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.

computer requires 60+ secs before booting

Status
Not open for further replies.

Thunderchild

New Member
A friend (same one as HDD issue) has a computer which you will apply power too and then wait 60+ seconds after pressing the power buttn for it to boot. could this be

a. A PSU issue
b. A motherboard issue
c. Unlikely but a bios setting issue

computer is 6 odd years old
 
I concur. Reformat.

nothing to do with that, is a mobo/PSU issue, it takes 60+ seconds for the machine to actually switch on after the power button is pressed
 
PSU? Even with soft on, power supplys have a 'ready' line that doesn't allow the machine to boot until the power supply has regulated it's voltage, if it listens to it at least.
 
Hey come on, nothing wrong with a 6 year old machine, it's not my main machine anymore but I still have a machine I scratch built that's 6 years old, can run any useful software on the market today, obviously not for audio/video work but for what 99% of the world needs a PC for fine.
 
Are you saying that the monitor doesn't come on for 60 seconds, and when it does it is on the POST screen?

Any USB devices plugged in? If so, remove them.

It could be a drive problem - either something isn't set right (try to avoid cable select) or a hard drive is failing its SMART test, i.e. on its last legs. It is rare, but occasionally computers don't boot up the monitor when there's such a problem. What happens if you pull the IDE leads off the board?

Try removing all PCI devices (other than graphics card!).

It is certainly worth testing the PSU as suggested, too.
 
no the whole machine has no sign of life for about 60 seconds, I've fixed the HDD for them and alegedly this has cured the problem however I think they've just said that because they don't want to spend the money in my opinion the PSU is faulty and it was possibly the cause of the HDD fault. at the end of the day I've told them and can't do any more
 
i have a computer that had the same problem when i got it and i bought a new psu for it and it works like new now :), but thats just one comuter fixed i still have 17 or more left to fix lol
 
yes well i told them that can get a psu at the local car boot sale for £ 3 but apparantly the PSU has magicly started working so its up to them.
 
no the whole machine has no sign of life for about 60 seconds, I've fixed the HDD for them and alegedly this has cured the problem however I think they've just said that because they don't want to spend the money in my opinion the PSU is faulty and it was possibly the cause of the HDD fault. at the end of the day I've told them and can't do any more
Perhaps it could also be a behavior of CRT monitor with tube life expired. May be PC is ready but monitor doesn't show up immediately. try with another monitor for test purpose.

Next possibility, is low RAM and maximum files loaded, and some anti-virus package even.After the machine comes to life, you may check the capacity of RAM, and increase if the machine is proposed to be used for some more years.

You may remove most files at start up. Uninstall the anti-virus for the time being.

I really dont understand the relevance of PSU in booting delay.
 
Perhaps it could also be a behavior of CRT monitor with tube life expired. May be PC is ready but monitor doesn't show up immediately. try with another monitor for test purpose.

Next possibility, is low RAM and maximum files loaded, and some anti-virus package even.After the machine comes to life, you may check the capacity of RAM, and increase if the machine is proposed to be used for some more years.

You may remove most files at start up. Uninstall the anti-virus for the time being.

I really dont understand the relevance of PSU in booting delay.

erm your totaly off track, like i said the PC has no sign of life at all for 60+ seconds the most obvious indication of which is that the cpu fan dosen't start up. to put it simply the psu is taking over 60 seconds to actually come on.
 
erm your totaly off track, like i said the PC has no sign of life at all for 60+ seconds the most obvious indication of which is that the cpu fan dosen't start up. to put it simply the psu is taking over 60 seconds to actually come on.

I would suggest the most likely reason is probably low ESR (dried up) capactitors in the PSU.
 
yes well basically as far as they are concerned its s duff PSU and needs changing, i suspect its how the HDD controller board broke down. I've warned them and its up to them now
 
Sounds like my old work, the bosses didn't do anything with the machines there till they outright broke.
 
Sounds like my old work, the bosses didn't do anything with the machines there till they outright broke.

Don't remind me of my past as a printing press operator, ever tried to do quality work on a knackered press with crap paper and ink ?
 
Don't remind me of my past as a printing press operator, ever tried to do quality work on a knackered press with crap paper and ink ?

My father was a stone mason, in his later years he used to get given dimensions specified to 0.1mm accuracy - the saws at the quarry had half an inch of wobble on the blades! :D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest threads

New Articles From Microcontroller Tips

Back
Top