Dead drive or MBT prob?

[sgscit]

Folks,

I have a PC with XP Home installed (trying to fix for a friend). The PC will run through POST but then just goes to a blank screen infinitely. I am unable to get to safe mode or even the safe mode selection screen.

I have run a mem test on the PC and swapped over the power supply to check that it was not either of these.

I booted under knoppix and am able to see the data on the PC.

When I installed the hdd into my pc it did exactly above to my machine, but then I am not sure if this is a SATA/PATA issue, as the machine the hdd is natively in is PATA only.

I am almost leaning towards a hardware issue as I had told the system cmos to boot from CD and FDD only. SATA is not an option for some reason under the bios that I can find.

Once I removed the hdd from my PC, it resumed operation as normal.

Any clues how I might get this machine operating again?

Cheers,

Pete

 

[wolluf]

Will it load recovery console? -

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654.

If it will, run chkdsk /r.

Have you tried hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility (usually on their website)?

Is their any history as to how this situation came about?

Hardware issue is definite possibility - you could try disconnecting everything you can (cards, CD/DVD, floppy, etc - turn off in bios if onboard).

Also - has the bios got a 'failsafe' setting you could try?

 

[sgscit]

Thanks wolluf. will get back to you on how it goes.

Pete

 

[sgscit]

History of the case:

Masses of Spyware and Virus threats. was getting errors all the time.

installed Norton AV and cleaned all viruses. manually cleaned spyware

installed service packs.
removed nic (nic was mine)
shut down reboot - ok - shutdown.

friend takes PC home - nothing - dead.

PC is currently running chkdsk /r

will update with what it returns.

Cheers,

Pete