Freeze Only When Booting?

I did my first PC build this Fall, and I'm very very happy with the setup, except for one problem. The PC, after being "plugged in" (The power supply has a kill switch which I turn off at night because it has a light), will freeze twice during Windows startup, then start up normally, and be very very stable. I dual boot XP twice, one partition for desktop use and one for music-making, and it doesn't make a difference which I boot into. I find it very odd that this happens consistently. It only fails twice until it boots sucessfully, then I can turn it off (leaving the PS kill switch on), and turn it back on without any problem. I have no idea what's causing this, and I was wondering if there was an obvious cause for such behavior. I'd be happy to dig out specs if they would help.

 

Sounds like a power (warm up) issue or could be as simple as being in need of a bios update.

 

Mmm. I think I'll try flipping the kill switch and letting it sit for an hour or two, and then trying to turn it on. Thanks.

 

What PSU do you have?

Have you run Prime95 on it to see if it's stable?

 

Stop turning you PC off at the kill switch and see if this helps, put T-shirt over the light at night for a few days.

 

I encountered a similar problem awhile ago. Do as the above quote states, but flip the main power switch, then fully unplug the power connector - let sit for a couple hours.

 

Alright, the problem persists. I have not touched the kill switch for about a week now, and every day, when i boot for the first time, I get the freezing. After that (for the rest of the day) I can turn it on and off as much as I please. It seems to be a "hasn't been touched in a long time" issue. I have a Hyper brand PSU, and will try to run a stability test this weekend. Does Prime95 specifically test power, because I ran system stability tests when I built the system, and they went for a full 16 hours before I threw in the towel.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

P.S.
eeevan: Are you saying that you:
1) Shut down PC from Windows
2) Hit main power switch on front of computer
3) Flipped kill switch on power supply
4) unplugged power supply

And that fixed the problem? I don't think this will work for me, because I moved the computer from room to room (doing that sequence exactly), and the problem persisted after the move. Nice for you, though.

 

Have you tried refilling the antifreeze tank?


J/K



Take a look at the capacitors on the motherboard. See if any of them are round at the top (should be flat).

Do you have a spare motherboard to test with? If you do I would suggest that.