help fatal error

carrie26

please can anyone help me. my dad (who know nowt about computers (including me) gave me a more up to date tower with usb ports. being hasty, i thought it was much better than my daughters ans give my daughters to a friend doh!!!!!!!!!!
when i restarted the pc it ran for about 40 odd mins, then says i may have to install things later. then fatal error. cancel when computer restarts. the biggest problem is the is no icons or crosses, anything to cancel restart. I`ve had a few attempts even tried putting in xp disc to no avail. please can some one help me, in simple language please im not a techie. I will be so grateful please.

msmicawber

Hi Carrie,

Can you give any more information? Other than the fatal error message, are there any more messages?

Jay08

Does the PC let you run in Safe Mode.

The reason the XP Disc is not booting is because the bios is set to read the Hard Drive first. If you press the Del key when the pc is starting up it will take you to a setup screen. I cant say were it will be because all bios are different but you are looking for something like boot order or boot priority and set number 1 to CD/DVD drive. Save and exit out. Make sure you do save changes then try again it should read the CD.

Hope you know what you are doing from here because reinstalling windows xp can be tricky. If you need more help PM and i will guide you on how to repair/reinstall.

tom9980

We need more info specifically

So the PC works fine for around 40 mins? acts normally etc? are you able to use the machine when it boots up then around 30+ mins later it goes wrong while doing this update?

Do you have Virus and malware protection installed on the PC?

Can you tell us more about the "thing" it was trying to reinstall later? was it an auto update for windows maybe? or for some other program like virus protection or even things like Adobe acrobat reader.

Please do not do a repair or reinstall without checking that you have backed up all data on the machine you need and have the activation key for it written down otherwise you may have problems if you reinstall windows.

carrie26

I don`t know if it has a virus protection installed, it says it is disabled. When i pressed the del key, it displayed the following. invalid booting.
checking file on system c:
the type of file system is showing fat 32
one of the discs need to be checked
checking disc for consistency
volume serial no. 124B-OBE4
booting from c is invalid
I`m stuck again now, I need more help please. Thank you all for you`re kindness so far. carrie. x

bookduck

How id you get your old info/setup onto the new computer, did just swap the hdd and plugged it into the new one?

Well if so the hardware is probably different and you will have to reload the o/s - becasrefull not to wipe the hdd though

carrie26

Thank you for your reply, I m sorry i don`t understand it though. I got the tower from my Dad, and my friend plugged it all together to a different monitor for me. He then said when its finished re booting it ready. what ever info is on, is not mine. I just want it to work , for my daughter to do her homework and internet.
cheers carrie.x

carrie26

Sorry, I have just remembered it also would not run in safe mode. if that helps any one to help me. Thanks carrie. x

bookduck

your post is to vague. if you turn it on does it work for say 20 mins then shuts down and after say 2 hours works again. Or is it no longer working at all.

If not working at all what are the error messages that appear.

If you do not want the information on the disk, then I would erase the disk and start again. Here is one of many erasing programs http://www.killdisk.com/

totalsolutions

Hi, Its faulty take it back:-)
Really sorry but as you know very little about pc it might be best to get your old one back for a few days to recover all work for you DD and your
sanity.
Tower pc can be very old and full of dust and multitude of old parts. Bigger is not better.
Its like buying an old unknown car. It will need a full strip down check out the parts and clean/rebuild. The operating system reinstalled and full patched up to date to get to any working condition and soak test for a few days to get that MOT pass.