When your Computer will not Boot up, learn these 3 stages to
fix the problem
If your computer will not boot up, you know
how
frustrating it can be. Let's take a look at the steps that
happen
from pushing the power button to a successful Windows boot.
We
can then much more easily determine the cause of you computer not
booting and fixing it becomes less of a task.
Powering on the Computer
When you push the power button, the computer should turn on.
If it does not, lets look at some of the possible causes.
When your computer will not boot up, this is the first stage
to
look at.
- Have
you recently been behind the computer, or reconnected it? If
so
look at the back of the computer where the power from the wall get's
attached. Make sure that this switch is in the on position.
- Is
this a new computer build? If it is, you might want to double
check the connections from the motherboard to the computer case to make
sure you've connected all the jumpers correctly. I show you
how
to do this on the computer
tower cases page with some video help if you need.
- Has this computer booted before? It is possible
that the computer power supply no longer works. Chances are,
if your computer worked before, and you turned it off and came back a
while later only to find the power won't turn on, the power supply will
likely need replacing. If you want to be sure, you can
perform a manual computer
power supply test, or buy a PC power supply tester
to be sure.
- If you're running your computer through a computer battery backup,
make sure it is turned on and supplying power. A portable
lamp is an easy way to make sure their is power coming from the power
supply or wall unit. If there is no power, check the breaker
in your house, or the reset button on the battery backup might need
resetting.
Watching the Computer POST
When your computer turns on, but the computer will not boot
up, the
second stage we need to look at is the POST. After the
computer
has turned on, it will go through a series
of self
tests to make sure that all of your hardware components are functioning
properly. This is called a POST, which is short for Power On Self Test.
This takes anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds. In this
time you'll see
information about the processor, RAM, the video card, as well as
information about your disks and drives.
TIP!
Make sure you know that your computer has powered on before proceeding
to these steps, a computer can't POST until it has power.
- If your computer will not boot up and does not POST but
simply powers on the
turns off immediately, check to make sure that all your computer fans
move freely. If they don't or even if they are dirty, it's
when I know it's time to clean
my computer. A computer will not POST if the
cooling fans don't spin freely.
- If you power on the computer and you don't see any video,
but hear beeps, it's the computer telling you what the problem is since
there is a problem preventing it from showing you a POST error.
Find out what your computer
beep codes mean and fix that
problem to proceed. You'll need to have the PC speaker
connected inside the computer to hear these codes.
- If your computer will not boot up and just on but you don't
have any video and
no beeps, make sure your computer monitor is turned on and connected to
the video card. If your video card is built into the
motherboard, removing the motherboard battery
with the power
cable removed from the computer for 30 seconds will clear your CMOS and
should get your video back on. This is
also an alternative if you have a stand alone video card and would like
to try and see if the video from the motherboard will work.
If it does, your video card is going to need replacing.
- Are you learning how
to overclock your computer? If so, a computer that
won't POST likely means you've gone to fast and the system isn't
stable. Follow step 3 to reset the BIOS and start again.
- In rare cases a computer will not boot up will
just need to
have the components reseated. To do this, simply remove the
sticks of RAM, the video cards, and the connections and replace them
back where they belong. This step usually is for those that
have worked inside their computer, like after a cleaning, and can't get
the computer to turn back on. You may have simply hooked onto
something and it is no longer making complete contact.
The Operating System will
not Load
The last step of this is actually the best one to fix, it means that it
likely won't cost you any money to do so since the problem is simply
with the operating system and all the hardware is functioning properly.
- If you get an error similar to non system disk, or disk
error, check to make sure there are no other disks in the DVD drive, or
and floppy drive and try again. If you still get the same
error, put the Windows disk into the drive, and boot into setup.
When you get asked what you want to do next, repair your
Windows installation.
- After you see the BIOS screen and the POST, continuously
tap
F8 until you get a menu that will ask how you would like to
boot your computer. Select safe mode and continue.
If your computer boots in safe mode, remove the last piece of
software you installed, then restart the computer. If this
still doesn't work, boot back into safe mode, then follow the steps on
speed up my computer to get rid of the junk, typically, this will do
it. If it does not, you'll have to go to step 1.
- If your computer will not boot up and you see the error
cyclic redundancy error, it will be time to replace the hard drive.
It's now on its last leg. Buy a new hard drive,
install Windows, then use hard
drive repair software to get your information off of the
other hard drive.
If your computer will not boot up after following all these steps, or
you think there is something missing on this page and would like to
help the next person out, head over to our
online computer help
and add your feedback. I'd love to hear from you, or help you
through your troubles.
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