# Computer freezes during the startup memory test, can't even get into BIOS



## The Beef (Dec 27, 2005)

*Computer freezes during the startup memory test (screenshot!)*

All right, first of all, really sorry to be another one of those 1st post 'please-help-me' people! I've been following these boards for quite a while and now this problem has come up. 

Often times my computer will randomly reboot. Sometimes I'll restart the computer myself (e.g. after a software install). What happens is the black screen comes up and my processor is recognized, but it freezes during the memory test. I can't hit ESC to skip it, and I can't hit DEL to get into the BIOS. I can't run memcheck86, because I can't press F11 get to the boot options. I've got a stick of 512 mb 184-pin PC3200 RAM made by Rosewill, and suspecting that was the issue I swapped in a stick of 256 mb samsung pc2700 ram. It ran fine for a while. Then I restarted, and bam, frozen on the memory test yet again. Furthermore, the Rosewill 512 RAM worked fine in another computer. What could it possibly be? 

It just stops on this screen. Sometimes it'll display the text "Memory testi" or some partial variant of "Memory testing: 5262402k complete" or whatever it usually says.


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## crazijoe (Oct 19, 2004)

Could be a faulty CPU. Can you swap out the CPU and see if that is the culprit?


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## gamerman0203 (Oct 28, 2005)

I had the EXACT same thing happen! Pull everything out that connects to the mobo, cards and all! then reassemble with only what is necessary at this point. If that works then one-by-one add stuff back in. That worked for me.


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## The Beef (Dec 27, 2005)

crazijoe said:


> Could be a faulty CPU. Can you swap out the CPU and see if that is the culprit?


Faulty CPU... ahh. I don't have any spare Socket A CPUs lying around and I'm short on cash right now. Are there any other possible causes of this problem that I could try out before I try a new CPU? The computer functions perfectly whenever it's on, great speeds and all.

*edit:* Well what do you know, I left it alone for eight hours overnight and now it starts up again fine. unfortunately, this has happened more than once. So could it be an issue with the computer improperly clearing the RAM upon restart? I don't know. I'm definitely not an expert.


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## keymaker (Jul 12, 2005)

clear the cmos and and take out the motherboard battery and leave it out for about 10 minutes. then put the battery back on and make sure the cmos jumper is back to its default settings.

then turn on the computer and see if you can get into the bios. also i recommend taking out the computer components outside the case and only reseating the bare essentials which are the: power supply, motherboard, cpu, ram, and videocard.


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## whodat (Mar 13, 2005)

greetings
please go into the advanced chipset menu in your bios and report what the timings and voltage are for the dimm
if the setting is on "spd" .. check what the numbers are.

"cant get into bios"

well that stops that in the tracks...keymaker's advice with the cmos hopefully will get you there


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## everlaster03 (Aug 22, 2008)

i had this problem also. to fix it i removed one of my 4 ram chips at a time, until it worked. Luck for me it was the second one. Good luck on your quest.


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## dambrow (Mar 21, 2009)

i have the same problem but with a twist 


i have the agp light on when my graphics card is fitted but off when it is not fitted

Y

any help


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