COmputer freezing on ADVENT splash screen

[Pyroman]

The PC keeps getting stuck on the startup splash screen that would usually be the RAM count.

 

If there's nothing plugged in to it other than the power supply, it'll boot straight past it and then do the obvious "no book disk" but as soon as i plug an HDD in it just sits on the advent screen and refuses to boot.

 

Any ideas? i'm stumped.

[PeterW]

It sounds like the hard drive might be faulty, can you plug it into a different computer to verify?

[Pyroman]

i've tried it with a different hard drive and i managed to install windows on it but then it's started again. i've got the new HDD in and it's still spending 5 mins on the advent spash screen and then saying Disk Boot Error

[PeterW]

Is it an IDE drive or SATA, ahve you changed the cable also?

[DrPerceptron]

what about the IDE/SATA channel/port it's plugged into?

[Pyroman]

tried both. it was originally in a SATA port and the replacement is an IDE drive

[apoth0r]

I had a similar problem and I ran some memory diagnostics and it turned out to be the RAM after being certain it was the hard drive causing it.

[PeterW]

Maybe try another power supply if you have one handy.

[Pyroman]

Picked up 2 spare HDD's a spare power supply and memtest86 boot disk, i'm going home now. Points will be awarded when i see which bit's dead later =D

 

thanx for the ideas

[nsherin]

Also check to see if you have any USB storage devices plugged in and powered up on boot up. If so, disconnected them. I've seen this on a few PCs over the years. where they will hang during the RAM count of the POST procedure. Gave me a fright the first time, as I thought I was dealing with a dead hard drive or some other piece of misbehaving hardware!