VERY wierd boot problem on XP,any help appreciated

[dainc]

Usually i am the one to fix the stuff on my own but this time i surrender to the evil of windows XP(a friend's pc don't look at me)

So the problem is,the PC does not boot at all,only black screen no post nothing,no video signal.Changed video card = same.Changed psu = same.

So i am thinking yeah it's dead,and i took the HDD to use on a working pc to save the files.But when i boot it on that pc,it gets to post and after that it does an IDE scan,then says #%(@#$*^)^#)@^& random symbols for one line and that's it,it's stuck like this forever.So i change to that PCs normal HDD,and it says BOOTMGR corrupt when it was fine before.

SO,i take this HDD to yet ANOTHER working pc and this time i use it as a secondary drive by booting with the other it already has.Guess what now that PC can't boot either and says windows 7 has a problem and needs repair

So here i am from a single problem to 3 broken PCs.Is it possible that there is some virus in the HDD that corrupts any PC you plug it in?

 

[B00nie]

Usually i am the one to fix the stuff on my own but this time i surrender to the evil of windows XP(a friend's pc don't look at me)

So the problem is,the PC does not boot at all,only black screen no post nothing,no video signal.Changed video card = same.Changed psu = same.

Possibly a dead monitor. Tried another one already?

So i am thinking yeah it's dead,and i took the HDD to use on a working pc to save the files.But when i boot it on that pc,it gets to post and after that it does an IDE scan,then says #%(@#$*^)^#)@^& random symbols for one line and that's it,it's stuck like this forever.So i change to that PCs normal HDD,and it says BOOTMGR corrupt when it was fine before.

If you stick in a new hdd and it happens to be the first primary sata your win7 no longer boots untill you remove that other drive. This is because your Windows is looking for the master boot record from the other drive which obviously does not contain it. Worst case scenario: Your friends pc had a blown PSU and it nuked all components inside. You then killed your sata controller by installing the burned hdd.

SO,i take this HDD to yet ANOTHER working pc and this time i use it as a secondary drive by booting with the other it already has.Guess what now that PC can't boot either and says windows 7 has a problem and needs repair

So here i am from a single problem to 3 broken PCs.Is it possible that there is some virus in the HDD that corrupts any PC you plug it in?

See above. Remove the drive and try booting again - if the problem persists then the hdd (and possibly the rest of the computer) is fried toasty.

 

[dainc]

Possibly a dead monitor. Tried another one already?



If you stick in a new hdd and it happens to be the first primary sata your win7 no longer boots untill you remove that other drive. Worst case scenario: Your friends pc had a blown PSU and it nuked all components inside. You then killed your sata controller by installing the burned hdd.



See above. Remove the drive and try booting again - if the problem persists then the hdd (and possibly the rest of the computer) is fried toasty.

Thanks for the reply

First of all the monitor is not dead because it worked with another PC so that's down.

Now,in the two other PCs i tried the HDD,you probably missed it but after booting once from the HDD of the broken PC,i couldn't boot from the healthy PCs even from their own HDDs which worked just fine before

 

[wyqtor]

I'm assuming you are using different IDE or SATA cables when connecting the drive to the other PC. If not, please try with another cable. What I would do first of all is find out if the drive is defective or not. When booting, press DEL or F2 to enter the BIOS. If you can't enter it or if the PC hangs on the MB logo, it's pretty clear that the HDD is defective. Also, If you can't see it as a drive in the BIOS, then once again it's pretty much toast.

If however you can see it in the BIOS, do this: unplug all HDDs but the drive in question, boot the PC the drive is connected to using one of those boot CDs (I tend to use Hiren's Boot CD) and check the SMART of the drive in question as well as run a full surface scan. I tend to use WD's Data Lifeguard for Windows utility for that (you can find it in MiniXP), or SeaTools for DOS if the drive is Seagate. Also in MiniXP, check if your partitions are visible in Windows Explorer. If they are not, the drive may be defective.

