Boot issue

[Titancom]

Hi Guys,

I am not sure where my original thread is by now but this refers to a problem that a friend is having with his PC. He lives in a semi rural country area about 40 mins down the road from me and his PC when he boots it seems to stop at the start of post bios stage.

Previously i have discussed this with several people who suggested it was proberly a power issue, i have since then made my friend buy a UPS to filter the power and just last night replace the power supply with a good corsair one but the issue remains.

I guess from here i will now have to look at the mainboard as potentially being the next inline that might be the problem but that said the really strange twist with this is when he brings the PC to my place it works fine? Any other thoughts on this strange one guys?

Thanks for your responses in advanced

 

[Dzomlija]

Hi Guys,

I am not sure where my original thread is by now but this refers to a problem that a friend is having with his PC. He lives in a semi rural country area about 40 mins down the road from me and his PC when he boots it seems to stop at the start of post bios stage.

Previously i have discussed this with several people who suggested it was proberly a power issue, i have since then made my friend buy a UPS to filter the power and just last night replace the power supply with a good corsair one but the issue remains.

I guess from here i will now have to look at the mainboard as potentially being the next inline that might be the problem but that said the really strange twist with this is when he brings the PC to my place it works fine? Any other thoughts on this strange one guys?

Thanks for your responses in advanced

My first guess in this scenario would have been power, but you've already checked that.

Are the any cell tower nearby your friends place?

I had a similar issue some time ago, where the client complained about blue screens, up to 15 a day, each different, but when I had the pc in my workshop, I had no problems. Even after replacing the motherboard with an entirely different one, the BSODS continued when the computer was returned to the customer.

It turns out that the cell tower for Vodacom is something like 20 meters away from his study, in the empty lot nextto his house. The problem is still there (Vodacom refuse to lower the power of their cellular tower), but my customer DID take his pc to a LAN some time ago, and it was stable.

 

[bruce2]

Hi Titancom, I believe there were some connection or expansion cards became loose and you probably had them secure while checking the inside such as the SATA cable connections as it arrived your house. Or may be something "knock secure" during transportation. Lol.

 

[Titancom]

Hey Guys,

Nah there isn't any towers near him for miles and i checked all conections inside the case and nothing is loose or out of place, nothing i can think of makes sense as to why it works at my place and not his after changing PSU and putting a UPS there to filter power?

I guess at this point i have no choice but to recommend changing his mobo and going from there, kinda dumb that it works at my place and not his.

I am sure there are a few people reading this and scratching there head like i am lol

 

[Titancom]

Ok this doesn't really make any sence to me but after i replaced th PSU and he took the PC home it wouldn't boot up so he thought he would try other things out like leaving everything unplugged except for the monitor and try it.

It booted up so he tried plugging in the keyboard it booted, tried the mouse it booted fine, plugged the modem in worked fine then he plugged in the USB cable for the printer that wasn't turned on it wouldn't boot?

So he will pickup a new USB cable for the printer and try it again and see what happens, will post back tomorrow night when i find out how its going after changing the USB printer cable.

This sounds like one for the record books.

 

[Dzomlija]

Ok this doesn't really make any sence to me but after i replaced th PSU and he took the PC home it wouldn't boot up so he thought he would try other things out like leaving everything unplugged except for the monitor and try it.

It booted up so he tried plugging in the keyboard it booted, tried the mouse it booted fine, plugged the modem in worked fine then he plugged in the USB cable for the printer that wasn't turned on it wouldn't boot?

So he will pickup a new USB cable for the printer and try it again and see what happens, will post back tomorrow night when i find out how its going after changing the USB printer cable.

This sounds like one for the record books.

Not really.

If it does not boot with a USB device plugged in, it could explain why the rig works fine at a friends house when there is likely nothing plugged into the USB

It's possible that the BIOS is set to enable booting from USB, and this is causijng a conflict of some sort. Seeing as there are a myriad ways of providing USB options in the BIOS, it's going to be difficult to say what needs to be changed. So I'd look to resetting the BIOS to optimal defaults. If that fails to work, perhaps disabling the USB controller entirely, although that isn't an ideal solution...

 

[Titancom]

Bios is set to the default optimal settings and it has USB devices plugged in to the PC at my house it just seems to be the Printer USB cable is affecting it even when the printer is not on. Interesting since its the factory cable that come with the printer.

Will post back after its changed to make sure all else is good.