Home built PC which has worked for years will not boot past post. Scrolls through post than screen goes dark and hard drive does not run. I have gone to bios and saved safe settings,no change. The monitor is getting signal (power light stays green). Hard drive does show a little activity when power/post is going but stops when it's time to bring up Win XP screen splash. Ideas? Suggestions? I've checked SATA and power cables. Don't see anything obvious. I'm thinking it's time for a new build.
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PC won't boot 2
- Thread starter Textron68
- Start date
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- #2
rclarke250
Technical User
Is the hard drive seen in bios? Can you boot from the windows cd/dvd? Time to get some hard drive tools and run the diagnostics.
Download and run the manufacturers hard drive diagnostics for the drive you own. If you don't know who made it, Seatools,and Drive fitness tools will work for any drive to test it, but the other tools will be locked to only supported drives.
Download and run the manufacturers hard drive diagnostics for the drive you own. If you don't know who made it, Seatools,and Drive fitness tools will work for any drive to test it, but the other tools will be locked to only supported drives.
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- #3
I agree, run the HDD diag tools first...
as it sounds that it is going through POST just fine, but falters on the HDD, which indicates a problem with the drive itself...
once the drive testing is done, you can then troubleshoot from there...
keep us updated to the situation, e.g. what do the diag tools indicate, etc...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
as it sounds that it is going through POST just fine, but falters on the HDD, which indicates a problem with the drive itself...
once the drive testing is done, you can then troubleshoot from there...
keep us updated to the situation, e.g. what do the diag tools indicate, etc...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
- Thread starter
- #4
- Thread starter
- #5
OK, so the drive is a WD and the short test passed so I moved on to memory tests. I found one bad memory module and pulled it out and tried to boot. stops at same point (no change). So now I am running the long test on the drive, will take an hour before it completes.
The point that it stops is after the PCI pool data and goes to Verifying DMI pool data...
With the CD boot loader it goes on to read the CD, but it does not go to the hard drive. Possibly corruption in the drive boot sector? After I finish running the long drive test, I will have to dig out the Win XP CD and work with that I guess.
The point that it stops is after the PCI pool data and goes to Verifying DMI pool data...
With the CD boot loader it goes on to read the CD, but it does not go to the hard drive. Possibly corruption in the drive boot sector? After I finish running the long drive test, I will have to dig out the Win XP CD and work with that I guess.
ok, first thing to try would be a rewrite of the MBR...
this should be done through the Recovery Console, before trying anything rash...
see the following link:
How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
skip down to "How to use the Recovery Console", after by-passing the Mr. FixIt popup by Microsoft...
once at the command prompt type the following commands:
fixmbr
then: fixboot
Note:
before doing that, you may try to use a Linux LiveCD first, e.g. Parted Magic, to see if you can access the drive and navigate to the Windows folder, then to SYSTEM32 folder and see if all files are present... there are some malware out there that can delete everything in that folder, or through some strange alignments of the planets the files disappeared (seen many PCs where that folder was empty and caused the same symptoms you describe, cause unknown thus the little quip with the planetary alignment ;-))...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
this should be done through the Recovery Console, before trying anything rash...
see the following link:
How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
skip down to "How to use the Recovery Console", after by-passing the Mr. FixIt popup by Microsoft...
once at the command prompt type the following commands:
fixmbr
then: fixboot
Note:
before doing that, you may try to use a Linux LiveCD first, e.g. Parted Magic, to see if you can access the drive and navigate to the Windows folder, then to SYSTEM32 folder and see if all files are present... there are some malware out there that can delete everything in that folder, or through some strange alignments of the planets the files disappeared (seen many PCs where that folder was empty and caused the same symptoms you describe, cause unknown thus the little quip with the planetary alignment ;-))...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
- Thread starter
- #7
@rclarke - The boot CD helped ID bad memory... Star for you on that.
@Ben - fixmbr then: fixboot.... Star for that.
Problem Solved!!!
Now to scan for malware... My wife goes to several places for game hacks that I've always got to clean up after.
Then off to newegg for memory.
Thanks for the push!!!
@Ben - fixmbr then: fixboot.... Star for that.
Problem Solved!!!
Now to scan for malware... My wife goes to several places for game hacks that I've always got to clean up after.
Then off to newegg for memory.
Thanks for the push!!!
glad to hear that you are up and running...
and thank you for updating the situation...
some suggestion, on the anti-malware front, that most members here would agree upon (and in case you do not have it already)...
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
SUPERAntiSpyware
are just two great applications in fighting malware...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
and thank you for updating the situation...
some suggestion, on the anti-malware front, that most members here would agree upon (and in case you do not have it already)...
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
SUPERAntiSpyware
are just two great applications in fighting malware...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
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