Pavilion A1507UK will not boot up until powered on and left for at least 5 minutes before retrying.

[eyemdee]

Sorry if this is a lengthy post over a silly problem but it has me completely baffled. This started some weeks ago, ie failing to boot when first switched on, but booting normally after being left on for at least 5 minutes.

My first thought was that the hard drive may be failing so I bought another one (identical model) and cloned the original using Seagate DiskWizard. Swapped them over and the fault was still there.

Next the power supply. Bought another (identical one) and swapped them over. No difference, still needed warm up time before boooting. Both power supplies tested A1 on a multimeter.

OK so it has to be the motherboard. Bought another (identical ECS RC-410M rev 1.03) and a Pentium 4 CPU and new heatsink and fan to go with it. Swapped them over, and apart from the BIOS being from Compaq rather than HP it worked perfectly, apart from needing to be switched on for 5 minutes before booting...!

Tried the original power supply with the new motherboard - booted straight away when first switched on but next morning - no change. Pointing to the motherboard (being warm when power supplies changed) again.

The only thing I haven't changed is the on/off switch (tried bridging the pins on the board and the fault was still there) and the memory, but this passes every test I can throw at it.

Then I read about bad capacitors. Found 2 swollen ones in the voltage regulator area on the original Pavilion board and managed to change them for 2 new Nichicon caps, thinking that this was the answer. It wasn't. The boards swapped back fine, everything is hunky dory apart from this computer's refusal to boot when first switched on. Also I cannot find a single bad looking capacitor on the Compaq board which displays the same characteristic.

I am now at the stage that I am thinking someone else must have experienced this problem if I am getting it with almost 2 completely different computers now. It must be something either really stupid that I haven't thought of or an amazing set of coincidences if all these bits are bad.

Help anyone?

[old_geekster · Accepted solution]

Eyemdee, have you tested the memory.  I had nearly the same problem when I built my last computer.  It finally came down to the memory.  I replaced it and all was well.  As I said, I would test it before buying more, however.

Please click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved.

[eyemdee]

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old_geekster wrote:

Eyemdee, have you tested the memory.  I had nearly the same problem when I built my last computer.  It finally came down to the memory.  I replaced it and all was well.  As I said, I would test it before buying more, however.

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old_geekster wrote:

Eyemdee, have you tested the memory.  I had nearly the same problem when I built my last computer.  It finally came down to the memory.  I replaced it and all was well.  As I said, I would test it before buying more, however.

Please click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved.

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I have tested it more than once using all the utitlities in PC-Doctor 5 and it passes every time. I have also swapped over the 2 sticks, but funnily enough I was beginning to draw the same conclusion, as I cannot now see how it can be anything else.

I still have the original 2 x 256MB sticks  that I removed when I upgraded it to 2Gb some time ago so I will try them over the weekend before I rush to buy some more. I have a drawer full of spare parts now so it looks like I will be keeping this PC for ever!

Thanks for the suggestion, I will report back.

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[eyemdee]

old_geekster you are a star! Tried my 2 original 256Mb DIMMS this morning and it fired up straight away from cold. Put back the 2 1Gb DIMMS after cleaning their contacts and it took 4 goes to get it booted.

That will teach me not to buy unbranded memory from companies with names like "Funky Giraffe", although it has been OK for a couple of years.

2 new Kingston PC-4200 DDR2 1Gb DIMMS on order for £9.99 each which is as good as I could find.

Thanks again for the suggestion. I would probably have got there eventually but it has solved the mystery.

[old_geekster]

Eyemdee, you can start a HP repair shop with all of your spare parts.   It would help pay for them.

I will be insterested to see if the original memory makes a difference.  Did you try the memory diagnostics in the BIOS?  I believe your model makes it available.

[eyemdee]

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old_geekster wrote:

Eyemdee, you can start a HP repair shop with all of your spare parts.   It would help pay for them.

I will be insterested to see if the original memory makes a difference.  Did you try the memory diagnostics in the BIOS?  I believe your model makes it available.

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I am going to keep all the parts (all 2nd hand off eBay) so I can keep this PC going for as long as possible on Windows XP. I don't want Windows 7 as I have heard that it won't run my beloved Quicken program which was written for Windows 3.1!

The memory I have on order is not original but is Kingston branded which I know I can trust. I looked for memory diagnostics in the BIOS menu but couldn't see it anywhere. I have been testing the Funky Giraffe memory using the PC-Doctor 5 prgram which was bundled with the PC and it passes every test every time. Just doesn't want to go in a morning.

The BIOS is pretty old - AMI v3.24 from 2007. I have found the chip it resides on so I can keep the same machine identity if I need to swap the motherboards again and this should keep my Windows OEM license intact as the PC remains the same!

[old_geekster]

Eyemdee, I agree with staying away from those Funky Giraffes.

I believe Kingston is good memory, also.  Another brand to try is Crucial.  They have a tool to help you pick memory that will work with your computer.  If the tool recommends it, if it doesn't work, they will replace it with no additional cost to you.

Please let us know if the Kingston memory works for you.

Good luck!

[eyemdee]

2 new Kingston PC-4200 1Gb DIMMS arrived yesterday and were fitted last night.

Booted up straight away but the acid test was this morning after being shut off overnight. One touch of the button and it booted up perfectly. The memory has been stress tested using PC-Doctor 5 and appears to be fine.

The Funky Giraffe memory is going in the bin! Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction old_geekster.