I hope someone here can help me with a problem that I am having with
my main home computer. I can't boot it.
The machine is a Core 2 Duo 6600 at 2.4 GHz with 2 GB RAM. It has been
working perfectly ever since I built it. It is running WinXP sp3 with
all the current patches via CTUpdate. It has 2 HDs: a WD 320GB boot
drive and a WD 1TB storage drive.
What suddenly started happening is this: I found it with a flashing
underscore on a black screen in the upper left corner one morning. I
usually keep the machine on 24/7 and there may have been a power
failure causing a reboot overnight. This is the underscore symbol seen
after POST and BIOS check on booting that goes away when Windows
loads. Only this wont go away. There are no messages, just a black
screen with a flashing underscore. I looked at the post data and bios
data and they look fine; all drives are present and Hard Drive
Sentinal said that all drives were perfect prior to this problem
developing. Fans are all working so I doubt overheating. .
What do I do next? I'm thinking that maybe it cant find the MBR, but I
would expect some kind of error message.
"BingBong" <pmc@naughty.monkey.com> wrote in message
news:cp8jc416ho68u4bnhpfuoicqa7ohju9n27@4ax.com...
> Help!!
>
> I hope someone here can help me with a problem that I am having with
> my main home computer. I can't boot it.
>
> The machine is a Core 2 Duo 6600 at 2.4 GHz with 2 GB RAM. It has been
> working perfectly ever since I built it. It is running WinXP sp3 with
> all the current patches via CTUpdate. It has 2 HDs: a WD 320GB boot
> drive and a WD 1TB storage drive.
>
> What suddenly started happening is this: I found it with a flashing
> underscore on a black screen in the upper left corner one morning. I
> usually keep the machine on 24/7 and there may have been a power
> failure causing a reboot overnight. This is the underscore symbol seen
> after POST and BIOS check on booting that goes away when Windows
> loads. Only this wont go away. There are no messages, just a black
> screen with a flashing underscore. I looked at the post data and bios
> data and they look fine; all drives are present and Hard Drive
> Sentinal said that all drives were perfect prior to this problem
> developing. Fans are all working so I doubt overheating. .
If your PC starts and works OK with a borrowed monitor,
this indicates your monitor was damaged by the overnight event.
If your monitor (and KB and mouse) test OK, you must test
the hard drive, e.g. booting from a CD. If the HD tests OK,
you may still need to repair or reinstal the OS. If your motherboard
is damaged the HD may still be reusable. The OP did not say
whether you use a surge protector, UPS etc.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
BingBong wrote:
> Help!!
>
> I hope someone here can help me with a problem that I am having with
> my main home computer. I can't boot it.
>
> The machine is a Core 2 Duo 6600 at 2.4 GHz with 2 GB RAM. It has been
> working perfectly ever since I built it. It is running WinXP sp3 with
> all the current patches via CTUpdate. It has 2 HDs: a WD 320GB boot
> drive and a WD 1TB storage drive.
>
> What suddenly started happening is this: I found it with a flashing
> underscore on a black screen in the upper left corner one morning. I
> usually keep the machine on 24/7 and there may have been a power
> failure causing a reboot overnight. This is the underscore symbol seen
> after POST and BIOS check on booting that goes away when Windows
> loads. Only this wont go away. There are no messages, just a black
> screen with a flashing underscore. I looked at the post data and bios
> data and they look fine; all drives are present and Hard Drive
> Sentinal said that all drives were perfect prior to this problem
> developing. Fans are all working so I doubt overheating. .
>
> What do I do next? I'm thinking that maybe it cant find the MBR, but I
> would expect some kind of error message.
>
> Can someone please help me here???
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> BingBong
Have you checked the BIOS settings ? Sometimes my boot settings
have got corrupted. (An "overclocking failure", as detected and
defined by an Asus designed motherboard, may cause the BIOS settings
to get reset - and could be instigated by a power failure. Always
verify the BIOS settings when strange stuff happens.)
As Don suggests, you can methodically test subsystems, to get a picture
of what has failed. It sounds like the BIOS is getting stuck on something.
I use:
1) Memtest86+ for testing memory.
2) Disk manufacturer test for the hard drive. (SMART failures, etc.)
