HELP! System won't boot up!

[LearninToBuild]

Okay, when I try to boot up I get "the last attempt to resume system from its previous location failed. attempt to resume again?

Continue with system resume
Delete Restoration data and proceed to system boot menu"

But it won't let me click enter! I verified my mouse/keyboard work as I was able to enter boot menu, but even then i cant select anything, ive also tried different keyboards. FWIW I just installed a new video card and monitor but that was it and seems unrelated, looks like my CPU just fell asleep and because i hard powered off instead of waking it up and then shbutting down properly my boot order was messed up.

I've searched and see others have this error occasionally but NOT SURE the solution!! Help me!

 

[LearninToBuild]

Welp, entered the BIOS and set my first boot to CD and had Windows disc in, but even then I still get the Windows Resume loader msg. Guess i have to get a new hard disc. I heard a whistling noise FWIW when these issues started, unsure if hard drive died randomly... blah.

 

[LearninToBuild]

Thanks for nothing guys.

I have purchased a new hard drive and am installing Vista on it, lost all my stuff.

Just feel so violated, unsure why it happened, my power mgmt settings were set to turn display off after 45 mins, sleep after 2hrs, it worked fine up until a day ago it wouldnt come out of sleep for some reason, but rebooting worked. Then today, I came home from work, didnt shut it down but it was asleep, i removed power chord, turned power off, installed new vid card. then it wouldnt "resume" Windows and my keyboards were froze on that screen although they could access the BIOS.

God knows it could happen again? was this a drive issue? please help me damn it

 

[LearninToBuild]

Funny how everyone is an expert technician when making fun of basic questions, yet when an advanced problem comes along no one can even weigh in with what possibly happened, lol.

 

[Old Hippie]

Thanks for nothing guys.

You're more than welcome.


Seriously, you have a 2 hr. time span from "Help Me" to "I'm screwed".

Nobody patrols this forum for emergency purposes and even if they had, there was nothing gonna save your data in that short of time.

Speaking of data, there's only one guy you can blame for not having a back-up.

Your frustration should be focused on a solution for a back-up because more than likely, data loss will happen again.

 

[LearninToBuild]

You're more than welcome.


Seriously, you have a 2 hr. time span from "Help Me" to "I'm screwed".

Nobody patrols this forum for emergency purposes and even if they had, there was nothing gonna save your data in that short of time.

Speaking of data, there's only one guy you can blame for not having a back-up.

Your frustration should be focused on a solution for a back-up because more than likely, data loss will happen again.

Sorry, I was just extremely nervous and frustrated since, normally the sub-forum is a little busier. I apologize.

However, any ideas as to what occurred? My best guess after consulting a programmer friend is that, perhaps my computer was not "totally asleep", and when I removed the power chord the drive was corrupted somehow- however, all my case fans and CPU light was off, so pretty sure it was in fact asleep.

It really is a scary feeling putting your computer to sleep and having that happen. IMO, if I shut down every night normally then that "Windows resume" screen would never have a chance to occur. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I'm sure it's understandable after what just occurred.

Should I have reason to worry, would I hamper my gaming or computer performance/stability by powering on and off every night (I only want computer to last 3 years anyway), and should I simply buy an external hard drive "just incase"?

 

[yadnom]

I'm not an expert but I don't think pulling power on a system that is in sleep mode is the best idea. Even though it looks off, its still pulling juice to keep the contents in RAM alive. I think pulling the plug while its in sleep mode is still kind of the same as pulling the plug on a system that is currently running. You lose everything you did not save and although rare, could cause data corruption.

Sleep mode basically suspends everything to RAM and draws enough power to keep RAM going.

If you have already purchased another drive and installed vista on it, you can try plugging in your old drive as a secondary drive and you might still be able to get at the data if the drive really isn't dead.

 

[Old Hippie]

Should I have reason to worry, would I hamper my gaming or computer performance/stability by powering on and off every night (I only want computer to last 3 years anyway),

I have never seen any stats that showed cycling (shutting down and powering on) had any negative effect on components. Myself and many others, power down at night and power up in the morning. I've seen polls on this and it seems @ 50-50 on the powering down issue.

and should I simply buy an external hard drive "just incase"?

I don't exactly know what's wrong with your drive (dead or just corrupted) but if you keep anything of value on there (pictures, data, or whatever) there should be a back-up. You don't seem very excited about the loss of your old drive, so I'm assuming there's nothing irreplaceable on it.

