Computer stops at initializing Plug and Play cards at startup

my computer stops at the initializing plug and play cards at the start up. how can i fix this?

This question was answered on October 29, 2004. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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Is the power cable for the monitor plugged in correctly? Is the monitor turned on? Is the

cable from the video card to the monitor plugged in correctly? Is the video card seated

properly? Take the cover off of the case, remove the video card and insert it again

properly, then try again

If everything is connected and powered up correctly, push the power button again and pay

close attention: do any lights on the front of the PC blink or light up? Does the fan in

the power supply start whirring? This could indicate a hardware problem Try to think

what happened right before the problem started Did you add a new piece of hardware? If

so, it might be faulty or not installed right Remove it, then try again If everything

is fine without the hardware, try to reinstall and configure the hardware again If that

does not help, try exchanging it and see if that corrects the problem If the error

persists, narrow it down systematically Remove everything but the CPU, memory, keyboard,

and video card, then boot again Does the error still occur? If not, then add one piece

of hardware and try again Repeat until one new component causes the error and you now

know who the culprit is If yes, then reseat your CPU, memory and video card and try

again If the error still happens, try replacing the CPU, video card and memory one by

one to see if one of them is the troublemaker If that does not help, you could have a

bad motherboard Check the motherboard carefully for any signs of damage Also check for

shorts, a metallic object could have found its way onto the motherboard, or the

motherboard is not installed correctly and touches the case somewhere

Another possible cause could be incorrect CPU settings If you replaced the CPU with a

different one, be sure to choose the correct settings for multiplier and bus speed,

either via jumpers on the motherboard or a menu in the BIOS Consult the manual for the

correct setup If you can't even get into the BIOS to change the settings, use the jumper

on the motherboard to clear the BIOS and load the default settings, it should allow you

to boot

You turned the system on, it went through the POST process, but then it stops, does not

continue to boot, and you see no error messages This could be caused by several things

Is the hard drive that you are trying to boot from, partitioned, formatted, and have an

active partition? Use a boot floppy to boot to a DOS prompt, then use the FDISK command

to check the partition information on the drive(s)

About the author

Posted by gilbert of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on October 29, 2004

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