Help! takes forever to boot; restarts wrong

[redotter]

hi and thank you for any help... when i try to turn my computer on, it locks up on the screen which displays my MB maker; the same screen that shows POST/BIOS log in options. i cannot enter into the BIOS settings by pressing delete at this point. the computer will sit here forever, so i have to restart it. i hold the power button down for a few seconds and the whole thing shuts down for about 3-4 seconds. it then powers up, i can hear the HD spinning, but after a second, it turns back off. about 5 seconds later, it will try to power up again, but turns back off after one second. it will do this 25 times or more for maybe 5 minutes before it finally decides it's done pissing me off, then boots up normally. besides this bull pucky, it exhibits no other problems.

i've already tried reinstalling windows to no effect. the computer is spotlessly clean inside, vacuumed frequently, and i've already reseated every connection. the computer is less than two years old... help me please!

ah yes: when the computer restarts itself, say for an update, the computer completely powers down, then tries to power up, and pulls the same crap as listed above...

she has: intel q6600 4 X 2.4GHz, MSI MS-7529 MB, 4GB RAM, Vista SP2 64 bit, GeForce 9500GT, wireless adapter and that's it...

[bkotz]

sounds 2 me like one of ur parts isnt working correctly
it could be ur processor overheating
u sure ur fans are working correctly?

[redotter]

sounds 2 me like one of ur parts isnt working correctly
it could be ur processor overheating
u sure ur fans are working correctly?

thanks for replying... i'm sure the fans (2 case fans and 1 cpu) are working. i even cleaned and inspected the cpu heatsink this morning... also, the computer will do this first thing in the morning in a 60-degree room...

maybe the power supply is going out? i checked the MB for bulging capacitors and whatnot, but everything looks fine...

[Dexdrex007]

then you got a bad hard drive, you already got your hint, you can hear your hdd spinning so time bios is reading the hdd.
Use HDD Regenerator to check your drive, but in this case, i suggest you do a RMA already, because if the bios is having trouble reading the hard disk, probably the bad sector is in sector 0 or 1.

[redotter]

Thanks... I will check out HDD Regenerator... So the drive could be bad even though the computer will eventually boot up and run fine? Besides the spotty boot process, everything else works fine...

[Nemmyy]

Did you vacuum the actual insides of the computer? If so it could've ruined some parts with static electricity.

[redotter]

Did you vacuum the actual insides of the computer? If so it could've ruined some parts with static electricity.

no just the vents on the outside. but it was acting up before the cleaning. i'm pretty protective about static electricity... but i did disconnect the HD and try booting from CD, but it still does the same thing. I don't think the HD is the problem. Could it be the power supply? It's a 430w, pushing an Nvidia GeForce 9500GT for about a year now...

[Nemmyy]

Did you prevent the fans from spinning?
Use this to see where your PSU stands.

[Emerge™]

i had that problem but when i reformatted my computer.
that problem got fixed.

[redotter]

Did you prevent the fans from spinning?
Use this to see where your PSU stands.

i did not prevent the fans from spinning, but did disconnect them one by one to see if they were screwing with things... what are you thinking is going on?