# Computer hangs on boot



## steve3p0 (Sep 12, 2004)

Today my new parts arrived from Newegg. I bought a new case, hard drive, video card, motherboard, and power supply. The rest of the pieces I used were from my old machine. 

I just finished putting it together, and when I power it up a screen with an "asus" logo appears, and in the bottom left it says "Press DEL to enter setup." However, nothing happens when I hit my 'delete' key. First, I tried a new keyboard. That didn't work, so I tried simplifying the system. I unplugged everything except for the motherboard, processor, and ram. I still get the same "asus" screen. Then, I tried switching out the ram with a different stick of the same kind. Still the same thing. 

Everytime the machine starts, I hear a single "beep", and the lights on my keyboard flicker on and off. 

The processor I used is from another machine. When I removed it from the other machine, there was a thin layer of thermal paste ontop of the processor, so I wiped it off with an alcohol cloth. I held the processor on the edges with my fingers while cleaning it off, and my fingers may have touched the outside pins on the processor while doing this. Is it possible I damaged the processor this way?

What else could be wrong with my setup?

These are the parts:

AMD64 4000+
Asus A8N-E NF4U 939
eVGA GF 7800GT
250gb WD 7200rpm SATA2
3 sticks of 512mb geil RAM (i tried each stick individually)
Antec 500w smartpower PSU
CD/DVD Burner


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Hi,

Tell us about your hard drive, what kind, brand name, what type (Sata - Pata), what size, how you have it set up since it is new? 

Have you gone into the BIOS setup menu and set your boot order to:

CDRom - 1st
Floppy - 2nd
Hard Drive - 3rd

* Also, with this board you have to set the hard drive order if you have more than one hard drive in the computer. Also, don't forget to save before you exit.

Post back with questions, concerns, and/or progress.


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## steve3p0 (Sep 12, 2004)

At the bottom of my first post, I posted the stats of my hard drive:



> 250gb WD 7200rpm SATA2


(WD= Western Digital)

Also, I am not able to get into the BIOS to change anything in the boot order, because the system hangs as soon as the Asus logo appears. The system does nothing when I hit Delete to enter the setup. 

I really do not think this has anything to do with my hard drive, because even if I unplug the drive(and everything else except the RAM, mobo, and processor) the system still does the exact same thing. 

So what else, beside the hard drive, could be wrong?


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Hi,

Somehow, I missed that Hard Drive when I took a look at your stuff. Thanks for putting that in, my day has kind of been maybe too long to even be answering when I miss something like that.

Anyhow, so much for my lame excuse for missing something. (cough, cough). Did you put thermal paste (Artic Silver) back on between the CPU and the Heatsink after you cleaned it off the old stuff??????? 

Have you tried clearing CMOS in case something is amiss with the BIOS setup menu? When it hangs, what does it do, like does it just freeze at that point? Does anything shut down? What connection do you have your SATA drive connected to? Have you taken a look at the sata drive to make sure the cables are making excellent contact? They can come loose so easily that several companies sell a little holding apparatus to keep them intact on the drive

To your first question, just touching the CPU pins would not damage them unless you were not grounded properly and caused a static charge, or if you got thermal paste on the pins, then that can be a biggie and cause all kinds of problems.

Post back and I will try to do a better job of reading before I insert my hoof in my mouth like missing that hard drive thing.......


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## steve3p0 (Sep 12, 2004)

Hehe, well thanks for your effort. I'd rather have a slightly misinformed response than no response at all :wink: 

I actually put a new HSF on the processor when I put my machine together. The HSF already had a square of thermal paste on the bottom of it when I installed it. I'm about 99% sure I didn't get any thermal paste on the pins of the processor when I cleaned it off, and I am 99% sure I was properly grounded(made sure to touch the metal of the system case before I took the processor out, and I was on hardwood floor)

This is the exact process after I press the power button on my machine:
-Fans turn on, screen is blank
-I hear one "beep" from the system
-Asus logo appears with text in the bottom left corner of the screen that reads "Press DEL to enter setup"
-Keyboard lights(capslock, numlock, scrolllock) begin to flicker on and off

At this point, it just stays at the Asus screen and the keyboard continues to flicker until I turn the system off. Pressing delete does nothing.

I haven't tried resetting the cmos on the motherboard yet, but I will give it a shot. I will also make sure the SATA connections are secure.

I will keep this thread up to date on my progress. Thanks for your help!


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## steve3p0 (Sep 12, 2004)

Well, somewhere between resetting the CMOS and messing around with different connections, I have gotten a new screen to appear when I start the machine -- but it still hangs.

After the Asus logo appears, a normal looking POST screen appears. It lists the connected IDE devices and some other info. However, at the bottom of that screen it says "CMOS Checksum error - defaults loaded," and below that message it says "Press DEL to enter setup." And this is where the machine hangs. This POST screen only appeared _after_ I reset the CMOS.

I tried completely removing the SATA hard drive from the machine and disconnecting the cables from the motherboard, but it did not solve the problem.


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Hi,

Redo the CMOS again, this time wait at least ten minutes before putting it back together. 

When you get this done and reset it to defaults, then restart and put the CD Operating System disk in the CDRom and see what happens.


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## steve3p0 (Sep 12, 2004)

Tumbleweed36 said:
 

> Hi,
> 
> Redo the CMOS again, this time wait at least ten minutes before putting it back together.
> 
> When you get this done and reset it to defaults, then restart and put the CD Operating System disk in the CDRom and see what happens.


I left the battery out for 10 minutes this time. I still get the same screen:










note: only a single IDE hard drive was connected when I took this picture. All other drives were unplugged.

Pressing either Delete or F1 does nothing, and the lights on the keyboard continue to flicker.


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Hi,

Is there any way you can redo the BIOS via the method specified in section 4 of your manual? I don't know the specific page (am on dial-up, so downloading takes forever for me), but if you read that section and can get as far as you can, you should be able to do that.


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## steve3p0 (Sep 12, 2004)

Tumbleweed36 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Is there any way you can redo the BIOS via the method specified in section 4 of your manual? I don't know the specific page (am on dial-up, so downloading takes forever for me), but if you read that section and can get as far as you can, you should be able to do that.


Do you mean resetting the BIOS through a bootable floppy/CD? 

Right now, the system doesn't even get to a point where it could boot from a floppy/cd. It hangs before I can enter the BIOS. 

I have tried starting the machine with a windows XP install disc, but it still stays at that POST screen. 

Does it sound like an RMA is my best option here? I'd really rather not do that, as the processor I'm using was used in another machine for at least a few months now. 

Is there any way I can isolate this as a motherboard problem? Or a processor problem?

edit: Thanks for your help, by the way. I'm just frustrated that a simple thing has become so complicated.


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

steve3p0 said:


> Do you mean resetting the BIOS through a bootable floppy/CD?
> 
> Right now, the system doesn't even get to a point where it could boot from a floppy/cd. It hangs before I can enter the BIOS.
> 
> ...


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