My computer hangs up during the POST process, and I'm not sure whether to downgrade my BIOS (someone else suggested it to me) or check something else. I've been using the newest BIOS for about a month now, and this is the first time I've had an error booting.

Specifically I see it hang up when it shows the Memory Testing message appear (it doesn't complete the message, stops at "Memory T" ), but I've already taken both sticks of memory out and put them in my second computer, a Dell, and it works perfectly fine, so its not a memory issue.

Last night my computer took unusually long to power down (took so long that I just hard booted it off, and just a little while ago was the first time trying to turn it back on). Everything in it is running, sounds the same, just don't know what's wrong.

I've reset the jumpers to clear my CMOS and now instead of freezing on the POST screen it freezes on my Gigabyte Motherboard screen.

The whole system is less than 2 months old and haven't given me any problems until now, no overclocking done on it either.

Specs.

Sorry about that:

CPU: Intel Q6600G0
Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R
Video Card: NVIDIA 9800GTX
RAM: 2 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek HDT S1283
HD: 2 Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB
PSU: PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE
OS: Windows XP Pro 32-Bit

You don't need a new bios cuz Q6600 has been out for ages. If your bios is beta, roll back to a stable one.

Crucial is said to have cheapened out on their ram so the chips aren't micron d9 anymore. Try each stick in each slot to get the pc to post, then set up ram to specs in bios. Most important being vdimm 2.1v. If that doesn't work, beg or borrow a DDR2 stick from a friend/neighbor, get the settings right in bios, swap out ram.

Also, try loosen timings up to 5-5-5-15@2T. Or even at 533Mhz, which is the stock ram speed for that cpu.

I've tried swapping the RAM around, and even used it in another computer perfectly fine.....I guess I'll try my old 667MHZ RAM and see if that works, but I'm not sure if my mobo will take that brand.

Everything is at stock, I haven't been able to overclock with my mobo at all.

But my BIOS is a beta, it was the latest at the time (only about a month old) so I will roll it back to the version that was shipped. That was what I was thinking it was, thanks for the confirmation.

Update: Well, I haven't flashed it back to F2 yet. It won't read my USB drive on bootup, so I need to put it on a floppy and find a floppy drive to use.

What I found out when leaving it on was that it will power on EVENTUALLY (after about 5 minutes it'll finish its POST, in another 5 minutes it'll load windows, and in another 5 minutes it'll go to my desktop). Is this a hard drive issue or still BIOS related? I don't know what could be bogging it down this severely. Powering off is the same. I get the Ending Task popup for about every service before it powers off, and then it takes about 10 minutes to turn off completely.