Boot Failure

[Tom11]

HP Pavilion zv5000, Win XP Home, Sp.2. Machine was running perfectly, however on a recent boot-up it defaulted to the boot menu. The message was that the machine hadn't shut down properly last time, although it seemed normal at the time. I chose L.K.G. and the machine booted fine. It hasn't started since that shutdown, which again seemed perfectly normal. It gets to the BIOS splash screen and halts, staying powered on with a blank screen. There is no HDD activity. I can get to F8, and the BIOS. I tried the HDD Self-test in the BIOS, but I see no drive activity. F8 is almost useless, since the machine won't boot to any of the choices. Bootlogging, however, did indicate that it wouldn't start because pci.sys was corrupt and to use Repair option from CD. Windows Setup on CD begins to load, but fails after loading the Executive, and the HAL. It never finishes loading the Kernel Debugger, so I'm left staring at a blue screen and can't get to Repair. I'm beginning to think that it's the drive controller that failed, but I'm hoping that I'm wrong and somebody has a solution I haven't thought of.

Any help greatly appreciated.....Thanks in advance.

 

[G0AOZ]

First off, make sure you've a full backup of important data, and if necessary take an image of the drive. Do this by slaving the hard disk to another machine, and at the same time you'll be able to tell if the drive is working or corrupted.

Reset the BIOS to manufacturer's defaults, and run MEMTEST86 or similar to check the RAM. You should also check the IDE data cables - substitute for known good ones. Try a change of PSU, although I'm not sure the problem is in this area.

Temporarily install a known good blank hard drive into the HP, and see if you can start a Windows install. Doing this usually gives the system a reasonable test. If that fails, then substitute the CD drive, then look to the motherboard for the possible source of the problem.

I had a similar problem with a Packard Bell - Primary IDE interface started to go bad and would allow machine to boot. Swapped CD and HDD over so that PC now boots off the secondary IDE. It's a temporary fix until user decides upon a replacement PC...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[Tom11]

ROGER - G0AOZ, thanks for the ideas. The computer is a laptop so some of the things you suggest will be a little difficult, but I'll try what I can.

 

[wahnula]

First step in laptop troubleshooting is remove the battery, remove from wall AC, and hold the power button for 30-45 seconds to discharge caps. Probably won;t work but worth a shot.

It may be something as simple as a loose connection or HDD, let's stay optimistic. Roger has a good point...first step should be HDD removal and cloning to a third drive. You can get 2.5" -3.5" drive adapters cheap. Avoid the temptation to browse the old HDD, it might just have a few minutes of life left, clone or copy it before messing around.

Reinstall it in the laptop, making sure it is well seated, reseat RAM, see what happens. Try booting to Windows CD again. Hopefully you can at least get your data off.

Tony

 

[burtsbees]

There are also 2 1/2" hdd USB enclosures out there, for anywhere between $10-$25. If the hdd is not fried, you can get data off of it that way.

Burt