cpu dying?

[farout]

Hello all - a strange thing happened the other day ( two days in fact ). On startup
the screen stayed on the bios for a few minutes then loaded windows. Normally the bios screen is only on for a few seconds. Windows loaded and
seemed to be fine. However the reset switch which normally flashes when the
hard drive is being accessed stayed on. A reboot didn't do anything. The next day
it was the same thing. Local Radio Shack dude said that the cpu is getting ready
to die. Yesterday and today all is back to normal. And no, the interior is not full
of dust. Is my $$$ cpu ill or is it something not so drastic?
Mike

win7 64
i7 920 cpu 2.67 mHz
6gB RAM
500gB drive
1tB usb drive for backup

 

[seth500]

That happens to my computer from time to time and it's not from the cpu dying, when the cpu goes it goes. I have never known one just to slowly die. Sometimes after a hard reboot of my system it will hang on the bios screen until the system regains it's bearings sort of speak. I don't think you have any major problems but the size of the drive powering up could do that also, it's nothing to fret over...

 

[farout]

thanks

Thanks for your input, that sets my mind:sarc: at ease....
Mike

 

[Dwarf]

A CPU is one of those components that either works or it doesn't. Your problem with staying on the BIOS screen for longer than normal could point to potential hardware issue(s), namely one or more hardware items failing to report themselves correctly when interrogated as part of the BIOS POST process. What I would do to begin with is to enter your BIOS and turn off the Quick Boot option. This means that the POST will take longer, but it also means that its progress will also be displayed on the screen, and you should be able see where the process is hanging, or being delayed longer than normal.

 

[mjf]

It appears the BIOS is taking longer in POST. I don't see how this relates to a failing CPU.
I find the largest variablity in POST times involves USB peripherals, particularly HDDs. For example, it takes a noticeable (but livable) amount of time for my POST to wake up and check a partitioned 1 TB ext USB HDD. I generally plug them in after boot.

 

[SLeePYG72786]

I had a similar problem while working on my mom's PC. It had an IDE hard drive and optical drive on the same cable - which meant that the hard drive was set to Master and the optical was set to Slave. We upgraded the optical from IDE to SATA, and after running into the POST screen stalling issue a couple of times, I finally drove myself to remove the hard drive and check the jumpers on it. Yep, it was still set to Master with Slave present. Just set it to Master or Single Drive Only and now it zips right past the POST screen.

Hopefully this can help either you or someone else. It's such an obvious and basic thing to check that I just overlooked it trying to delve deeper into the problem. o.o