# What We Have Here Is A Failure to Boot **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2005, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509 "2005-04-03T08:34:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/1 "2005-04-03T08:34:56Z")
Okay, a friend’s been having problems with his PC. Thinking that the problem was his powersupply, I yanked it, and replaced it with another one. When I fired the PC up, it would come on, but wouldn’t boot. Thinking that this powersupply was bad, I yanked it and put the original one back in. Again, it failed to boot. I’ve rechecked all the connections to the mobo and drives and they all seem to be fine. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/2 "2005-04-03T08:38:34Z")
Do you hear any beeps? (Make sure the PC speaker is hooked up) Does the motherboard have a set of diagnostic LEDs? Look for anything glowing on the board, and if you find them, check a manual (might have to look online) to see what it’s trying to tell you. Failing that, do you smell anything cookin’? I fried a few computers trying to put them together and they all produced a rather nice burning odor. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/3 "2005-04-03T08:40:43Z")
Nothing’s smoking, and all the normal status LEDs come on. The speaker beeps at the initial start up. (It’s an old PII HP PC, if that helps. I think it’s a 640z or something for the model number.) ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/4 "2005-04-03T08:46:24Z")
Hmm ok, so it beeps. That’s good. What kind of beep is it? A short beep (less than a second), a long beep, or a series of short beeps? Does the HD indicator light show normal-looking activity after the power is turned on? (It should probably flash rapidly). Can you hear/feel the hard drive spinning up and functioning? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/5 "2005-04-03T08:48:49Z")
Short beep. I didn’t see the harddrive light flashing, but I can feel it whirring inside. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/6 "2005-04-03T09:06:56Z")
So you don’t see anything on the monitor, the hard drive spins up but you don’t see any activity. What happened to his computer? Has anybody been messing around inside the case? Hmm… perhaps you can try taking out all non-essential components and see if it will boot that way. You could remove all the connected cards except the video card and disconnect all drives except the main hard drive. You can also try leaving one stick of RAM in the computer at a time to see whether it’s bad memory. If you have another functioning system nearby, you could try swapping some components between the two and see if you can find the broken parts, but I don’t know how good of an idea that is if a broken part could damage the working system. Sorry, I’m at a lost here. Hope somebody else will have a better idea. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/7 "2005-04-03T09:10:56Z")
It’ll show the “HP Expanding Possibilities” on the monitor, but that’s it. That should stay on the screen for a couple of seconds, and then it should show the BIOS activity before it begins loading Win98. I’m wondering if I didn’t knock the CMOS battery loose or something. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/8 "2005-04-03T09:14:32Z")
Oh good. Can you enter the BIOS at all? Try DEL or F1 or F2 or F8 or something… or see if you can find an online manual for the exact model number / serial number on HP’s site. I looked for a 640z but couldn’t find it, sorry. The battery is easy to check… just look for it on the motherboard, take it out and put it back in. Or you should be able to buy another one at any electronics store. Maybe it’s dead? I’m not sure what the effects of that would be, though. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/9 "2005-04-03T09:44:59Z")
If the CMOS battery is really low on charge or dead, your PC will not boot normally, but if you can get into Setup mode (usually by hitting or holding down the F8 or some other key early in the boot sequence), then you can reset the system configuration settings. With a dead CMOS battery, your PC essentially forgets some of the CMOS settings (like the system time, date, what kind of hard drives, etc.). The best thing is to just go get a new battery for about $3 from Radio Shack, replace the old battery, and see what happens. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/10 "2005-04-03T20:53:19Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Oh good. Can you enter the BIOS at all? Try DEL or F1 or F2 or F8 or something… or see if you can find an online manual for the exact model number / serial number on HP’s site. I looked for a 640z but couldn’t find it, sorry. > > The battery is easy to check… just look for it on the motherboard, take it out and put it back in. Or you should be able to buy another one at any electronics store. Maybe it’s dead? I’m not sure what the effects of that would be, though. Haven’t tried to enter the BIOS at all. I’m going back over to my friends place here in a bit and will try that. Oh, and the machine’s an HP Pavilion 6470z. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/11 "2005-04-04T00:33:12Z")
If you can get in, you might want to try autodetecting the hard drive. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/12 "2005-04-04T02:00:28Z")
Couldn’t get into the BIOS. I tried removing and reinstalling both the RAM chips and the CMOS battery to see if that fixed the problem, but still no luck. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-boot/297509/13 "2005-04-04T03:47:06Z")
Sorry, I don’t know what to do then ☹