I?ve got an interesting problem, any suggestions would be appreciated. I?ve had a computer for nearly a year with no problems then all of a sudden they begin. During regular activities computer will suddenly crash. Upon rebooting, I get a Disk Boot Failure, Insert system disk?It gets through the RAID check and to DMI (usually for only a second). Then NVIDIA Boot Agent starts up, checks MAC address etc. then proceeds to DHCP. After some time, it exits boot agent and gives the disk boot failure.
I can ‘fix’ this problem by shutting computer off for an hour+. After that, I can usually start up without problems. Sometimes, it will boot past DMI, then tell me computer was shut down wrong and prompt for reboot option. No matter how I reboot, it will get to the Windows boot screen, then crash. Repeat. I’m pretty sure my boot sector has been corrupted. Problems continually reoccur (not being able to boot to Windows), not always the same error, but the same result. Most of the time I’ve had to use the Repair on Windows CD to create a new boot sector, that is, if the CD can even detect my Windows partition at all. Sometimes it says there is no valid partition.
Occasionally when I shut computer off; not restart, and start back up again, I see columns of pixel blocks across the screen. Columns are stationary, but change color whenever text (or in Windows, the mouse) moves on screen. Temporarily fix for problem is to shut down computer, reset CMOS and reboot.
System Details:
Asus A7N8X-Deluxe / Athlon XP 2600+
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM Fluid Dynamic Bearing / Western Digital 40GB 7200RPM
350w Enermax EG365P-VE Dual Fan
Windows XP Professional
Troubleshooting Performed:
Installed motherboard temperature checking utility, CPU never went over 42 deg
Ran CPU / Memory stability program for 17 hours without a problem.
Updated BIOS to most recent version
Cleaned each component / Re-applied Arctic Silver compound
Changed IDE cables
