Windows crashes and stalls after bios screen

[brokengod]

Hey teksters,

Last night my computer crashed (reset itself) while opening Firefox and since then will almost get to the point where it should display the windows logo and progress bar. I think that it actually shows it for a nanosecond before the screen goes blank with no further drive activity that I can detect.

I can get into the bios settings and it shows the hard drive etc. I tried to get the machine to boot a live version of Ubuntu to see if I could access the file system and backup some data, but it freezes during the mount process as well.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks

bg

 

[firewolfrl]

unplug and pull any extra cards in PCI slots on the Motherboard then unplug all but one optical drive (cd or DVD)this means both IDE/SATA cable and power plug from the drives
then unplug the floppy drive and harddrive

then load your live Ubuntu and see if it will boot
then plug in the floppy
then the harddrive
I am betting that your error reproduces when you plug in the harddrive

just to note...reverse and unplug the optical drive and test with harddrive


now I just have to wait till you have done all that and posted the results

 

[brokengod]

Cool,

I will try this tonight and see what's what.

Results to come!

 

[TheLad]

Also check that the hard drive is not making strange knocking (or ticking) noises. If it is, your hard disk may have developed a machanical fault

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"Insert funny comment in here!"
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[brokengod]

34 degrees Celsius in my house last night, so I thought it prudent to test the machine when I wasn't sweating onto the motherboard.

I couldn't hear much from the drive before, but when I test it as above with the machine open, I will check.

I might also make myself a garland of icecubes and put my jocks in the freezer...



i wish i had airconditioning

 

[firewolfrl]

follow my first post on this thread

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1322625

heat could be a major issue for you

 

[brokengod]

Did something sensible and whacked in Xp disc and did a repair job. Replaced the registry files with originals from repair folder and golly-whiskers, she is up and running!

Bad news is I have to reinstall vital programs, but at least the machine is working (faster too!) and I get to clear out some trash I didn't need.

Interestingly, the networking was stuffed, (ipconfig threw up errors) with no network cards or ADSL modems working. Found a quick fix by copying in my most recent, valid version of tcpip.sys on the c:\ to replace the corrupted system version and whack-a-doodle problem solv-ed!

Now the only problem I can sense is the damn DSL drops out whenever I click on the little disconnect usb device icon in the taskbar. I don't even have to select anything, just one click and bang, drop out! Connects immediately again, though just a curiosity. Serves me right for having a crap usb speedtouch modem. But it didn't do that before the crash...

Maybe the mobo drivers are not right or something...Anyway I appreciate the advice.

 

[firewolfrl]

installing the chipset drivers will help alot

 

[brokengod]

I installed the drivers from the disc that came with the machine, but I might download the most recent and give it a whirl.