intermittent fail to boot

My pc intermittently fails to boot. When this occurs there is a beep after pressing the startup button but nothing happens after this. The status light on the monitor never changes from amber to white. I am able to get it to boot by doing a hard shutdown and trying again until in catches.

I have the option to boot into Macrium Reflect on startup enabled.

My question is could this be a problem with my mbr (corrupted etc) or more likely a hardware problem, like a low voltage power supply starting to fail?

I have a new hard drive installed, but the problem existed before that.

I was wondering if one of you IT guys would have an opinion of what might be occurring here

 

Intermittently... How often?
I'd do a CMOS reset first.

 

UEFI systems don't have a MBR. Legacy systems do have a MBR on the drives.

I'd reseat the RAM modules.

 

That was my first thought but in my experience when a RAM module needs to be reseated, the computer fails hard to boot not intermittently, however it might be possible.

 

I've had several Dell desktops. They are notorious for needing to have the RAM reseated.

 

Also in my experience, some systems boot their bios routine fine and when they start loading windows the video signal gets off for a moment then comes back and windows keeps loading. This is completely normal. Perhaps jima's computer boots this way.

Another possibility is a failing card inserted into a slot or a failing secondary hard drive interfering with the boot secuence.

 

Maybe one in 5 restarts, mainly during first start in the morning. my fire fox browser started crashing a little while ago, but not the computer

I've got a gateway small form factor. I reset the CMOS. could a flakey battery cause this?

My low voltage power supply fan was making some noise, I cleaned the fan, and nose seems less for now

 

Good suggestion. Might be a good idea to clean the contacts while doing it. If you don't have any electronic contact cleaner a pencil eraser works too.

 

A flakey battery resets system date and time to its defaults, i.e., an old date and time. You tell us...

 

I have found it off a couple of times in the last month. But If I remember right it was off by the Day light savings time change

 

Replace it.

 

ok, replace CMOS batt (was 10 yrs old, but voltage read ok),

cleaned and reseated memory

Just for the heck of it did a system file check that passed

(Don't remember it ever happening after a restart. Only when I booted it in the morning)

If it does it again, maybe it could be the low voltage pwr supply seeing that it is also 10 yrs old?

 

It would be pure speculation at this point. IF it continues you did originally mentioned it beeps. I assume that is only when it refuses to boot? If so look into the beep codes to see what the problem is.
How to Figure Out Why Your PC Is Beeping (Beep Codes) (lifewire.com)

 

Do you get a single beep when the computer boots normally or only with the failed boot?

A single beep should be normal indicating a successful POST.

 

I think it might be useful to check your hardware first before assuming a fault.. Make sure that your drives are firmly connected and maybe re-seat your ram sticks and any cards that you might have. Check that the pc fans and power supply unit fans are not full of dust which might cause overheating. If dust inside pc carefully clean with soft brush and vacuum and check that inner wires/cables have not become disconnected. Check the external plug to pc is has not come loose.If you open pc case, have a quick examination of the capacitors and see that none are leaking or bloated. I believe that modern capacitors are more robust.but some of the older capacitors were prone to dying prematurely. Just a few thoughts.
These beep codes and impasses were common in certain Dell pcs and the solution was to take the ram sticks out and change the slots. That was a solution that I once needed and it worked for me and many more on the net. I'm not sure why but got me through.

 

If the problem reappears after CMOS replaced & RAM reseated I'd have to agree & suspect the PSU.

 

Yes I get a single beep when it boots. I also get the same single beep when it doesn't boot.

When I push the power button there is the beep and then nothing happens from there. Eventually I do a hard shutdown, and try again. It usually catches on the second or third try.

There was some fan type noise coming from the power supply fan at times. I took it out of the power supply and cleaned off some dust and spun the fan with air from A vacuum. It definitely is quieter now. I think If it happens again I will go with the new supply. (at 10 years, maybe its suspect)

 

Ok.

Reseat the video card too.

 

Yep.

Are you describing the symptoms that happened or it is failing again after the cmos batt and reseating RAM?

 

If your memory is seated properly then you may have a bad stick of RAM. I had a stick of RAM go bad on my computer last year and the computer was less than a year old. It did something very similar as yours is doing now.

I would suggest you refer to the beep guide of your computer manufacturer or refer to your motherboard manual if you built the computer yourself. The different number of consecutive beeps all have different meanings. I don't know what brand of computer you have or if you built the system yourself.

Dell Computer Beep Guide Below

Dell Desktop
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000124349/understanding-beep-codes-on-a-dell-desktop-pc

Dell Laptop
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000132041/understanding-beep-codes-on-a-dell-notebook-pc

MemTest86
Also, head over to MemTest86 and follow their instructions on how to create a bootable thumb drive or bootable CD. You will need to insert the bootable thumb drive or bootable CD in your system before booting. You should also be able to find instructions for this on youtube. I have found MemTest86 pretty easy to use. You may need to go into your BIOS or UEFI and change the boot priority so that your system boots from the media containing MemTest86 instead of your hard drive.The test will likely take several hours to complete so try running it overnight while you are sleeping.
https://www.memtest86.com/

 

A tip with some Dell pcs is swap the ram sticks with each other. I meant to mention it above. I mean a to b and b to a. That is the common tip that I mentioned.

 

I have no video card, everything is on-board except the one memory stick on this gateway sx-2185 small form factor pc.

Only have one hard drive (new SSD)

the symptoms have not returned as yet since I changed the cmos batt and re-seated the ram stick

 

If they don't return anymore then most likely it was the cmos battery, again, in my experience RAM sticks not properly seated leave the computer unbootable permanently (hard failure) not intermittently, until you reseat them.

 

I beg to differ as I have not ever seen a PC that refused to boot for a CMOS battery. You can boot a PC without one. The only issue would be if required settings got changed to defaults but there was no mention of resetting any of them to get it to boot after it failed. Not wanting to seem argumentative but it doesn't make sense to me unless details were left out.

 

So, is it correct that having Macrium Reflects, and Hasleo rescue media added to the Boot Menu wouldn't have anything to do with this?