Computer Boots Up and brings to the Welcome Screen and Freezes
Date Fixed : 04.10.10
Owner : Ms. Elain Rebutante
Processor : Intel 1.8 GHZ PGA
Motherboard : ECS P4-M800
Memory : 256 GB
Hard Disk Drive : Maxtor IDE 80 GB
Operating System : Win XP Sp 2
Technician : Drokz
PROBLEM :
Boots up, then freezes at Windows Xp Welcome Screen. No keyboard response. System can only be shutdown by holding the power button for few seconds.
CLIENT REQUESTS:
Data Backup
Antivirus Installation
DVD RAM Installation
INTERVENING FACTORS:
ECS P4m800 Driver lost.
Possibly Defective Hard Disk ( Clicking sound in the hard drive when the system is turned on )
OBSERVATION :
- Upon turning on the system, the clicking sound of the hard disk is clearly audible. With that unusual sound, any technician can directly point out that it might be defective or most probably be causing the problem.
- As the system starts to show the Windows Welcome Screen, the system freezes and locks the keyboard.
TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE
- First, we need to check if the hard disk is the peripheral that is failing. It is quite obvious that the internal clicking sound indicates a mechanical inconsistency. So I removed the hard disk and restarted the system (computer) to see if the error is really related to that of the hard drive or might be the other failing failing peripherals.
- But upon restarting, the system stalled on POST. The hard disk might not be the cause of the problem.
- So I opened the side cover of the system unit and check for blown or leaking capacitors on the motherboard because these capacitors when they malfunction gives the same problem as observed - system stalling or not no booting up at all. But as I have checked on the mobo, there seemed to be no blown or leaky capacitors. So I decided to check the other peripheral that has capacitors in it - the Power Supply Unit.
- I then removed the Power Supply from the system case. And as I opened the Power Supply Unit, I saw 3 blown capacitors! The Power Supply is practically to be replaced. It is not advisable to replace the capacitors in the Power Supply Unit for it might contribute a chain of troubles to the rest of the components of your computer including primarily your motherboard, hard disk, and your precious CPU.
- An hour after, the requested power supply arrived. After installing the new power supply, the system was turned on and it did not stall at all. It continued the Power on Self Test (POST) and seeks for a bootable disk! At last we found the culprit. I then will try to check the Hard Disk if it is still functional.
- The hard disk drive was then installed back and restarted the system unit. Not a surprise to me, there was an error indicating a disk scan or a scheduled check disk. The hard drive needs to be restored, this might be due to the defective power supply, it already affected the hard disk and should not be long enough be replaced immediately.
-So I turned off the system, installed her new DVD RAM and then run the XP SP2 cd to restore the installed XP Operating System of her computer. ( Restoring the XP OS in not yet covered in tis tutorial - you may ask for information thru commenting here and you will get your answers via email - we will discuss your problem in this blog so others may learn also. :-] )
- After the Operating System restoration, the system works just as fine but I recommended Ms. Elain to buy a new hard disk for her computer. The hard disk will fail any sooner.
REPORT:
- Stalling / Freezing on Welcome screen or on Power on Self Test (POST) was contributed by the defective power supply unit - which in the case of Ms. Elain's Computer, it was replaced.
- A defective Power Supply corrupts an Operating System ( Win XP ) , and even worse your Hard Disk Drive.
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