Another Computer Problem Thread

[Eaglesfan27]

My brand new computer (only a month old) has out of the blue refused to finish turning on. I see the motherboard info at the top of the screen and then I see all of the following before it just stops doing anything:

Press Del to run setup
Press F8 for BBS Popup
Press Alt-F2 to execute ASUS Ez Flash 2
DDR3-1333 MHz (I thought it usually says ok after this, but I'm not sure. Right now it says nothing else on this line.)
Initializing USB Controllers... Done
12280 MB Ok


That is all it says and then it appears to hang. I do get one short beep as it is turning on with no other post code. Also, the keyboard/computer remains responsive to key presses. If I press Del, it changes that line to setup will be run. Same if I press F8.

Any ideas? I'll be unable to respond to this thread until tonight as I'm about to head off to work in 5 minutes and work no longer allows me to surf FOFC (or many other sites.)

[cartman]

If you thought it used to say OK after the memory, but now it doesn't, check the BIOS to see if there is a memory test you can run.

[RomaGoth]

My advice is return it to the place you bought it or at least have them fix it. Your computer should still be under warranty, there really is no reason to do anything yourself unless the warranty is expired. It sounds like something with the BIOS and/or operating system not loading properly. Also could be a problem with your memory (RAM) I suppose.

In any case, that is what I would do.

[johnnyshaka]

Unplug any and all USB devices you have attached to your computer...mouse, keyboard, external hard drives, printers, scanners, etc...and see if that will allow it to boot further.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by RomaGoth

My advice is return it to the place you bought it or at least have them fix it. Your computer should still be under warranty, there really is no reason to do anything yourself unless the warranty is expired. It sounds like something with the BIOS and/or operating system not loading properly. Also could be a problem with your memory (RAM) I suppose.

In any case, that is what I would do.

I got it from ibuypower.com. It has a 1 year warranty, but their service isn't quick. If I ship it back, I'd expect it to be gone 3-4 weeks. Still, I'll probably call them and see what trouble shooting they say to do.

Originally Posted by cartman

If you thought it used to say OK after the memory, but now it doesn't, check the BIOS to see if there is a memory test you can run.

I'll see if I can get that to work.

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

Unplug any and all USB devices you have attached to your computer...mouse, keyboard, external hard drives, printers, scanners, etc...and see if that will allow it to boot further.

This seems like a nice easy step. I'll try that in a few minutes.

[Eaglesfan27]

This is so odd. At least a half dozen times it would not turn on properly, always freezing at the same spot. I read the owner's manual for my mother board and was trying to get to the Bios menu, but I missed pressing the delete button in time. So, as per the manual, I hit Ctr-Alt-Del and it rebooted the computer. That reboot seemed to have done something as it loaded fine and went into the Bios menu. There was no memory test there that I could find, but I exited the Bios and it loaded fine except that some USB driver was updating when the computer first came on. I have no idea if this had anything to do with my issue, or I have a larger issue brewing, but the computer seems to be running fine again even after I just did a "restart."

Oh yeah, the next step in the boot order is for some USB devices to register and then the drives, so maybe that was the issue. *Confused shrug.*

[gstelmack]

There are some bad behaving USB devices out there...

[Eaglesfan27]

Odd update:

FOF 2k7 has always worked well on my new computer, but now I'm getting something called "Data Execution Prevention" that is preventing FOF 2k7 from running. About to do a search on here, but anyone know what is up with that?

[the_meanstrosity]

I just found this using google...don't know if it explains your problem though.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Odd update:

FOF 2k7 has always worked well on my new computer, but now I'm getting something called "Data Execution Prevention" that is preventing FOF 2k7 from running. About to do a search on here, but anyone know what is up with that?

[gstelmack]

Data Execution Prevention prevents an executable from trying to "run" memory locations marked as data. It's a security feature. When is it happening, on launch? If so it may have something to do with how elicense works. If it's when you try to play a game, something may have corrupted the save file and it is causing issues inside FOF.

You can turn off DEP on a per-application basis I think, but I don't remember how.

