Continue to Site

Welcome to our site!

Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

  • Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

Another Weird Computer Problem

Status
Not open for further replies.

BrownOut

Banned
About every week or so, my computer stops responding to the mouse input. I cycle the power, but then it wont' boot up. Fans whirl and lights light, but no indication the machine is booting. I discovered today that when I disconnected power, the machine booted just fine ( after I made a couple failed attempts to start it ) I suspect the bios chip is starting to fail. Any other ideas?

Thanks ~Brownout.
 
Last edited:
Forgot to mention; my computer is a pretty old, dual pentium 4 machine running WinXP.
 
Have you replaced the BIOS battery at any stage in the systems life? If not it could be time to do so (they're only £1 and easy to fit.) It may not be related to the mouse issue but perhaps the BIOS battery is dying and the BIOS isn't holding its settings properly, then after the system is unplugged the BIOS is resetting itself to default values allowing the machine to boot again.

Some other things to check....

Do you hear any BIOS beep codes after hitting the ON button?
Is there any power on self test display on the screen showing BIOS settings etc?
Can you hear the hard drive/s spin up?
Does this problem happen after the system has been on for a certain amount of time?

The mouse issue could be many things really. It may just be a Windows problem if it's just the mouse that stops responding, as it sounds like the machine is crashing and then your running into the reboot issue. If the operating system hasn't been re-installed in a long while perhaps it may be a good time to consider doing that, as a reinstall of the operating system is a good thing to do every few years as it keeps things running along as they should. Make sure you back up all your important stuff if you do this!!!

Nigels suggestion is quite right also as the machine sounds around the right age to be suffering from leaking/bulging caps, so give them a check over. Also whilst your in there make sure the computer is not full of dust bunnies possibly suffering temperature issues, check especially around the CPU, heat sink, north bridge chip and memory modules.
 
Have you replaced the BIOS battery at any stage in the systems life?

No. Would that require BIOS reprogramming after changing the battery?

Do you hear any BIOS beep codes after hitting the ON button?
No.

Is there any power on self test display on the screen showing BIOS settings etc?
No.

Can you hear the hard drive/s spin up?
I'll check next time. It booted this evening.

Does this problem happen after the system has been on for a certain amount of time?
Not consistantly. Yesterday, it happened after only a few minutes of run time. Other times, it happens after a few hours.

If the operating system hasn't been re-installed in a long while perhaps it may be a good time to consider doing that, as a reinstall of the operating system is a good thing to do every few years as it keeps things running along as they should

It's been a couple years. I've only reinstalled when I've had problems, like when my drive died. Hmmm... Maybe that's worth a try.

Nigels suggestion is quite right also as the machine sounds around the right age to be suffering from leaking/bulging caps, so give them a check over. Also whilst your in there make sure the computer is not full of dust bunnies possibly suffering temperature issues, check especially around the CPU, heat sink, north bridge chip and memory modules.

Thanks a ton! I'll get back to you on some of these things.
 
You can actually check the battery by looking at the computers clock when you next boot. Just shut the computer down as normal and unplug it from the mains overnight.. If when you reboot next day the clock is showing 00.00 (or within a minute or two of 00.00) the BIOS battery is likely dead. If on the other hand the clock is still showing the correct time the battery is ok.

BIOS will only reset to factory default values once the battery is removed. Depending on the machine the BIOS may or may not require some adjustments once the battery is replaced. Don't panic though as these are only system compatibility settings, nothing to do with the actual bios coding.

If your not sure how to set your BIOS up correctly following a battery swap it'd probably be best if you let someone who knows how it should be set up do it for you, only because you will get the most out of your machine if it is configured correctly.
 
Last edited:
I "unplug" my computer from mains overnight ( via a switched power strip ) at the end of each day. The clock always shows the correct time. Guess it's not the battery then.
 
Nope, doesn't sound like it.

Still give the other things a check over though before you go and try a Windows reinstall. Also if you know your way around your BIOS.. try downloading & running a progem called memtest86 It runs from a bootable CD, so you'll need to burn memtest to disc first & then set your BIOS to Boot from that disc. This little program will check your systems RAM memory for any errors, such errors can cause all sorts of issues. Again though.. If your not sure about this stuff, perhaps get a friend who's done this type of thing before to help you out.
 
Nope, doesn't sound like it.

Still give the other things a check over though before you go and try a Windows reinstall. Also if you know your way around your BIOS.. try downloading & running a progem called memtest86 It runs from a bootable CD, so you'll need to burn memtest to disc first & then set your BIOS to Boot from that disc. This little program will check your systems RAM memory for any errors, such errors can cause all sorts of issues. Again though.. If your not sure about this stuff, perhaps get a friend who's done this type of thing before to help you out.

I think I can handle that. Thanks, I'll get back shortly...
 
Hello again,

Well it looks like the problem was the mouse all along. That mouse was never right from the time I took it out of the box. I replaced it, and the problem seems to have disappeared. I am a little surprised to learn a mouse can prevent a machine from booting, but after thinking about it, one of the first things the bios does is establish comm with the I/O, so I guess it does make sense after all. Thanks for the help, I did learn alot just from reading the responses, and I'll keep these things in mind during the next, inevitable computer crises. :)
 
Ah ok mate, glad you got it sorted. Mistake on my part really, sorry. I wrongly assumed you would would have checked those things out first.

Not to worry though, as long as your sorted now :)
 
Strange that the mouse was the cause; I was sure it was the BIOS battery, as a dead/dying battery can lead to all sorts of wonky issues like that - but after you said the clock was keeping time, it seemed unlikely. Glad you sorted it out, and I'll have to keep that in mind for the future (I wonder if the mouse was drawing down the 5V rail or something? You didn't say if the mouse was USB, PS2, or serial...).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest threads

New Articles From Microcontroller Tips

Back
Top