XP won't boot

[LilBob]

A client gave me 3 desktop PC's to work on, 2 eMachines & a Dell. 1 eMachine was for some maintenance & is back online. The other needed a power supply and I advised her to allow me to backup her files as she claimed they were vital. The PC looked like it was in a dust storm. the cooling fins & fan blades were packed with dust. After replacing the power supply (& cleaning everything off) I booted the system up & all worked fine other than MS warned me that I might be a victim of a pirated copy of XP. I returned that PC to the client & informed her of that problem as well as an estimate to repair the Dell. A short while later, she called to say that PC died. A visual check showed the CPU was damaged as well as other parts of the mobo. I suggested swapping the HD & RAM from that PC to the Dell as that was the problem with the Dell. After swapping parts, I booted the Dell Dimension 2400 & was told 'primary drive 1 not found. The jumper was set to cable select so I pulled the jumper out since there was no secondary HD. Still got the same message. Went into BIOS settings (BIOS recognizes the HD) & turned off secondary HD. Rebooted but now only get the sorry but Windows didn't start normally & what would I like to do. It's like I tried booting in Safe Mode. None of the options allow me to boot into XP. I just keeps coming back to the same screen. I tried changing the boot sequence to boot 1st from the CD drive with a copy of XP in it to no avail. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance! Bob

 

[BadBigBen]

1. swapping drives from two different (hardware) PC's will not work... Windows does not know how to address the hardware correctly and will balk...

two ways around this: a. Booting from an XP CD and doing a repair install (see and b. performing the fix found in the faq602-6735 before you switch mainboards...


2. as you can not boot from the build in CD ROM, have you tried a USB CD ROM or another CD ROM? could be a hardware malfunction, had that exact problem with a laptop where it would not boot from the build in DVD drive, but worked with a USB DVD drive no problem, after install of XP the build in DVD drive worked fine...




Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[vacunita]

I suggested swapping the HD & RAM from that PC to the Dell as that was the problem with the Dell. After swapping parts, I booted the Dell Dimension 2400 & was told 'primary drive 1 not found.

There's your problem right there. why would you suggest that?
Quoting Ben:
"Windows does not know how to address the hardware correctly and will balk..."
Windows doesn't like when hardware changes, and that massive
change, from an e-machine to a dell was sure to cause trouble.

If the Dell still has its working drive use that to boot up the machine, and place the E-machine drive as a slave.

That way it can be accessed as storage.


If the dell's hard drive doesn't work, then you'll need to perform a repair install. I'm curious as what exactly happens when you set the mahcine to boot frm the CD? Does the drive not read the CD or does it just not boot?

Are you sure the CD you are using is bootable?

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[wahnula]

...I advised her to allow me to backup her files as she claimed they were vital.

Well I certainly hope you did that! As the others say loading a HDD from a strange PC into a different PC (unless the chipset and other hardware is IDENTICAL) usually does not work.

In case you have not done so already, get that data off of the "critical" HDD immediately, you can use a live Linux CD like Knoppix to get the files burned to CD or DVD or put them on a USB Flash drive.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[LilBob]

Thanks for the replies. I was hospitalized for a severe infection from my back surgery & work piled up so sometimes my mouth works faster than my brain while I play catch up. It hit me after I sent my thread.

The Dell drive won't work. Somebody apparently played around with it and jammed the IDE cable in the wrong way breaking off 2 pins on the HD. She claims nobody fooled with it but her son told me different. This is not the 1st time I've caught her in a lie & the second time she gave me a PC with an invalid OS. I'm slaving the eMachine off a spare PC I have to back up her files (after scanning it it for any nasties). After that, I may try reformatting the HD & reinstalling the OS.

The OS on my CD was for XP Home but recently noticed the Dell originally had XP Pro. Don't think that should have caused the problem but I have an XP Pro OEM disk here too.

I may suggest to her that if she doesn't want to be honest with me as to problems, then find somebody else.

Thanks again for the replies. Will let you know how all works out. Bob

 

[BadBigBen]

Had a customer almost like that... keep us posted...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[G0AOZ]

Hope you're recovering well now Bob, and that customers like this one don't metaphorically knock you back...

Very difficult scenario when people don't tell the truth. Wherever possible I always try and demonstrate to the user that their machine is working satisfactorily after I've repaired it.

In the circumstances, you're probably better off politely declining any more work from this person...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[LilBob]

Hi Ben & Roger,

Sorry for the delay but, as mentioned earlier, things have been a bit on the busy side. Copied all her critical files & set all up in her Dell. Booted all up for her to show all was working properly. Also told her to please be honest in the future or I would have to refuse any further business. As I told her, you wouldn't lie to your doctor as to your symptoms. I'm not here to judge, just repair. We'll see if that works.

Thanks once more for your help! Bob