My desktop suddenly behaving weired, after the bios screen the screen goes blank, no display of windows XP loading, If I insert a bootable XP CD and prompted to press any key, the screen goes blank again. I have a Ubuntu CD and I am able to use Ubuntu without installing. So doesn't seems to be hardware issue,Pls help
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- Thread starter arvindai
- Start date
Test your hard drive with the BIOS built in test and Ultimate Boot CD. Sounds like you have a bad hard drive but not a dead one as the BIOS and Windows CD can still see it.
Link to Ultimate Boot CD:
"Silence is golden, duct tape is silver...
Link to Ultimate Boot CD:
"Silence is golden, duct tape is silver...
I don't think there's any such thing as a BIOS built-in test, but some OEMs do install diagnostics, such as Dell. I don't recall for sure about the others. Is it an OEM build or custom build or what? (OEM = HP, Dell, Acer, etc)... custom build would describe anything if you can't find a label on it pretty much. ![[wink]](/data/assets/smilies/wink.gif "[wink] [wink]")
It does sound like your hard drive for sure, and the hdd tests on the Ultimate Boot CD should let you know that.
The reason is this: Ubuntu was running off the CD drive and RAM, never touching the hard drive since you didn't install, so you've eliminated that one piece of hardware.
The Windows CD is trying to recognize your hard drive, b/c it's trying to see where to install it... if it's having difficulty reading the drive info to tell what's raggedy there, whether you want to install, upgrade, repair, whatever, well it'll end up timing out and saying can't find the drive, or something else if you let it go long enough.. unless it just gets stuck, I suppose that's possible.
I'd quit testing, myself, buy a new hard drive if possible (assuming its yours), replace the old with the new (but don't just toss the old)... after installing Windows on the new, and getting it ready - updates, drivers, security, etc... then shut off the PC, reconnect the old on another cable (if SATA) or as a slave (if IDE / PATA), and try to copy any files that you still need off at possible.
The reason I say all that is if you keep trying to deal with the broken one, particularly with some types of damage, it will only get worse - so the more you test, the worse the damage will be. That's why I think it'd be best to cut the losses, so you hopefully can still recover some data.
It does sound like your hard drive for sure, and the hdd tests on the Ultimate Boot CD should let you know that.
The reason is this: Ubuntu was running off the CD drive and RAM, never touching the hard drive since you didn't install, so you've eliminated that one piece of hardware.
The Windows CD is trying to recognize your hard drive, b/c it's trying to see where to install it... if it's having difficulty reading the drive info to tell what's raggedy there, whether you want to install, upgrade, repair, whatever, well it'll end up timing out and saying can't find the drive, or something else if you let it go long enough.. unless it just gets stuck, I suppose that's possible.
I'd quit testing, myself, buy a new hard drive if possible (assuming its yours), replace the old with the new (but don't just toss the old)... after installing Windows on the new, and getting it ready - updates, drivers, security, etc... then shut off the PC, reconnect the old on another cable (if SATA) or as a slave (if IDE / PATA), and try to copy any files that you still need off at possible.
The reason I say all that is if you keep trying to deal with the broken one, particularly with some types of damage, it will only get worse - so the more you test, the worse the damage will be. That's why I think it'd be best to cut the losses, so you hopefully can still recover some data.
mscallisto
Technical User
NB:
Actually the POST (Power On Self Test)is sort of a Bios test as it provides BIOS diagnostic information in the form of POST and Beep codes.
Strictly for proving Im not insane(because after I listed the BIOS tests, I couldnt find anything supporting my claim even though I knew I had used em before):
On defense of the other side, not alot of BIOS's have those tests and the majority of the HDD tests are just advanced SMART tests so not all that good anyway.
"Silence is golden, duct tape is silver...
On defense of the other side, not alot of BIOS's have those tests and the majority of the HDD tests are just advanced SMART tests so not all that good anyway.
"Silence is golden, duct tape is silver...
goombawaho
MIS
Not sure that the majority of hard drive tests are related solely to SMART. Yes, they read/check the SMART status off the drive, but they also do read, seek and surface tests.
I would say that a SMART failure notification is like needing to go to the emergency room - meaning you have a real crisis. The manufacturer's hard drive test covers more items and may warn you of less impending doom.
I would never replace a drive unless I ran the manufacturer's test on it, unless it was clicking and would do nothing.
I would say that a SMART failure notification is like needing to go to the emergency room - meaning you have a real crisis. The manufacturer's hard drive test covers more items and may warn you of less impending doom.
I would never replace a drive unless I ran the manufacturer's test on it, unless it was clicking and would do nothing.
- Thread starter
- #8
I now have one old IDE(PATA) and when I used this hard disk which had windows 98 installed before gives error message -
Insufficent memory to initialize windows
Quit one or more memory resident programs from your config.sys and autoexec.bat files and restart your computer.
It shut down after tht.
Any Ideas?
Insufficent memory to initialize windows
Quit one or more memory resident programs from your config.sys and autoexec.bat files and restart your computer.
It shut down after tht.
Any Ideas?
goombawaho
MIS
Is this a separate question??? If so, start a new post.
Sounds like you are trying to run windows 98 on a different computer to which it was installed and/or the installation is screwed up.
Sounds like you are trying to run windows 98 on a different computer to which it was installed and/or the installation is screwed up.
- Thread starter
- #10
I installed the hard disk on the same system however I installed windows XP on this hard disk and apparently my other harddisk suddenly started working and booted from this after this. Seems like some system files were missing. Problem resolved.:-> Thanks all.
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