PC freezes on bootup

J

jojo3

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Jun 10, 2008
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Hi
My friend's PC frooze a few days ago, and we can not get it to start. it stops at the part with the blue screen that says Windows XP (no error message). I tried safe mode and "last knowned good configuration" but every time it freezes at the same place. I tried booting from a WinXP installation disk and It gets to menu:

Press Enter to install Windows XP
Press R to repair
Press F3 to not install Windows XP

But none of the buttons work
I put the IDE hard drive in another computer and I formated it and hooked it back up to the original PC and it still will not go past the above menu.
I even tried a different IDE HDD and the same thing is happening.
I don't think its the drive that's bad so I changed IDE cables and we get the same thing again.
Thanks in advance.
 
Reseat the RAM, if that doesn't work run memtest86 through a couple cycles. If you have any errors, its bad RAM. Maybe try running with only one stick also.

Or you could try running with only the essentials when you boot (kbd, mouse, cpu, 1 stick ram, vcard)

I know it sounds stupid, but something similar happened to my computer and that helped me.
 
Have you been playing with your BIOS recently?
On many boards, there are RAID and hard drive configurations that can leave the PC unbootable if the necessary drivers havent previously been installed.
This causes an effective hang during boot.
Unfortunately until you can get into windows its hard to put the driver on the machine so its best to put the BIOS config back how it was.

Failing that, if you have an external memory device attached, try unplugging it.
My USB IDE drive prevents my machine from booting by locking it on the POST screen.
You may have a similar issue.
 
Thank you very much for all the great suggestions.:)
Could it be that the ide controller on the mobo is malfunctioning?
Click to expand...
I don't know I did try both connecters and switched the cables and I still get the same problem
How can I tell, is the only way to plug in a PCI card with IDE controller on it?
Reseat the RAM, if that doesn't work run memtest86 through a couple cycles. If you have any errors, its bad RAM. Maybe try running with only one stick also.

Or you could try running with only the essentials when you boot (kbd, mouse, cpu, 1 stick ram, vcard)

I know it sounds stupid, but something similar happened to my computer and that helped me
Click to expand...
I did as suggested but no help. I did not run memtest86 yet but I did swap the RAM with good RAM and the PC does the same thing.
Tried swapping the PSU or mem out?
Click to expand...
I did the RAM but have not been able to do the PSU yet but I will today.
Have you been playing with your BIOS recently?
On many boards, there are RAID and hard drive configurations that can leave the PC unbootable if the necessary drivers havent previously been installed.
This causes an effective hang during boot.
Unfortunately until you can get into windows its hard to put the driver on the machine so its best to put the BIOS config back how it was.

Failing that, if you have an external memory device attached, try unplugging it.
My USB IDE drive prevents my machine from booting by locking it on the POST screen.
You may have a similar issue.
Click to expand...
No we have not been playing with the BIOS before this happened, I did just try a BIOS reset to default but no help and the board has no RAID and no external devices.
The BIOS does see the HDD and the CD-ROM they are on different cables. I tried putting them both on 1 cable in master and slave configuration but still the computer freezes at the same spot. No combination/configuration works.:(
 
I was going to try the memtest86 but the PC no longer shows any video the monitor just says "No Input".
I don't get no POST, no memory test, no beeps,The lights are on, the fans are working and I can hear the hard drive spinning but I get no video??
 
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