If it's an older IDE drive, you must also make sure that the jumpers that establish whether it is master or slave are set correctly (don't know the specifics myself, though).

For the computers that the drive messed up, I would try loading the BIOS defaults.

 

[B00nie]

Thanks for the reply

First of all the monitor is not dead because it worked with another PC so that's down.

Now,in the two other PCs i tried the HDD,you probably missed it but after booting once from the HDD of the broken PC,i couldn't boot from the healthy PCs even from their own HDDs which worked just fine before

They wouldn't boot untill you remove the other drive. You didn't say in your text if you removed the other drive before trying to boot with the original one.

 

[dainc]

They wouldn't boot untill you remove the other drive. You didn't say in your text if you removed the other drive before trying to boot with the original one.

I did remove it.Went like this

1st PC = i remove original HDD,try to boot from HDD of broke PC,i get some hardware post checks went ok,then a line of @##%#%)( and it freezes there.Then i remove it and boot from original again, BOOTMGR corrupt,boot loops forever

2nd PC = i place evil HDD as secondary,but i forget to set boot priority and it boots from that one,no luck.Then i set 1st boot device to the original,some kind of blue screen before desktop,then windows can't boot.So i remove the evil one,but still the same

 

[B00nie]

I did remove it.Went like this

1st PC = i remove original HDD,try to boot from HDD of broke PC,i get some hardware post checks went ok,then a line of @##%#%)( and it freezes there.Then i remove it and boot from original again, BOOTMGR corrupt,boot loops forever

2nd PC = i place evil HDD as secondary,but i forget to set boot priority and it boots from that one,no luck.Then i set 1st boot device to the original,some kind of blue screen before desktop,then windows can't boot.So i remove the evil one,but still the same

Unfortunately it sounds like your hdd toasted your motherboards then. Try resetting CMOS and BIOS, if they still malfunction then you're fresh out of luck.

 

[402blownstroker]

Was your 'friend' visting questionable porn sites and got it infected with a nasty virus or malware?

 

[dainc]

Was your 'friend' visting questionable porn sites and got it infected with a nasty virus or malware?

It's not me lol i am not noob enough to be using XP in almost 2015.

Anyway he didn't tell me about porn but he told me that there were some messages from the antivirus but he didn't even read them.And usually he clicks a lot of stuff that appears

 

[dainc]

Any more suggestions on what to try?

 

[gimp]

IDE to USB adapter?

Drive would be toast, most likely. Especially if BIOS is showing random ASCII characters for name/brand/description of drive.

 

[dainc]

Ok new info on the matter,i used a boot malwarebytes scan and it found like 20 viruses.Many of them were in a folder called something like windows/system32/ix38 or smth.I cleaned them and the only problem remaining now is that windows cannot activate,even though it was original copy,but i will *cough* find a way around that.

So if it was a virus after all,could it be transferred to all other HDDs that were connected simultaneously with this one? But how

 

[ManofGod]

Ok new info on the matter,i used a boot malwarebytes scan and it found like 20 viruses.Many of them were in a folder called something like windows/system32/ix38 or smth.I cleaned them and the only problem remaining now is that windows cannot activate,even though it was original copy,but i will *cough* find a way around that.

So if it was a virus after all,could it be transferred to all other HDDs that were connected simultaneously with this one? But how

Yes. Most likely as a MBR rootkit.

 

[raivo]

It's not me lol i am not noob enough to be using XP in almost 2015

Yet you were blaming 'evil xp' for black screen and no bios post. I am sure you do know that hdd (and in that matter anything on it) is accessed after some bios posts (or manufacturer logo) are displayed on screen and any hdd boot data (including possible viruses) are accessed after complete bios post. It's not to insult you, understand me correctly, I just hate when things can be misunderstood. Hope your hdd is working fine now (but it never hurts to check hdd SMART data for possible failures).

 

[Bone_Enterprise]

... the only problem remaining now is that windows cannot activate,even though it was original copy,but i will *cough* find a way around that.

I like how you just admitted to piracy there, keep on doing what you do.