Crash and now will not boot - Please Help

[TboneJr]

Im running XP pro - The computer crashed while I was playing a game. I turned it off and rebooted. It gets to the screen that lets you pick safe mode or normal start up. I have tried all choices and it gets to the windows xp loading screen then it flashes a blue screen for a split second then it reboots again and does this over and over. Ive went into the bios and tried to boot from the cd rom with the Windows XP cd and it says boot disk failure place boot disk in drive and hit enter. I can't even get it to boot from the CD. I don't know if this sounds like a hard drive failure or what. It looks like the ram and video card checks out ok. I haven't had any other problems. Any help would really be appreciated.

Thanks so much
Terry

 

[mackey333]

Make sure that your CD drive is ahead of the hard drive in the boot order in the bios. As it is booting you may get a prompt that says something to the effect of "press any key to boot from CD..." you will only have a couple of seconds to press a key though. If you still can't get into the windows cd that way, then please report any errors you get word for word.

-Greg :-Q

 

[TboneJr]

I changed the boot seq to all CD Rom and it will not boot from the cd at all. It just keeps saying boot disk error replace boot disk and hit enter. I put the XP CD in another computer and it seemed to work fine so I don't believe anything is wrong with the CD. I changed the boot seq to every sequence I can think of and when it tries to boot from the hard drive it gets to the Windows XP is loading screen and then reboots. I removed my sound card my nic card changed my video card and nothing changes. Just gets to a certain point and during the windows loading and reboots. When I try to boot from the CD the cd speeds up like its trying to read the cd then it says Disk error. Ive also replaced the CD rom with another cd rom and still the same.

Thanks for the reply
Terry

 

[linney]

Do you have the option in the Safe Mode boot screen to turn off Automatic Restart (requires SP2 to see it) and if so does that Stop at any error?

If you can't boot from CD with the Bios set up to do so, and you can't boot from the hard drive, your options are rather limited and it may be a job for a repairer.

You could try your luck with the floppy drive if you have one.

How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP (Q314079)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q314/0/79.asp

Q305595 - HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q305/5/95.asp

Your hard drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software to thoroughly check out the condition of the hard drive. This software is bootable from floppy drives.

How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994/

If you can load the Recovery Console you could try running the ChkDsk /r command.

 

[allteltec]

What make and model of computer do you have? Some computers have a F-Key boot order select that will over ride the bios setting.

 

[buitenhek]

I had same 3 times in last 8 months. I have a Sony Vaio RZ32G. I replaced the hard drive with bigger and reinstalled all hardware/software and upgrades. What a pain.

2nd & 3rd had same symptoms but disk seemed ok so I just reinstalled h/s/w and upgrades again. If this happens again, I will use it for a boat anchor.

The plus side: it runs much faster. Minus Side: it will not burn cd/dvds. I bought Memorex Dual and Nero. But Nero 7 uninstalls itself on upgrade. Whoopee! I emailed Nero but have not heard anything for 1.5 weeks.

I also now have a Seagate external drive for complete backups. We'll see.

Regards
Peter Buitenhek
ProfitDeveloper.com

 

[TboneJr]

This is a computer I built. I got a bare bones case and board. I have 2.4 GHZ Pentium processor. 512 MB Ram. 80 GB Maxtor Hard drive.(I don't like Maxtor - over the years Ive had lots of problems with them) I run test on the Hard Drive and it test out ok. I also replaced the ram with some more ram and it isn't the ram either. I don't have a bootable cd rom so Im making the XP boot disk today at work. Ill see later on today if I can get it booted and maybe recovered.

What is a F-Key boot order select ??

I was playing Counter Strike - I just clicked to join a game and the computer froze. I wonder If you can get a virus from a game server ? I had norton anti virus running.

Thanks for all the help

 

[G0AOZ]

I've seen <F8> and <F12> used on some BIOSs to invoke a drive boot menu. Just try tapping either of these keys during the initial BIOS checks. If your BIOS has this option, then you'll get a small menu pop up allowing you to select first boot from Floppy, Hard disk or CD-ROM, etc.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[TboneJr]

Yeah I did that - I got another boot screen while pressing F8 but it only kept rebooting still. I wish I could read the blue screen that flashes up when it reboots. It flashes so fast you can barely tell it has words on the screen. I tried hitting different keys hoping to halt the screen but can't do anything.

Thanks again

 

[linney]

Try using a Digital Camera (or video) to capture your error message.

 

[TboneJr]

Thats a good Idea !!!!! 30 FPS may just catch it

DOG !! Why didn't I think of that ?? LOL

Thanks for the idea

Terry