[OT] Machine won't boot

Alan Cox alan at lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk
Mon Aug 18 13:24:58 UTC 2008


> What could fail and induce such behavior? I have never seen anything similar 
> before. A computer usually does boot completely or does not boot at all. I've 
> never seen it boot halfway and then lock up.

Age, component failure , corrosion, static damage finally killing a
device, fan failure ... 

If its bust take it apart, completely. Earth yourself and then clean all
the ram contacts, PCI and ISA card slots, tap all the chips firmly on the
top and make sure they feel ok, check then fans seem ok.

Put it back together with the smallest amount of valid RAM configuration
and no hard disks or PCI cards beyond the minimum and see if that passes
memtest86. If it doesn't you can try reseating the CPU and the like but
its probably game over.

If it boots like that add bits back until either its all back or it stops
booting 8)

Alan




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