Tech Help Needed(PC Won't Boot)

[Calis]

Ok folks. I usually consider myself pretty technically savvy but right now I'm at a loss. Starting last night I went to reboot my computer, and it posts(so I can get to BIOS and things of that nature), but the OS never loads. So I think maybe my Windows(XP) has been corrupted. I fight it for a while trying it in Safe Mode, last known good config and such before giving up.

I try reinstalling Windows, but I get a blue screen during the setup portion, so I can't even get to the install or reformat portion. It's one of those IRQL_Less_Than errors and I'm horked.

So then I tried making an XP Boot Disk, so I could try to use that boot sector instead but the same issue where it just hangs.

Lastly I just downloaded Ubuntu because in the past I've ran a Linux distro and from within there formatted the drive and then was able to put Windows on. I keep getting a Disc Read Error on that.

So what's my next step? It's not a mobo issue since I can post right? Is it something with my hard drive? I have no clue where to go next with it, and I desperately need it up and running because I have a load of work that's due this week, and I'd really like to have it back without losing all my data but I'd be happy with anything now.

Any tips on what I could try next? Thanks.

What a day off. I've made about 15 trips from my house to my brothers, because it was the nearest available internet connection and computer I had access to. Getting sick of making these trips back and forth!

[flere-imsaho]

Definitely sounds like a hard drive issue.

Edit: I don't know what I'd try next other than to install a new hard drive and see if you can format that. Prior to this, however, you may want to double-check all the cable connections (power and data connectors) in the case itself.

[gstelmack]

Yeah, it's either the drive, the motherboard drive port (I've had this go once on me, moving to the other IDE port worked fine), or the cables between the two. Drive is the likely culprit, though.

[thesloppy]

My first inclination is to say hard-drive as well, but wouldn't booting from the boot disk bypass the hard-drive (after loading the bios)? (I'm assuming that it hangs after it boots from the disk, but if it's hanging before you even see the disk read, than it definitely sounds like a bad hard-drive)

When you were loading from the boot disk, did you check/change you bios settings to make sure that it was booting to CD before the hard-drive?

[RomaGoth]

I actually had something similar to this happen last year and it was my video card. You may want to check that out.

[Calis]

Thanks for the help guys.

This was one of the oddest PC problems I've ran into.

So I went and bought another hard drive. (I'd been looking for an excuse to upgrade anyhow). When I went to check the cables, I noticed an actual crack in the port on the hard drive, a pretty goo size one. Not sure if it effected anything, but I really wonder how it happened. Anyway, so I pulled that and put the new one in.

I got quite a bit further than last time, but now it would just randomly power down at varying points of the install. Eventually I got it to where it would boot into the setup instead of the format/partition portion and then it just got worse with the shutting down.

So I figured maybe the Power Supply is horked or something along those lines. I went back into the BIOS though just for kicks, as I had set it to fail safe defaults when I first had troubles, but had not checked the settings. When I went into the actual settings I realized it had some completely oddball settings. The multiplier was odd for my processor and everything looked weird. I ended up manually editing these back to where they should be. Luckily I did some research into overclocking and study on those settings a few months ago.

I rebooted and it went through with no problems. I'm up and running now and it hasn't shut down yet.

What an incredibly frustrating day though.

I think tomorrow I'll try that old hard drive and see if it's dead or if maybe the CPU settings were messing with the system from the start.

[MizzouRah]

Looks like you might have found the issue.

For BSOD's I start with:

HD test
Memory test

If those pass, boot to Windows XP cd recovery console and run a chkdsk /r

[thesloppy]

There's nothing better than any home* PC problem that requires rebooting like a million times over and over again for 19 hours. Once I get to that magic point where you're making minor, 2-second changes and then spending 10 minutes re-booting, just to see if that tiny change makes the critical difference (it never does), I'm usually ready to shoot myself in the head.

* of course if you're on someone else's dime and time, a re-booting PC is still better than 50% of most co-workers.

[flere-imsaho]

There's nothing better than any home* PC problem that requires rebooting like a million times over and over again for 19 hours. Once I get to that magic point where you're making minor, 2-second changes and then spending 10 minutes re-booting, just to see if that tiny change makes the critical difference (it never does), I'm usually ready to shoot myself in the head.

Yep. Even worse is when it happens on a day off, and you blow all your free time on the problem. :banghead:

[Commo_Soldier]

I have had something like this happen before and it was just that the computer was overheating and I needed to clean the CPU as there was too much dust. I am guessing you would have been able to tell if this was a problem, but you might want to take a look if you have not already.