However, any ideas as to what occurred?

It's hard to tell if your actions or HD "fate" is what caused the demise. The actual condition of the old drive (does it run, is it just corrupted) would help with the trouble shooting.

I would connect the drive directly to the MB or thru a USB connection and attempt to locate the files. If you don't need any of the files, run the manfgs. test disk to see if the drive is OK. Who knows, you may be able to use this disk for storage if it's mechanically sound.

I don't do anything involving electrical components unless my machine is turned off, the plug removed, and the on-off button has been pushed a coupla times to "drain" stored juice.


I know you were frustrated, been there done that, and we didn't live up to your expecations but, I'll tell ya what......Just this ONE time.....We'll give ya your money back!!!!

Can't get much more fair than that!!!!

 

[BinarySynapse]

From the sounds of it, your computer wasn't asleep, it was in hibernation mode. Hibernating is the exact same as power off, except the OS takes contents of the RAM contents, CPU state, and anything else that's volatile and saves it to a file on the disk. Moving the mouse or hitting the keyboard won't "wake it up" unless you BIOS is set to allow the system to be powered on witth them. If you change hardware (which you did), that invalidates the file that Windows uses to resume from, causing Windows will throw up an error.

Now, I know this is a bit late, but did you ever think to check in BIOS to make sure USB legacy mode was enabled? If that's off, then your keyboard would work for setup, but once the boot process was handed over to Windows, the keyboard goes dead.

 

[LearninToBuild]

From the sounds of it, your computer wasn't asleep, it was in hibernation mode. Hibernating is the exact same as power off, except the OS takes contents of the RAM contents, CPU state, and anything else that's volatile and saves it to a file on the disk. Moving the mouse or hitting the keyboard won't "wake it up" unless you BIOS is set to allow the system to be powered on witth them. If you change hardware (which you did), that invalidates the file that Windows uses to resume from, causing Windows will throw up an error.

Sounds like that's exactly what happened, all could have been avoided had I had the presence of mind to power on from my hibernated state and then turned off correctly.

In other words, the only way to fix would be to reinsert old GPU and hard drive and attempt to load up? Personally, I'm unsure it would be worth the hassle but if I can use the 2nd drive for storage I'd entertain that assuming it wouldn't require some form of repair.

Now, I know this is a bit late, but did you ever think to check in BIOS to make sure USB legacy mode was enabled? If that's off, then your keyboard would work for setup, but once the boot process was handed over to Windows, the keyboard goes dead.

Didn't do this, but in light of what you said above would it matter? Pretty sure my BIOS was the same as it always was, and the Windows error is what caused my system not to boot.

Also, please help me understand if you can why exactly I went into 'hibernate' the past two nights, since I ONLY had my system set to go to sleep after 2 hours, and display off after 45 mins? I used to be able to wake it up with keyboard up until two days ago it started hibernating, now I'm afraid to EVER let it go to sleep again.

I almost want to set it to never sleep and just power off at night, and power on when I get home from work.

 

[BinarySynapse]

Sounds like that's exactly what happened, all could have been avoided had I had the presence of mind to power on from my hibernated state and then turned off correctly.

In other words, the only way to fix would be to reinsert old GPU and hard drive and attempt to load up? Personally, I'm unsure it would be worth the hassle but if I can use the 2nd drive for storage I'd entertain that assuming it wouldn't require some form of repair.


Didn't do this, but in light of what you said above would it matter? Pretty sure my BIOS was the same as it always was, and the Windows error is what caused my system not to boot.

Also, please help me understand if you can why exactly I went into 'hibernate' the past two nights, since I ONLY had my system set to go to sleep after 2 hours, and display off after 45 mins? I used to be able to wake it up with keyboard up until two days ago it started hibernating, now I'm afraid to EVER let it go to sleep again.

I almost want to set it to never sleep and just power off at night, and power on when I get home from work.

Most BIOS default to having "Legacy USB" disabled. This option provides basic keyboard support for OS's that don't have it (Like MS-DOS, or the Windows bootloader that gave you the error you saw). If you wanted to try it out, plug your old hard drive in, go into BIOS setup and enable that option, then try to boot again.

The WIndows error didn't cause you system not to boot, It most likely was just stuck there waiting for input from you, but you keyboard wasn't working.

As for the hibernation deal, are you using XP or Vista?

