PC won't boot.

[Blasphemous]

My mate has a Windows XP PC. It's stopped booting! When you turn on the PC it seems to be going through a normal boot but then just freezes with a blank screen. I've tried booting into Safe Mode but that fails also!

My thought's were either the Hard Drive is on it's way out and/or somehow some Windows start up files are missing.

Can anyone shed any light?

Thank you in advance guys.

 

[Bolty]

a little more info is needed first.

is the blank screen before or after the windows logo?. Does the computer post ok?. if you go into the bios, does the bios show the hdd as being there?. is there a cd or dvd left in the dvd rom drive and the drive set as 1st priorty boot device?

if your getting as far as the windows xp logo then its hanging, i would suggest the windows files may be corrupt and a repair may be possible without losing any of your files, although to be fair you usually get a message along the line of "ntdlr missing" or an equivalent which indicates duff windows files.

If your at this stage and have files you cannot afford to lose, you may be able to remove the hdd and slave it into another pc. If you do this, you should be able to copy all your documents etc from the hdd to a dvd or another hdd before reinstalling windows.

If you think the hdd is faulty (hdd itself, not windows xp), try looking at the hdd manufacturers websites as most of these have some form of hdd diagnostics program to help.

Bolty.

 

[Blasphemous]

Thank you for the reply Bolty. In answer to your questions:

Is the blank screen before or after the windows logo? Its doesn't get to the Windows Logo. It freezes at a blank screen before that point.

Does the computer post ok? Not sure what you mean by this.

If you go into the bios, does the bios show the hdd as being there? Will need to check this but can't get round there at the moment due to the snow here.

Is there a cd or dvd left in the dvd rom drive and the drive set as 1st priorty boot device? No.

If your getting as far as the windows xp logo then its hanging, i would suggest the windows files may be corrupt and a repair may be possible without losing any of your files, although to be fair you usually get a message along the line of "ntdlr missing" or an equivalent which indicates duff windows files. As stated, it doesn't get to the Logo. Would that suggest the HDD is failing rather than missing start up files?

If your at this stage and have files you cannot afford to lose, you may be able to remove the hdd and slave it into another pc. If you do this, you should be able to copy all your documents etc from the hdd to a dvd or another hdd before reinstalling windows. I've suggested he buy a HDD Caddy so I can take round my Netbook and hook the HDD up via USB and copy across anything that may be important. However he only has a recovery disc. He wasn't supplied with a copy of XP when he bought the PC. Can he reload windows from a recovery disc? If not, I have an old copy of Windows XP Professional from my old PC, could he use my disc? If he did use that disc would there be any issues with drivers etc?

If you think the hdd is faulty (hdd itself, not windows xp), try looking at the hdd manufacturers websites as most of these have some form of hdd diagnostics program to help. Top tip, never thought of that! Will do mate.

When I get round there (when this flamin snow goes!!!), i'll report back on the questions you have posed. In the meantime I'd be grateful if you could answer my questions above.

Thank you once again.

 

[opps]

The advice given is good but you may need to do a repair installation of xp, ie installing it over itself.

If you dont have a copy of xp- be it the home or pro version you can find one at piratebay.org - this assumes that you legally own a copy that you have missed placed

 

[Blasphemous]

The advice given is good but you may need to do a repair installation of xp, ie installing it over itself.

If you dont have a copy of xp- be it the home or pro version you can find one at piratebay.org - this assumes that you legally own a copy that you have missed placed

Thanks opps. He only has a 'Recovery CD' but as I have stated above, I have a full copy of XP Professional. Can I just use that in his machine?

