Black Screen Of Death

[lynx]

Judging by the fact that if you leave it a while, and it then works only to come back again, my guess is that you've got an temperature related problem.

It is not necessarily your drive which is overheating, it could be any central system component involved with the IDE interface (for example the chipset), but I would think it possible that you would get other problems too in that case.

And it isn't necessarily overheating. A "dry" solder joint can become loose as temperatures rise and can cause intermittent problems, but they can be impossible to find and can occur at normal running temps.

Of course, if this problem happens from cold (or just after) then this idea is probably wrong.

[orcutt989]

Originally posted by Sasage@31 July 2004 - 04:46
What about trying to boot without your disc or floppy drive?

I dont need a boot disk, when i get to that screen i simply shut the computer off and keep attempting to boot.

Judging by the fact that if you leave it a while, and it then works only to come back again, my guess is that you've got an temperature related problem.

It is not necessarily your drive which is overheating, it could be any central system component involved with the IDE interface (for example the chipset), but I would think it possible that you would get other problems too in that case.

And it isn't necessarily overheating. A "dry" solder joint can become loose as temperatures rise and can cause intermittent problems, but they can be impossible to find and can occur at normal running temps.

Of course, if this problem happens from cold (or just after) then this idea is probably wrong.

Hmm, i was thinking maybe temperature related. Thanks everyone. The air conditioner is about a meter away from my computer and we really didnt have it on last night, and now we do and i havent had the problem, so that might be it.

[zapjb]

The clicking sound plus the other symptoms tell me it's imminent HDD failure.

[lynx]

Originally posted by zapjb@1 August 2004 - 01:13
The clicking sound plus the other symptoms tell me it's imminent HDD failure.

Read it again, the clicking noise is from the floppy drive.

[zapjb]

Yup I got it wrong. Kneejerk reaction.

[orcutt989]

Alright, the computer finally stopped recognizing my hdd. My mom got this brillliant Idea to vacuum out the power supply for the hell of it, and nowq the computer wont even turn on. Oh well, we are getting a really good dell i put together. P4 3mhz, 512 ram, 128mb PCI express ATI video, 116 gb hdd, soundblaster audigy sound, xp professional. looks good..