EDIT: I see you mentioned Vista. By default, hibernation is on in Vista and you have to go into advanced power option to disable it.

 

[LearninToBuild]

Most BIOS default to having "Legacy USB" disabled. This option provides basic keyboard support for OS's that don't have it (Like MS-DOS, or the Windows bootloader that gave you the error you saw). If you wanted to try it out, plug your old hard drive in, go into BIOS setup and enable that option, then try to boot again.

The WIndows error didn't cause you system not to boot, It most likely was just stuck there waiting for input from you, but you keyboard wasn't working.

As for the hibernation deal, are you using XP or Vista?

EDIT: I see you mentioned Vista. By default, hibernation is on in Vista and you have to go into advanced power option to disable it.

I was actually running Windows 7, but had to put Vista back on and then said screw it and didn't feel like slapping Windows 7 on again.

EDIT: I'll consider popping the HD in and trying to boot to it, it wouldn't mess up my current HD right? I'd just stick it in another slot and set the boot order to HD#2, and id find legacy USB mode next to integrated peripherals or something like that?

 

[BinarySynapse]

I was actually running Windows 7, but had to put Vista back on and then said screw it and didn't feel like slapping Windows 7 on again.

EDIT: I'll consider popping the HD in and trying to boot to it, it wouldn't mess up my current HD right? I'd just stick it in another slot and set the boot order to HD#2, and id find legacy USB mode next to integrated peripherals or something like that?

Win7 is the same. Hibernation is on by default unless you go into advanced power options and disable it.

If it were me, I would just put the old hard drive in and unplug the new one. Make sure the BIOS is set to enable USB keyboard support and see if that doesn't fix the keyboard problem at the error screen and get you back into Windows.

EDIT: If you do get the keyboard to work, choose "Delete the Restoration data and proceed to system boot menu." Since you changed your graphics card, your memory map isn't the same and the resume will fail.

 

[LearninToBuild]

Win7 is the same. Hibernation is on by default unless you go into advanced power options and disable it.

If it were me, I would just put the old hard drive in and unplug the new one. Make sure the BIOS is set to enable USB keyboard support and see if that doesn't fix the keyboard problem at the error screen and get you back into Windows.

EDIT: If you do get the keyboard to work, choose "Delete the Restoration data and proceed to system boot menu." Since you changed your graphics card, your memory map isn't the same and the resume will fail.

Okay great, appreciate your help, one last question if you don't mind.

1) After enabling legacy mode and (hopefully) getting into Windows, the next time I reboot should I switch legacy mode off or leave it on?

Not sure what I'd do with my 2nd drive if I'm able to get in, having already formatted Vista on it, either keep it as a spare back up (i really don't use a ton of storage) or try to mirror my Windows 7 stuff on it.

I'll definitely disable hibernation just because it scares me.

 

[BinarySynapse]

Okay great, appreciate your help, one last question if you don't mind.

1) After enabling legacy mode and (hopefully) getting into Windows, the next time I reboot should I switch legacy mode off or leave it on?

Not sure what I'd do with my 2nd drive if I'm able to get in, having already formatted Vista on it, either keep it as a spare back up (i really don't use a ton of storage) or try to mirror my Windows 7 stuff on it.

I'll definitely disable hibernation just because it scares me.

You can leave it on.

EDIT: I looked up the manual for the motherboard you have listed in your sig, The option you're looking for is called "USB Keyboard" under "Integrated Peripherals" and is disabled by default.

 

[LearninToBuild]

You can leave it on.

EDIT: I looked up the manual for the motherboard you have listed in your sig, The option you're looking for is called "USB Keyboard" under "Integrated Peripherals" and is disabled by default.

Okay great, thanks a ton.

Will update thread later once I get up and running.

 

[LearninToBuild]

I just want to say thanks again to ryan_975, he correctly diagnosed my issue and I am back on my original hard drive. I only wish he had happened to be browsing the subforum sooner and I would have saved a hard drive, however if I get another SATA wire I can blank out my 2nd hard drive and use it for extra storage or just keep it as is with Vista formatted on it already and save it just in case.

Ryan_975 definitely nailed this one and I am appreciative for his insight, seemed the rest of the posters were a bit stumped as to the issue onhand, but I had faith given how clearly and concisely I laid out exactly what happened that an intelligent individual such as himself would inevitably come forth with a solution. Thanks, ryan.