Page 1 of 1

PC freezing at BIOS screen on startup

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 12:36 pm
by MAC
I rebooted by PC today and it is freezing at the BIOS screen. This is a Dell Vostro 410 I purchased 3 or 4 years ago. Any ideas on what could be causing this or what I can do?

Thanks in advance,

MAC

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 2:22 pm
by eGoCeNTRoNiX
Try pulling the CMOS battery for 10-15 minutes then put it back and see what happens.. Also, check your memory sticks one at a time. Hope this helps..

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 2:48 pm
by MAC
I pulled out both memory sticks and cleaned the contacts with an eraser and put them back in. PC booted up. I'll reboot it in a little while to see if it hangs up again.

Thanks for the info.

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 3:22 pm
by eGoCeNTRoNiX
No problem, glad you're up and running again. :)

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 3:54 pm
by FlyingPenguin
I've seen a lot of issues with memory not being properly seated or having grunge on the contacts lately. Me thinks RAM manufacturers are cutting corners on the gold plating for the contacts.

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 6:13 pm
by MAC
Restarted the PC and it rebooted just fine.

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 6:58 pm
by normalicy
Yup, memory was my first guess.

Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 12:55 pm
by Executioner
You can test your memory stick one at a time with MemTest86 a free utility.

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 2:32 pm
by MAC
Well my PC was shutdown and I could not get it to restart. Ran Memtest86, but I couldn't tell if the RAM was bad or not. I bought two new sticks of RAM (2 GB) for $30.00 and installed them. At first the PC would not restart, but after allowing Windows to repair itself, it started and is running fine.

I think its time to build a new PC anyway!