Freeze of Failure

I really think my computer is dead... well atleast one component of it is. I will begin with all the symptoms, starting with the initial ones. I see my computer screen at 6:00 PM and the screen says its 3:00 PM... the mouse cursor doesn't move at all, and control alt delete gets no response. The weirdest symptom of all is that the lazer on the mouse has turned off, indicating something more than your standard freeze. So the freeze obviously happened at 3:00 while I was taking my nap. Anyway, I restart my computer using the restart button on the case... and the screen simply goes black and remains black (no normal text for boot). The red light on the case which indicates hard drive searching remains solid for a while, however the green light on the case which normally comes on to indicate power is NOT coming on. The most telling sign of all however, is that the LED display on the motherboard goes STRAIGHT to FF right when I turn on my computer. Normally it goes through the boot sequence flashing numbers and codes which represent devices being booted up. This doesn't happen however. Straight to FF, no writing on the screen whatsoever.

Today I'm going to go down and get a cheap motherboard to replace it, because it seems to me that's the problem. If it was a device, I'd think the boot sequence would get to that device and freeze. The motherboard isn't booting anything.

To go along with this, off and on I've been getting a similar but not as deadly problem. My initial boot would freeze right after it detected a couple devices. It would freeze at some number (like 50) and the boot text on the screen would also remain still stopping after the processor information if i recall correctly. After about 3 minutes of being frozen, it would go through the rest of the boot up process and start my computer like normal. Bear in mind this didn't happen every time, and that was something i could atleast live with.

Well any help from you guys would be greatly appreciated. I really don't want to buy a new motherboard and replace it if that's not the problem. Could something like a messed up processor keep it from even starting the boot sequence and going straight to FF? I figure something like the Processor might be utilized the second you turn on your computer, while I can be pretty certain it's not the HDD because that doesn't need to be accessed immediately. Just the fact that it goes straight to FF i think says a lot, well please share knowledge. Thanks

jamo said:

I really think my computer is dead... well atleast one component of it is. I will begin with all the symptoms, starting with the initial ones. I see my computer screen at 6:00 PM and the screen says its 3:00 PM... the mouse cursor doesn't move at all, and control alt delete gets no response. The weirdest symptom of all is that the lazer on the mouse has turned off, indicating something more than your standard freeze.

Click to expand...

It's not a laser, just an LED. Diode lasers are still rather more expensive than most optical mice (not to mention not terribly useful for the purposes of illuminating a surface). Still, this is a bad sign.

So the freeze obviously happened at 3:00 while I was taking my nap. Anyway, I restart my computer using the restart button on the case... and the screen simply goes black and remains black (no normal text for boot). The red light on the case which indicates hard drive searching remains solid for a while, however the green light on the case which normally comes on to indicate power is NOT coming on. The most telling sign of all however, is that the LED display on the motherboard goes STRAIGHT to FF right when I turn on my computer. Normally it goes through the boot sequence flashing numbers and codes which represent devices being booted up. This doesn't happen however. Straight to FF, no writing on the screen whatsoever.

Today I'm going to go down and get a cheap motherboard to replace it, because it seems to me that's the problem. If it was a device, I'd think the boot sequence would get to that device and freeze. The motherboard isn't booting anything.

To go along with this, off and on I've been getting a similar but not as deadly problem. My initial boot would freeze right after it detected a couple devices. It would freeze at some number (like 50) and the boot text on the screen would also remain still stopping after the processor information if i recall correctly. After about 3 minutes of being frozen, it would go through the rest of the boot up process and start my computer like normal. Bear in mind this didn't happen every time, and that was something i could atleast live with.

Well any help from you guys would be greatly appreciated. I really don't want to buy a new motherboard and replace it if that's not the problem. Could something like a messed up processor keep it from even starting the boot sequence and going straight to FF? I figure something like the Processor might be utilized the second you turn on your computer, while I can be pretty certain it's not the HDD because that doesn't need to be accessed immediately. Just the fact that it goes straight to FF i think says a lot, well please share knowledge. Thanks

Click to expand...

I would also point my finger at the mobo or the cpu. Have you tried clearing the cmos yet?

Yes I have tried clearing the CMOS. Didn't do a thing. So your saying based on the symptoms it could be the CPU. Would you say its any more probable that it might be one (Mobo or CPU) over the other. I'm suppose to buy a motherboard today, and that whole thing would suck if it ends up being the CPU.