3) Linux boot CD (Knoppix or Ubuntu), to verify the hardware works
with a different OS. Those two CDs won't install anything, and even
if the hard drive is broken, they should still boot from a CD drive.
Prime95 (mersenne.org) as a stress test, to check CPU stability.
4) There is always Testdisk, if you need to do some disk maintenance.
So far, the monitor, keybd and mouse all check out as working. BIOS
settings are all OK right now. After it first happened, the Boot
Sequence Order had changed so that floppy drive was first, but there
was no change after changing the order back to HD first.
Excellent suggestions about using a Linux live CD to testout the whole
system. I will get to that and all the other suggestions this weekend.
However, this seems to be more along the lines of corrupted MBR or
Boot.ini. I just don't know how to fix it.
Thanks,
BingBong
On Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:10:32 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.com> wrote:
>BingBong wrote:
>> Help!!
>>
>> I hope someone here can help me with a problem that I am having with
>> my main home computer. I can't boot it.
>>
>> The machine is a Core 2 Duo 6600 at 2.4 GHz with 2 GB RAM. It has been
>> working perfectly ever since I built it. It is running WinXP sp3 with
>> all the current patches via CTUpdate. It has 2 HDs: a WD 320GB boot
>> drive and a WD 1TB storage drive.
>>
>> What suddenly started happening is this: I found it with a flashing
>> underscore on a black screen in the upper left corner one morning. I
>> usually keep the machine on 24/7 and there may have been a power
>> failure causing a reboot overnight. This is the underscore symbol seen
>> after POST and BIOS check on booting that goes away when Windows
>> loads. Only this wont go away. There are no messages, just a black
>> screen with a flashing underscore. I looked at the post data and bios
>> data and they look fine; all drives are present and Hard Drive
>> Sentinal said that all drives were perfect prior to this problem
>> developing. Fans are all working so I doubt overheating. .
>>
>> What do I do next? I'm thinking that maybe it cant find the MBR, but I
>> would expect some kind of error message.
>>
>> Can someone please help me here???
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> BingBong
>
>Have you checked the BIOS settings ? Sometimes my boot settings
>have got corrupted. (An "overclocking failure", as detected and
>defined by an Asus designed motherboard, may cause the BIOS settings
>to get reset - and could be instigated by a power failure. Always
>verify the BIOS settings when strange stuff happens.)
>
>As Don suggests, you can methodically test subsystems, to get a picture
>of what has failed. It sounds like the BIOS is getting stuck on something.
>
>I use:
>
>1) Memtest86+ for testing memory.
>2) Disk manufacturer test for the hard drive. (SMART failures, etc.)
>3) Linux boot CD (Knoppix or Ubuntu), to verify the hardware works
> with a different OS. Those two CDs won't install anything, and even
> if the hard drive is broken, they should still boot from a CD drive.
> Prime95 (mersenne.org) as a stress test, to check CPU stability.
>4) There is always Testdisk, if you need to do some disk maintenance.
>
> http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
> http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download
>
>HTH,
> Paul
"BingBong" <BingBong@naughty.monkey.com> wrote in message
news:42kkc4ht5tcq7f9umchq3eckpl7olg3n6v@4ax.com...
> BIOS settings are all OK right now. After it first happened, the Boot
> Sequence Order had changed so that floppy drive was first, but there
> was no change after changing the order back to HD first.
You have not thought this through. . . . We list the floppy
first so that, to change bootup arrangements, we can put
in a customised floppy, and for normal boots leave that
drive empty. If we list the HD first: because there is
always a HD present, this guarantees we can never
boot from a CD or a floppy.
The usual boot order is
1 floppy drive
2 CD drive
3 Hard drive
which ensures we can boot from any of these, depending
on what disks we may have put in either drive.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
On Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:25:00 -0400, BingBong thoughfully wrote:
> Thanks for the suggestiions.
>
> So far, the monitor, keybd and mouse all check out as working. BIOS
> settings are all OK right now. After it first happened, the Boot
> Sequence Order had changed so that floppy drive was first, but there was
> no change after changing the order back to HD first.
>
> Excellent suggestions about using a Linux live CD to testout the whole
> system. I will get to that and all the other suggestions this weekend.
> However, this seems to be more along the lines of corrupted MBR or
> Boot.ini. I just don't know how to fix it.