[gstelmack]

Ah, going back up the list of the earlier problems, I strongly suspect you have some bad RAM. This would be one indicator.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Data Execution Prevention prevents an executable from trying to "run" memory locations marked as data. It's a security feature. When is it happening, on launch? If so it may have something to do with how elicense works. If it's when you try to play a game, something may have corrupted the save file and it is causing issues inside FOF.

You can turn off DEP on a per-application basis I think, but I don't remember how.

The DEP was happening before launch. It was shutting the program down before it even started.

I've managed to turn off DEP for FOF 2k7, but now I'm getting the message about needing to run FOF 2k7 as an administrator. I'm going into the appropriate folder and right clicking to run as an administrator and absolutely nothing is happening. I'm going to try re-installing it and see if that helps.

Even after re-install, when I click "run as administrator" for FOF 2k7 absolutely nothing happens. All of my other games appear to be working fine right now.

[Eaglesfan27]

This is driving me crazy. No idea why it keeps doing absolutely nothing when I try to run FOF as an administrator.

Greg (or anyone else), any suggestions on a good program to test for bad RAM?

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

Here is the "problem report" that was generated when DEP was shutting down the program:

Problem Event Name: BEX
Application Name: FrFoot2007.exe
Application Version: 5.0.0.1
Application Timestamp: 48e96bc4
Fault Module Name: elicen40.dll
Fault Module Version: 4.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 3d86b216
Exception Offset: 00025001
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Data: 00000008
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: e51a
Additional Information 2: 4c0d4d78887f76d971d5d00f1f20a433
Additional Information 3: e51a
Additional Information 4: 4c0d4d78887f76d971d5d00f1f20a433

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

I tried to run the memory diagnostic tool that is included with Vista and I got this error message:

File: \boot\memtext.exe

Status: 0xc000000e

Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.



I'm guessing this is another sign that I might have some bad RAM?

[gstelmack]

The fault dialog shows that it is elicense having the issue. Usually you have to run once as administrator to get the licensing done and that is it. You may want to try turning off DEP for the elicense DLL if you can.

I don't think I've ever been able to run Vista's memory tester ever myself.

There is one called memtest86, but they do not have a 64-bit version.

When you pin something down to RAM, the best way to diagnose is to pull all the modules, put one back in, boot, redo test. Do that for each module, and if the test fails (like launching FOF or whatever), that module is probably bad. If all modules fail, it's probably the motherboard or something else, but typically you'll find one faulty one that you can get replaced.

Or you'll find like in my case that all 3 pass, and your system is once again stable, which means one of them was a bit loose and reseating them fixed the problem. Reseating cards/memory and replugging cables has fixed more computer issues than pretty much any other diagnostic technique.

You could also have something corrupting the hard drive, but that could also be bad memory written to disk, and that would not have affected your boot sequence.

[SirFozzie]

Completely turn off DEP if you can, it's a pain in the fucking ass.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

The fault dialog shows that it is elicense having the issue. Usually you have to run once as administrator to get the licensing done and that is it. You may want to try turning off DEP for the elicense DLL if you can.

I don't think I've ever been able to run Vista's memory tester ever myself.

There is one called memtest86, but they do not have a 64-bit version.

When you pin something down to RAM, the best way to diagnose is to pull all the modules, put one back in, boot, redo test. Do that for each module, and if the test fails (like launching FOF or whatever), that module is probably bad. If all modules fail, it's probably the motherboard or something else, but typically you'll find one faulty one that you can get replaced.

Or you'll find like in my case that all 3 pass, and your system is once again stable, which means one of them was a bit loose and reseating them fixed the problem. Reseating cards/memory and replugging cables has fixed more computer issues than pretty much any other diagnostic technique.

You could also have something corrupting the hard drive, but that could also be bad memory written to disk, and that would not have affected your boot sequence.

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Completely turn off DEP if you can, it's a pain in the fucking ass.

Thank you! Turning DEP off (except for essential processes) made the game work just fine again. I guess it was messing with elicense.

Thanks Greg, if I see any more oddness, I'll try to do what you suggested. Like I said, except for this DEP fiasco and the bootup issue the other day, everything appears to be working perfectly on my computer.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Completely turn off DEP if you can, it's a pain in the fucking ass.

That's because developers like their cute little tricks too much to actually write stable, correct code