Fixing a PC which doesn't boot up

Knarf44

Had a similar problem last night where my 5 year old desk top suddenly wouldn't boot into XP, it was stuck in Post loop.

I used a copy of Hiren's Boot CD to scan the HD using the included WD Data Lifeguard Tool. Quck scan revealed a read error and the extended full media scan reported all errors "fixed". The PC then booted normally and has behaved itself since including no problems with a few test reboots.

I have a spare HD lying in wait should the installed disk fail again and at that point I'll swap it.

Can you identify what make your HD is? Try Speccy to see if it will give you a manufacturer.

It's always worth having a copy of Hiren's Boot CD or the equally useful Ultimate Boot CD for emergency use.

spakkker

"I think I can enter BIOS set-up (F2 or F12 i think) " -well does that mean you can or does it mean you cannot?

londonman81

spakkker wrote: »

"I think I can enter BIOS set-up (F2 or F12 i think) " -well does that mean you can or does it mean you cannot?

Yes I can enter it using F2

spakkker

Good ! This means your pc is working so far as the bios can test.If you connect up your old h/d again you should be able to "see" it in bios.
I would guess that it's just been your install of windows which has failed- purely a software problem.
You could try a linux live cd which will run off cd and in your ram without installing/affecting your hdd, to check your whole pc is working
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

londonman81

spakkker wrote: »

Good ! This means your pc is working so far as the bios can test.If you connect up your old h/d again you should be able to "see" it in bios.
I would guess that it's just been your install of windows which has failed- purely a software problem.
You could try a linux live cd which will run off cd and in your ram without installing/affecting your hdd, to check your whole pc is working
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

OK now it gets bad again....

This morning I've installed a new CD/DVD drive (long story but basically the old one had broken a while ago so can't reinstall Dell Windows CD) along with a new HDD (the Samsung one as recommended)...

Now when I boot up it gets as far as black screen where it says "port 00: Samsung HDD...Port 01: Samsung CD/DVD etc etc".

However, it does not try to boot any further and also when I press F2 it says 'entering setup' but doesn't go into BIOS like it did yesterday...it just stays stuck on the black and while screen.

No idea what has happened this morning suddenly...

londonman81

londonman81 wrote: »

OK now it gets bad again....

This morning I've installed a new CD/DVD drive (long story but basically the old one had broken a while ago so can't reinstall Dell Windows CD) along with a new HDD (the Samsung one as recommended)...

Now when I boot up it gets as far as black screen where it says "port 00: Samsung HDD...Port 01: Samsung CD/DVD etc etc".

However, it does not try to boot any further and also when I press F2 it says 'entering setup' but doesn't go into BIOS like it did yesterday...it just stays stuck on the black and while screen.

No idea what has happened this morning suddenly...

Seems like I can get into BIOS finally - it takes a long time (around 5 mins) to get into BIOS screen.


Windows installation started and was running nicely until I got this just now...

stop c0000221 unknown hard error systemroot\system32\ntdll.dll


Any clues this time...?!?!

candtalan

If things went pear shaped just after you put in a (different) working CD drive, then I also start thinking of the power supply (PSU), although I would normally guess the PSU would work or simply not work. I have seen a couple of cases where there was a marginal PSU problem, not a fail. Maybe try taking the CD drive out again, as a test?

Failures at this sort of stage are a pita and can take some time to find.