Re: system froze during POST this morning

On Dec 29, 12:52 pm, Paul <nos...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
timO' wrote:
P5WD2-E PREMIUM/ 2 X 512 DDR-2 800/ PENTIUM D-805/2.66G/ 2-
WD2500KS250G SATA
The system is about a year old.

This particular issue never happened before.
Only thing that happened that was a warning was yesterday, my monitor
went dark twice. I had to unplug it, wait a few minutes and plug it in
again, before the on/off switch would restart it.
That can't be a good sign.
It's a pretty old CTX CRT type.
I Thought it might be my video card which is a cheap piece of crap.
I've had problems in the past where this brand and model of CRT
wouldn't wake up on a particular PC.
But it could be the CRT power supply is tired out.

But this morning when I powered up as usual my PC got stuck on the
ASUS splash screen.
I noticed the TAB button on my keyboard was stuck down so I unstuck
it, then recycled the PC by turning it off, unplugging it for a
minute, then plugging it in and rebooting.
Same issue.
Then I connected a different keyboard and repeated the recycle.
Same freeze
This time I pressed TAB because it said to press TAB to enter BIOS on
the bottom of the splash screen.
The BIOS screen reported everything was OK until it got to a message
about overclocking or overvoltage failed.
I'm sorry I did not write down what it said exactly, but It offered
two choices; one was to press F1 and enter BIOS, the other was to
press F2 to restore defaults.
I chose F2 and I'm up and running again, only wanting to address what
ever the issue is before it happens again.
I know there is an ASUS console that ostensibly allows over clocking
and raising voltages, but I do not know how to do this.
What would be the ideal settings to ensure safe operation of my
system? I have a little program called cpu-z and it says my core
voltage drifts between 1.392 and 1.4V and my cpu is running at about
2.6667 ( it also fluctuates a little as the core voltage fluctuates. I
notice small fluctuation in the bus and FSB also, but not much.
I have a Zalman fan on the CPU, and front and rear as well as side
case fans, The power supply has a fan as well.
The power supply is rated at 550W but it came with the case, and it
was another bad choice on my part. Maybe I should focus on getting a
good quality 600W modular power supply.
The case came with a temp probe which is sitting in the chipset. It
typically shows 28C. But occassionally goes to about 35C for no
apparent reason.
The ASUS console has a CPU temp gauge but I forget what it usually
says, since I've only messed with the console a couple of times, and
not at all for six months. I find the console does not load smoothly,
like it is buggy, and I don't understand how to use it properly
despite the manual.
Any positive comments/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

The BIOS contains a feature, where it can track what happened during
the last session. For example, say I'm using my computer, and just
flip the power switch on the back of the computer. That is a "bad shutdown",
because the machine wasn't shut down properly, and so there could be
some file fragments created.

Well, the BIOS takes note of whether a proper shutdown was done or not.
The BIOS assumes that an improper shutdown was caused by the user
overclocking the computer making the computer to crash. Thus, on the
next POST cycle, the BIOS checks the flag, and sees that the computer
"crashed" )unclean shutdown) and you get that "overclocking" message.

The real question would be, why did the screen freeze when it
started up. You should disable full screen logo, so you can see the
POST messages, and report what portion of POST occurs before the
freeze. Maybe the fact that your TAB key was stuck in the downward
position, had something to do with the initial freeze ?

Which leaves the CRT symptoms. Since switching the CRT off and on
recovered it, that looks like a CRT problem. At least, until
you've collected more symptoms to make a determination. Maybe
you could try that CRT on another computer, or borrow a monitor
from another computer, to test on your current one. It could even
be a flaky cable connector, if the cable was beat up.

Paul

thanks for the info. Yeah the freezing thing is over. I have restarted
a few times today while trying out stuff. The monitor is not
misbehaving either. yet. I hate it when I get bombarded with issues
all at once. I don't know why I'm running that stupid splash screen,
especially if it is hiding diagnostic info.
I'm going to disable it now.
Any more ideas please share.
thanks again
.