Weak power supply not loading windows? Is this possible?

[walkitiki]

Hey all, I have had a problem the last couple of weeks. My computer will seemingly lock up before it gets to the Win XP boot screen (win logo with blue bar). At first I thought this might be a CPU problem since I had recently fried one, then replaced it. Then I tried to boot up on an older monitor, mine is a Dell flatscreen and I thought maybe the issue was monitor related. When I tried to use the older monitor, when it tried to get the the XP boot screen it clicked repeatedly as though trying to change resolution. I moved my computer to a different room with a different monitor and it works..I changed the resolution figuring this was my problem. Not the case.


I then realized that it was the outlets/surge protectors that were giving me a problem (maybe...?). I took an extension cord from my room and took it into the room where it worked. The monitor was still plugged into the surge protector in my room. The system boots up perfectly. I then take the PC power plug and put it into the wall socket, thinking that maybe the surge protector was somehow limiting or affecting the amount of power my pc was getting. This worked for about a day until this morning when I tried to boot up and it gets hung again. I think I am going to order a new power supply from newegg.com today because the one that's in there now is from some estranged korean brand and isn't very good. I wonder if this will remedy my problem. Any responses are greatly appreciated.

-tiki

 

[Know Nuttin]

check the power coming from the wall. Could be a faulty outlet.

 

[Pake]

Harddrive is erroring/failing. You need to get into windows and have it start scandisk up the next time you boot. My computer was acting funky like that and since I did scandisk, it stopped. My friend as well had the same issue, so we decided it was best for him to just buy a new one.

 

[walkitiki]

I ran chkdsk and recieved no errors, would this be because Windows was not loaded yet? I also have a copy of Norton Utilties, woudl their disk diagnostics program be helpful? I'll try again when I can find an outlet where my computer will run, thanks for the advice.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Boot with the windows install disc, and when prompted enter the recovery console. When you're at the console type "chkdsk /r c:". That'll force it to do a deep scan and auto repair any problems even if it thinks the drive doesn't need it.

 

[walkitiki]

When I've tried to boot from a disk on certain outlets, it would lock up on the screen that says "Setup is detecting your hardware configuration" or something of the like. This problem would go away on other outlets much like how it would lock up before the Windows boot screen.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Go out to your local hardware store and buy an outlet tester. It sounds like your house is improperly wired.

 

[walkitiki]

Could a bad outlet do this sort of thing?

 

[Mr.Radar]

It could. If the PSU isn't getting high enough quality power then it'll put out crap voltages and may do some other nasty stuff.

 

[walkitiki]

Got an outlet tester and all it can really tell me is that the outlet is grounded properly. A new PSU yielded the same results as well. Our house is quite old so I will check the circuit breaker and see if that needs replacing...beyond that I will have no idea what to do. It doesn't make any sense for my computer to work perfectly fine in one room, but not in another, we'll see I guess.

 

[SavageBasher]

Get a multimeter, set it to AC, and test each outlet. They all should read ~120V.

 

[walkitiki]

This doesn't make any sense anymore. I put a different computer on the same outlet that doesn't work on my other one and it boots up fine, in fact I'm on it right now. What is wrong with my computer?!?

 

[walkitiki]

Well, I found what was causing this whole mess and I feel like an idiot...somehow for whatever reason whenever my USB mouse was plugged in Windows could not boot at all. However in the other room, I was using a different keyboard and so it worked. Go ahead laugh, but I had no idea that a mouse alone could keep windows from loading...