherboard. So if you rule everything else out, then you might want to RMA the board - if your friend still has warranty left on it. And be careful sending anything back to be RMA'd if overclocked, as that will negate warranty. To get around this clear CMOS before sending anything away = remove motherboard battery for at least 30mins or check motherboard manual and find the CMOS clearing jumper.

mmmm can't think of anything else. For now." }-

I did remove everything, like memory sticks, all cables etc but did not help. I haven't tried another PSU though. I suspect the PSU because when you unplug the power cable from the wall (120V), wait for all the LEDs on the motherboard to come OFF and replug the main power cable it will boot just fine even if cold.