Another Clueless F**k question...

"John Weiss" <jrweiss98155nospamatnospamcomcastdotnospamnet> wrote in
message news:ftGdnTxABI3eVArbnZ2dnUVZ_ryknZ2d@comcast.com...
> "Ed Cregger" <ecregger RemoveThis @bellsouff.net> wrote...
>>I have a two year old eMachines T6000 with AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 1 GB RAM
>>and the stock 160 GB hard drive.
>>
>> I replaced the original operating system with an OEM copy of XP Pro,
>> running SP2.
>>
>> Every once in a while, instead of booting at start up, it would flash the
>> BIOS icon for eMachines and then go to a black screen with a flashing
>> white flat cursor line in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Now
>> it is doing it for five or six restarts until it finally brings up
>> Windows XP Pro SP2.
>>
>> Any ideas as to why it is doing this? The drive seems fine and passes
>> muster with various analyzer programs. I'm stumped.
>
>
> Have you tried cleaning and resetting HD, Gfx, and other card/cable
> connectors?
>
> How about the BIOS battery? If the machine is turned off for a good part
> of the day, it may be ready to give up the ghost...
>
> Did you do a clean install of XP, or an "upgrade" install? If the latter,
> you may want to back up your data and try a clean install.
>
> What drive analyzers did you use? Did you use the HD mfgr's app?


Thank you very much for things to look for. I wouldn't be surprised if it is
the backup battery for the BIOS. In fact, now that you mentioned it, I did
adjust something in the Bios today and it didn't seem to take (enabling USB
search on boot up). It was doing this long before I messed with the Bios
today, incidentally.

I'll give the hard drive a good cleaning session, but it behaves as though
it is never getting to the hard drive before the black screen/flashing
cursor shows up. Still, proper HD maintenance is a good idea anyway and
can't hurt anything.

I was using Iolo's v 7 of System Mechanic Pro, not anything fancy for HD
analysis, if you can call it that.

Thanks again.

Ed Cregger
 >> Stay informed about: Another Clueless F**k question... 

"Ed Cregger" <ecregger.DeleteThis@bellsouff.net> wrote in message
news:65Qli.3314$O9.309@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
>
> "John Weiss" <jrweiss98155nospamatnospamcomcastdotnospamnet> wrote in message
> news:ftGdnTxABI3eVArbnZ2dnUVZ_ryknZ2d@comcast.com...
>> "Ed Cregger" <ecregger.DeleteThis@bellsouff.net> wrote...
>>>I have a two year old eMachines T6000 with AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 1 GB RAM and the stock
>>>160 GB hard drive.
>>>
>>> I replaced the original operating system with an OEM copy of XP Pro, running SP2.
>>>
>>> Every once in a while, instead of booting at start up, it would flash the BIOS icon
>>> for eMachines and then go to a black screen with a flashing white flat cursor line in
>>> the upper left hand corner of the screen. Now it is doing it for five or six restarts
>>> until it finally brings up Windows XP Pro SP2.
>>>
>>> Any ideas as to why it is doing this? The drive seems fine and passes muster with
>>> various analyzer programs. I'm stumped.
>>
>>
>> Have you tried cleaning and resetting HD, Gfx, and other card/cable connectors?
>>
>> How about the BIOS battery? If the machine is turned off for a good part of the day,
>> it may be ready to give up the ghost...
>>
>> Did you do a clean install of XP, or an "upgrade" install? If the latter, you may want
>> to back up your data and try a clean install.
>>
>> What drive analyzers did you use? Did you use the HD mfgr's app?
>
>
> Thank you very much for things to look for. I wouldn't be surprised if it is the backup
> battery for the BIOS. In fact, now that you mentioned it, I did adjust something in the
> Bios today and it didn't seem to take (enabling USB search on boot up). It was doing
> this long before I messed with the Bios today, incidentally.


Checksum error at start up?

>
> I'll give the hard drive a good cleaning session, but it behaves as though it is never
> getting to the hard drive before the black screen/flashing cursor shows up. Still,
> proper HD maintenance is a good idea anyway and can't hurt anything.

I suspect the boot sector has errors. look at the event viewer (system)

>
> I was using Iolo's v 7 of System Mechanic Pro, not anything fancy for HD analysis, if
> you can call it that.
>
> Thanks again.
>
> Ed Cregger
>
 >> Stay informed about: Another Clueless F**k question... 

