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Boot Failure - Possibly a Strange Cause?

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MilkyJoe
MilkyJoe Posts: 505 Forumite
Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
in Techie Stuff
My PC suddenly restarted itself then wouldn't boot back up. It says: Boot Failure, insert boot diskette etc. I tried a few times to get it started but couldn't. I've been meaning to install Ubuntu so I thought this would be a good opportunity. I got it working from the cd but couldn't install it (couldn't get the partitioning to work).
Then, I smelled burning so I thought the PC might be overheating so turned it off and unplugged it. I had the side panel off from putting new RAM in so I had a look inside to see if I could see anything... I noticed my mobile charger and mobile USB lead (they're connected to each other and were plugged in - USB to computer; charger to plug socket) were melting. They were touching the the edge of the tower at the bottom, which is also a little burned. What do you think this has done to my PC? I've heard of static messing it up so can't see this being good. Will it be safe to use Ubuntu from the disc?
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  • fwor
    fwor Posts: 6,862 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 15 May 2009 at 11:11PM
    You ~should~ be Ok. USB ports are capable of delivering quite high currents, which would explain the melting. However, I think most USB controllers include over-current protection, so there's a good chance it will have survived the short.

    A possible cause of the problem is a corrupt Master Boot Record on the HDD. You should be ok to try booting from an Ubuntu LiveCD - if that works, you should then try booting from a Windows install CD, starting the Recovery Console and then running the fixboot and fixmbr utilities.
  • MilkyJoe
    MilkyJoe Posts: 505 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    I lost the XP disc a long time ago. When I was trying to install Ubuntu the charger will have still been in contact with the tower. I may need to ask for partitioning help if I can't get it to install. I'll try now.
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  • fwor
    fwor Posts: 6,862 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Ok - boot up from the Ubuntu LiveCD and run GPARTED (the partition editor under System, Administration). That will give you some idea of how badly (if at all) the disk is corrupted - but don't change anything.

    If you don't have a Windows install disk, you may need to use the Super Grub Boot Disk to repair the MBR. It's not particularly easy to use, but when you get to know it, it works well in my experience.
  • MilkyJoe
    MilkyJoe Posts: 505 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    It says no devices are detected.
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  • fwor
    fwor Posts: 6,862 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    MilkyJoe wrote: »
    It says no devices are detected.

    To state the obvious, not good. It would be interesting to go into the BIOS and see whether it can auto-detect the hard disk.

    Now may be the time to find out what make and model of HDD you have, and then download the manufacturer's diagnostic utilities and run them on the drive.
  • MilkyJoe
    MilkyJoe Posts: 505 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    I can't burn it to a disc because I'm using the drive for Ubuntu.
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  • 4743hudsonj
    4743hudsonj Posts: 3,298 Forumite
    MilkyJoe wrote: »
    I can't burn it to a disc because I'm using the drive for Ubuntu.

    oh dear......

    im not even going to touch this issue
    fire extiguisher at the ready!:rotfl:
    Back by no demand whatsoever.
  • MilkyJoe
    MilkyJoe Posts: 505 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    I can't open .exe files. Any ideas?
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  • fwor
    fwor Posts: 6,862 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    MilkyJoe wrote: »
    I can't burn it to a disc because I'm using the drive for Ubuntu.

    If you've got a spare USB pendrive, you may be able to install a bootable version of Ubuntu on that to free up your CD drive (System, Admin, Create a USB startup disk).

    If the diagnostic utilities come as a .exe file, you don't have much choice but to use someone elses Windows based PC to make a diagnostic disk - you could possibly do it via WINE, but to be honest, I wouldn't go there...
  • MilkyJoe
    MilkyJoe Posts: 505 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    fwor wrote: »
    If you've got a spare USB pendrive, you may be able to install a bootable version of Ubuntu on that to free up your CD drive (System, Admin, Create a USB startup disk).

    I have a USB stick but it's only 512MB.
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