Hi,

I have a problem with my PC. RUNNING on Windows XP Pro What happens is that when i re-started it, all i can see from the monitor is the very first screen (the screen that tells you what motherboard is running, the ram, etc and at the bottom, there is instruction to press "DEL" to enter the setup. The screen that comes up as soon as the machine is switched on. I hope i explained it well so far. It then sits there and will not move at all.

I hope this is not the symptom of the need to replace the motherboard. It was working really well before i turned it off. The reason i turned it off was to find out where the noise is coming from. It was the fan for the case. But that is all.

How do i test this or at least narrow down the issue?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry, I do not have the detail of the motherboard at the moment.

Thank you in advance


Did you clean your machine out when you had it opened? It shows almost like its over heating and locking up. Does the fan over your CPU work?

Thanks Spoiler for your reply.

I did not clean it when i open it up. All i did was that i put in just a tiny drop on to the fan of the case because it was making some noise. I thought by dropping a drip of oil (it is oil from sewing machine). But i did make sure no spill on the motherboard by placing a piece of tissue on the bottom of the fan. Then, i cleaned up the fan by the same tissue, and put the case back on again. Then, i plugged in all the WIRED to the back of the case and started it.

If this is due to over-heating, what should i do? should i wait until it's cooled down or?

The fan over the CPU is working.

I am getting a bit worried now. This just happens to be the machine that i use for our file storage.

Thank you in advanceCase fan, power supply fan, or CPU fan?Thanks for your reply, Computer_Commando.

It is the case fan.Hi,

Can anyone help please?

Thank youRemove the case fan paying attention to where it's connected to...
Take it with you to a PC STORE and get a replacement.Hi Patio,

Thanks for your reply.

When i posted this issue on day 1, it was almost in the evening (which is about time to go home from work). So I left it there thinking i would look at it again the next day. Then, i posted this to the forum.

On day2, i came back early in the morning, i tried my luck to see if it worked. To my surprise, it worked fine. It loaded up Windows XP with no problem. So i thought this is good. But this time, i went to get the new case fan and replace the old case fan. I left it there running for almost hours and then for some reason, i shut it down. I re-started it in the afternoon the same day, the same problem came back again. It stuck on the first screen. I did not know what to do. It was almost 4 o clock in the afternoon. I thought i looked it again the next day just to see it might work again.

Guess what, today is day 3. When i turned it on, it worked fine again. This time, i re-started it to see if it stop working again. But it worked although it said something like "System boot failed" - Enter setup..." something may overclock. That is what i can remember. I then went into setup by pressing "Del" at the bootup, exited without change. This time, i LET it run for 20 minutes. Then, shut it down and restarted it. The same problem occurred again. It stays on the first screen and does not move at all.

Wonder what kind of symptom that is.

I bet you - if i leave it off for the whole night and come back tomorrow, it will work again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thank you in advance

Intermittent problems are the toughest to diagnose properly...

I would borrow a KNOWN good PSU of the same or greater wattage and swap it in there to see if that's the culprit.