>
> Thanks,
>
> BingBong
>
> On Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:10:32 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.com> wrote:
>
>>BingBong wrote:
>>> Help!!
>>>
>>> I hope someone here can help me with a problem that I am having with
>>> my main home computer. I can't boot it.
>>>
>>> The machine is a Core 2 Duo 6600 at 2.4 GHz with 2 GB RAM. It has been
>>> working perfectly ever since I built it. It is running WinXP sp3 with
>>> all the current patches via CTUpdate. It has 2 HDs: a WD 320GB boot
>>> drive and a WD 1TB storage drive.
>>>
>>> What suddenly started happening is this: I found it with a flashing
>>> underscore on a black screen in the upper left corner one morning. I
>>> usually keep the machine on 24/7 and there may have been a power
>>> failure causing a reboot overnight. This is the underscore symbol seen
>>> after POST and BIOS check on booting that goes away when Windows
>>> loads. Only this wont go away. There are no messages, just a black
>>> screen with a flashing underscore. I looked at the post data and bios
>>> data and they look fine; all drives are present and Hard Drive
>>> Sentinal said that all drives were perfect prior to this problem
>>> developing. Fans are all working so I doubt overheating. .
>>>
>>> What do I do next? I'm thinking that maybe it cant find the MBR, but I
>>> would expect some kind of error message.
>>>
>>> Can someone please help me here???
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance,
>>>
>>> BingBong
>>
>>Have you checked the BIOS settings ? Sometimes my boot settings have got
>>corrupted. (An "overclocking failure", as detected and defined by an
>>Asus designed motherboard, may cause the BIOS settings to get reset -
>>and could be instigated by a power failure. Always verify the BIOS
>>settings when strange stuff happens.)
>>
>>As Don suggests, you can methodically test subsystems, to get a picture
>>of what has failed. It sounds like the BIOS is getting stuck on
>>something.
>>
>>I use:
>>
>>1) Memtest86+ for testing memory.
>>2) Disk manufacturer test for the hard drive. (SMART failures, etc.) 3)
>>Linux boot CD (Knoppix or Ubuntu), to verify the hardware works
>> with a different OS. Those two CDs won't install anything, and even
>> if the hard drive is broken, they should still boot from a CD drive.
>> Prime95 (mersenne.org) as a stress test, to check CPU stability.
>>4) There is always Testdisk, if you need to do some disk maintenance.
>>
>> http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
>> http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download
>>
>>HTH,
>> Paul
Memory and psu comes to mind first, vga second,
You should boot the WinXP CD which will prove your cpu and video work if
you get to the WinXP CD install screen. You can go to the repair screen
which will allow you to look at the contents of the C:\drive
That is Boot the WinXP CD, go to the Install, then do Repair installed
system, which will reinstall the WinXP system and you'll need to
reinstall all the service packs and updates.
On Sep 12, 4:10*am, BingBong <p...@naughty.monkey.com> wrote:
> Help!!
>
> I hope someone here can help me with a problem that I am having with
> my main home computer. I can't boot it.
>
> The machine is a Core 2 Duo 6600 at 2.4 GHz with 2 GB RAM. It has been
> working perfectly ever since I built it. It is running WinXP sp3 with
> all the current patches via CTUpdate. It has 2 HDs: a WD 320GB boot
> drive and a WD 1TB storage drive.
>
> What suddenly started happening is this: I found it with a flashing
> underscore on a black screen in the upper left corner one morning. I
> usually keep the machine on 24/7 and there may have been a power
> failure causing a reboot overnight. This is the underscore symbol seen
> after POST and BIOS check on booting that goes away when Windows
> loads. Only this wont go away. There are no messages, just a black
> screen with a flashing underscore. I looked at the post data and bios
> data and they look fine; all drives are present and Hard Drive
> Sentinal said that all drives were perfect prior to this problem
> developing. Fans are all working so I doubt overheating. .
>
> What do I do next? I'm thinking that maybe it cant find the MBR, but I
> would expect some kind of error message.
>
> Can someone please help me here???
> virus attack ur sys. that problem u can solve.
dis method.free down load. http://ftp.kaspersky.com/devbuilds/rescuedisk/
> Thanks in advance,
>
> BingBong
Problem with booting into WinXP 
Linear Mode
