HP Desktop Issues

[Tamelesstgr]

Gents,

Hoping someone here might be able to lend a hand. I noticed the past few times I have gone to use my desktop that when I press the power button, machine turns on, but does not quickly get to the login screen. Infact, the past few times it has been turning on for maybe 20 seconds, then turns off, then turns on for 20 seconds and turns off. It will cycle like this several times and then load to my login screen. Last night it took nearly 30 minutes for me to get into the PC.

I'm worried something is going to fail, so I'm backing everything up to my external hard drive as well and the second redundant HD in the desktop. I have my backup discs as well to reload the OS (Windows 7) I have all the specs on my PC from when I had it built 2013.

I'm just wondering if there are any ways to test what the culprit might be:

Motherboard?
Power Supply? (600W)
HD?

Thanks,
Ken

[JimClark]

Kind of sounds like it is cycling thru updates. I assume it is a windows machine?

[Tamelesstgr]

Also, PC is currently set up with (2) 1T 7200rpm SATA HD's
I like to have 3 redundant drives as I store a lot of music and photos
I'm thinking if the HD is bad, I might go to a Solid State Drive and get an additional 1T HD for a backup

[Tamelesstgr]

yes, Windows 7 machine

[JimClark]

upgrade it to windows 10 with a fresh install

[SweetAccord]

Windows 7 you need to get into Safe Mode. The conventional way of entering Safe Mode still works in Windows 7 and Vista, and in some Windows 8 PCs. Boot the computer and start pressing and releasing F8 repeatedly. Once the Advanced Boot Options menu pops up, you can select Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking. From safe mode you can either do a system restore or system check.

[Tamelesstgr]

Finished backing up everything, shut the machine down. Opened the case up and dusted everything, checked connections, unplugged and re-inserted RAM (common HP check according to their help tutorials)

Plug everything back in, and I can't get Windows to load now, just cycles on and off for 20 seconds. I've tried F5, F10, F8, all just a blank screen on my monitor

[SweetAccord]

Is the video card built in on the mother board or separate? If seperate try another video card. If it's built in you can plug one in as you should always have display, unless ram module(s) are bad or not seated mother board is dying or dead.

[Tamelesstgr]

I'm leaning towards the board, video card/monitor was working this afternoon when I was finishing up my data backup. Not sure if the card is part of the board or not, it was a separate line item I had to choose when I had the PC built since I use this primarily for photography editing.

[SweetAccord]

It could be memory also. Its rare they go bad but not impossible.

[Tamelesstgr]

update, I purchased a PSU tester, and I am getting a PG - HH, so that is the Power Good is not in a normal state. I'm guessing I have a bad PSU.

"Power Good Signal

When the power supply first starts up, it takes some time for the components to get "up to speed" and start generating the proper DC voltages that the computer needs to operate. Before this time, if the computer were allowed to try to boot up, strange results could occur since the power might not be at the right voltage. It can take a half-second or longer for the power to stabilize, and this is an eternity to a processor that can run half a billion instructions per second! To prevent the computer from starting up prematurely, the power supply puts out a signal to the motherboard called "Power Good" (or "PowerGood", or "Power OK", or "PWR OK" and so on) after it completes its internal tests and determines that the power is ready for use. Until this signal is sent, the motherboard will refuse to start up the computer."

[Tamelesstgr]

Replaced the motherboard battery, no dice
Replaced PSU, still the same issues, no booting

[Tamelesstgr]

So, little update, motherboard was the culprit. I purchased a Gigabyte motherboard and swapped my processor and graphics card, and RAM. The old Power supply is working fine. However, since I didn't use the same motherboard that HP used, I can not use my backup discs to load Windows 7 back onto the PC. So it looks like I will be loading a new OS. Grrr

[Tamelesstgr]

Had to get a PCI slot card for wireless, but otherwise I'm slowly building everything back up. Installed Windows 7 again, now putting all my important files back on my two drives. Need to re-install a few more programs. I've learned far more about computers than I ever wanted to.

[revoltrunner]

that's the worst part. having to reinstall
all those programs. are you keeping track
of how many times you had to reboot...lol
Happy Holidays