Problem only occurs when PC is cold!!!

[Rubicon99]

After many frustrating weeks I've finally pinpointed the cause of my PC problems...the onboard sound processor.

The odd thing is that the problems only occur when booting up after the PC has been off for an extended period. Once it's warm and up and running any reboots are performed successfully. As soon as it has been off for a while it takes 3,4 and 5 attempts to boot in.

Assuming there's a physical problem with the sound processor, why would it only occur when it's cold?

Thanks

Dave

 

[TheMajor]

What happens if it doesn't boot? Black screen?

 

[Rubicon99]

Mostly certain services won't load, or it hangs on the 'Welcome' screen or it reboots automatically before it loads completely.

 

[King X13]

how did you come to that it was the onboard sound ??

if it is the onboard sound then you can disable it in the bios and get your self a sound card.

update your sound drivers and such

 

[Rubicon99]

basically I reinstalled windows xp home, then sp2 and then all microsoft updates. Things seemed to be working ok but I still left it overnight and then booted up successfully first go for the first time in ages.

The only device that isn't loaded automatically is the sound processor, so I threw in the motherboard install disk and loaded the realtek drivers. First boot afterwards and it was back to it's old problems.

In previous attempts to fix this problem I routinely loaded all the drivers on the install disk i.e LAN, AGP, mini ide, Raid etc so I never knew which one, if any, was actually causing the problem.

However now that I knew it was the sound drivers, tonight I went ahead and loaded the rest like normal.....and the same problems ocurred. It would seem none of the drivers are working.

This time around I've loaded up a fresh copy of home, sp2 and updates, plus zone alarm suite and other bits and pieces. Everything seems to be stable.

So basically I have no clue what's happening. I do know I won't be loading any of the supplied drivers.

btw the motherboard is an ECS 661FX-M.

 

[RicoDirenzo]

I just serviced an HP that had the same problem. The HP recovery HD had ato be bypassed by installing a fresh copy of Windows and installing a PCI soundcard. Works fine for now but I am waiting for the phone call that other onboard functions are faiiling as well. If I were you I would nip the problem in the bud and get a new mobo while you are still up and running. That was my recommendation to the client but given that it is an HP and a Micro ATX case, it's gong to involve a new mobo, psu and case. HP..........horrible!!!!