 

[Bolty]

Ok, time for a quick reply before attempting round 3 of digging out my works van from the snow then digging out the street...again.

post :- (power on self test) is a small bios program that makes sure your keyboard,ram, disk drives, graphics cards are there before starting up. if all is well, the computer begins to boot.

in response to your replies, try to find out the make/manufacturer of the hdd and see if theres a hdd test program. i've had a few failures of hdd in my time but to be honest you usually see them coming before the thing fails completely. (hdd making excessive noise, slowing down, sluggish etc)

I would think that xp or the hdd mbr may be at fault here and a simple repair of the files or repairing the mbr might do the trick. If the MBR (master boot record) is corrupt on your hdd,your pc won't know what to do with the hdd and you'll be presented with a blank screen. (recovery console can repair the mbr, (access this using a copy of xp and entering the recovery console from there) but backing up your data might be best first)

try googling xp recovery console for a few hints and tips and how to's. spend a little time reading up on it and you'll pay dividends later.

the recovery disks you mention will contain all you need to reinstall xp and all the drivers specific to yer mates pc but beware...some of these recovery disks wipe the hdd and start from fresh. if things get as bad as this, back up anything you cannot lose before starting.

try downloading and burning a copy of hirens boot cd (version12 is the latest i think). this (free) cd contains loads of programs and diagnostics stuff to help fault find/repair. if your not sure what a program does, google it.

best of luck.

Bolty.

 

[opps]

The advice given is good but you may need to do a repair installation of xp, ie installing it over itself.

If you dont have a copy of xp- be it the home or pro version you can find one at piratebay.org - this assumes that you legally own a copy that you have missed placed

Thanks opps. He only has a 'Recovery CD' but as I have stated above, I have a full copy of XP Professional. Can I just use that in his machine?

Your cd will allow a non destructive upgrade if he is on xp home.

There are legal issues regarding serial numbers, ie you will need to enter yours. M$ "forget" serial numbers after 6 months, with in 6 months you phone them and explain why you are reactivating it, ie new hard drive and motherboard.

I recommend making your version into xp pro service pack 3- this can be done using the free nlite program

http://www.nliteos.com/guide/

it will aslo allow you to run SFC/SCANNOW on your own pc- a check to ensure that core files are in place

 

[Blasphemous]

Thank you Bolty. Will take all that on board and, like you, when I can get to him through this snow, I'll post back the outcome.

Thank you opps. As I say, I will take all this advice on board and post back.

Great advice lads, thank you.

Blas.

EDIT: Forgot the click the 'Thanks' button. Done now guys.

 

[Blasphemous]

Right lads, I always like to hear how things turned out and so I just want to update you on this.

Purchased a HDD Caddy and went round to my pal's house the other night... yes, we go out in the snow up here in the North! Most of the time without a coat on!

Anyway, tried to boot it, no joy. Took the HDD out and fitted it to the caddy. I was able to access the HDD without any problem using the caddy. We took off the files he wanted to keep.

Refitted the HDD to the PC and tried to boot it once more before going into Recovery. The bloody thing booted up! Took a while mind. Having had success with HitmanPro with that virus I had the other week I decided to download it again and give it a whirl on his PC. It found hundreds of 'Tracking Cookies' (which were probably nothing to worry about), but it also found about 20 odd Malware and a few suspect files. I got it to delete the lot. Rebooted the PC... it booted quite fast. But there were a few things booting on start up that I also stopped (MSN and Skype being two I recall). Rebooted again and it shut down much faster than it had been. Rebooted and booted like a new PC!

Why the hell it wouldn't boot before I removed the HDD but would boot after I reinstalled the HDD I have no idea. But it looks like the problem has been down to Malware all along! I have to add however that I had run Malwarebytes-antimalware on his machine about a week or so before when he started having a few problems but it found nothing at all! HitmanPro has proved itself to me on three occasions now. It's only a 30 day trial that you get with it and I'm not sure of the price but I think I'll be seriously considering buying the full version if and when I need it. It would appear that the caddy was a waste of money but no doubt it'll come to some use in the future for him.

 

[Bolty]

Nice one, glad it all worked out. At least yer mate was initially able to get the files off he needed - thats half the battle.

could have been a loose connector on the back of the hdd i suppose but its all worked out well in the end, especially getting rid of malware etc. Your mate owes you several pints now methinks..

Bolty.