In article <FDPli.3305$O9.2537@bignews6.bellsouth.net>,
ecregger.TakeThisOut@bellsouff.net says...
> I have a two year old eMachines T6000 with AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 1 GB RAM and
> the stock 160 GB hard drive.
>
> I replaced the original operating system with an OEM copy of XP Pro, running
> SP2.
>
> Every once in a while, instead of booting at start up, it would flash the
> BIOS icon for eMachines and then go to a black screen with a flashing white
> flat cursor line in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Now it is
> doing it for five or six restarts until it finally brings up Windows XP Pro
> SP2.
>
> Any ideas as to why it is doing this? The drive seems fine and passes muster
> with various analyzer programs. I'm stumped.
>
> Ed Cregger
>

First thing I'd look after replacing the bios battery
would be the power supply. Emachines have a rep for weak
power supplies.

Bill
--
Gmail and Google Groups. This century's answer to AOL and
WebTV.
 >> Stay informed about: Another Clueless F**k question... 

"Bill" <spamtrap.RemoveThis@tinlc.lumbercartel.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.2101befb2696bd7e9896d4@localhost...
> In article <FDPli.3305$O9.2537@bignews6.bellsouth.net>,
> ecregger.RemoveThis@bellsouff.net says...
>> I have a two year old eMachines T6000 with AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 1 GB RAM
>> and
>> the stock 160 GB hard drive.
>>
>> I replaced the original operating system with an OEM copy of XP Pro,
>> running
>> SP2.
>>
>> Every once in a while, instead of booting at start up, it would flash the
>> BIOS icon for eMachines and then go to a black screen with a flashing
>> white
>> flat cursor line in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Now it is
>> doing it for five or six restarts until it finally brings up Windows XP
>> Pro
>> SP2.
>>
>> Any ideas as to why it is doing this? The drive seems fine and passes
>> muster
>> with various analyzer programs. I'm stumped.
>>
>> Ed Cregger
>>
>
> First thing I'd look after replacing the bios battery
> would be the power supply. Emachines have a rep for weak
> power supplies.
>
> Bill
> --
> Gmail and Google Groups. This century's answer to AOL and
> WebTV.


Thanks, Bill. I'll do that.

Ed Cregger
 >> Stay informed about: Another Clueless F**k question... 

"Ed Cregger" <ecregger RemoveThis @bellsouff.net> wrote in message
news:FDPli.3305$O9.2537@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
>I have a two year old eMachines T6000 with AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 1 GB
>RAM and the stock 160 GB hard drive.
>
> I replaced the original operating system with an OEM copy of XP Pro,
> running SP2.
>
> Every once in a while, instead of booting at start up, it would flash
> the BIOS icon for eMachines and then go to a black screen with a
> flashing white flat cursor line in the upper left hand corner of the
> screen. Now it is doing it for five or six restarts until it finally
> brings up Windows XP Pro SP2.
>
> Any ideas as to why it is doing this? The drive seems fine and passes
> muster with various analyzer programs. I'm stumped.
>
> Ed Cregger

It could be a lot of things Ed, but I would first look at the PSU since
that is a known weak area in the eMachine's design.

Ed
 >> Stay informed about: Another Clueless F**k question... 

"Ed Medlin" <ed.DeleteThis@edmedlin.com> wrote in message
news:Ko5mi.27747$C96.22228@newssvr23.news.prodigy.net...
>
> "Ed Cregger" <ecregger.DeleteThis@bellsouff.net> wrote in message
> news:FDPli.3305$O9.2537@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
>>I have a two year old eMachines T6000 with AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 1 GB RAM
>>and the stock 160 GB hard drive.
>>
>> I replaced the original operating system with an OEM copy of XP Pro,
>> running SP2.
>>
>> Every once in a while, instead of booting at start up, it would flash the
>> BIOS icon for eMachines and then go to a black screen with a flashing
>> white flat cursor line in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Now
>> it is doing it for five or six restarts until it finally brings up
>> Windows XP Pro SP2.
>>
>> Any ideas as to why it is doing this? The drive seems fine and passes
>> muster with various analyzer programs. I'm stumped.
>>
>> Ed Cregger
>
> It could be a lot of things Ed, but I would first look at the PSU since
> that is a known weak area in the eMachine's design.
>
> Ed


Thanks for the suggestion. I'll break out the DVM and see what happens with
the output voltage of the PSU.

Ed Cregger
 >> Stay informed about: Another Clueless F**k question...