xp booting

[jamstaruk]

hi anyone help?when my computer has been off for a few hrs it wont boot up it starts to then goes to blank screen however if i press reset button it boots up fine,any suggestions?thanks

[redwench]

how far does it get in booting?

[jamstaruk]

it gets just b4 the widows xp comes up

[redwench]

download and run a hard drive diagnostic program relevant to your particular hard drive. it can be found on the manufacturer's website.

[jamstaruk]

ran the diagnostics test found no errors

[Elomis]

This is often an argument between the APM (Advanced Power Management) in the BIOS and in Windows. Check the settings in the Control Panel in XP, whether it is set to turn off after a certain period of time, suspend, sleep, whatever, then reboot your PC and press whatever key you need to get into the BIOS settings (careful here if you aren't familiar with it). There will be APM settings in the BIOS too regarding times before your PC shuts down or slows down bits to save power. Make sure the two settings are similar, they don't need to be the same, just make sure they don't conflict (e.g. Make sure BIOS doesn't say turn off monitor after three minutes and XP says don't ever turn it off). Better still, turn off APM control in one of these two places to make sure only one set of rules apply.

[jamstaruk]

ok done that still happens thanks for trying though

[redwench]

you can try disabling atapi in the bios, although that probably wont help. reseat the power and ide cable on the hard drive, and the ide on the motherboard.
it appears as if your hard drive or motherboard doesnt like being cold. if thats the case ( ie, you cant find anything else wrong), just keep doing what youre doing, or leave it run 24/7. unless you want to replace it.