PC not booting

N

N1sh

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A friends pc suddenly stopped booting up. A screen comes up with a message about not being shut down properly and something about hardware changes (although he did not make any). What ever option you choose be it normal or safe mode the computer just restarts and the process is looped.


I have tried to see if windows was damaged so I tried using a Xp disk to run a repair but it does not boot, it just has a flashing dash on the top left of the screen and then goes back to the error screen after a few minutes. I tried swapping out the hard drive but it still does not boot the xp disk.

Anybody knows whats up with it?

Thanx
 
Last edited:
Have you tried a different cd-drive and if its IDE try swapping out the cables. I had a similar thing (the blinking at the top left) when trying to install server...turned out to be faulty cables. Was a bit of an old pc though
 
Its an oldish Mecer pc, P4 2.66. Will check on cables, Something makes a clicking noise before it resets.
 
Press F8 at after POST and select disable automatic restart on system failure. What error message do you get?

If the HDD is rattling, it's gone.
 
Clicking noise seems to be coming from the mobo also a single beep.
 
single short beep. Have reset the ram modules. Also I noticed allot of this weird black dust in the case, wonder if the got anything to do with it. It was like covering a ram module nut I cleaned it.
 
Nishalin said:
Its an oldish Mecer pc, P4 2.66. Will check on cables, Something makes a clicking noise before it resets.
Click to expand...

Hmm, those Mecer Intel mobo's esp with SiS chipsets suffered from shot caps esp near the CPU. Check for swelling near the tops and brown mutie oozing out. If so - toss board i'm afraid. Trying to replace caps is about 20% chance - but a chance there is.
 
Ivork said:
Hmm, those Mecer Intel mobo's esp with SiS chipsets suffered from shot caps esp near the CPU. Check for swelling near the tops and brown mutie oozing out. If so - toss board i'm afraid. Trying to replace caps is about 20% chance - but a chance there is.
Click to expand...

Nishalin said:
single short beep. Have reset the ram modules. Also I noticed allot of this weird black dust in the case, wonder if the got anything to do with it. It was like covering a ram module nut I cleaned it.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm guessing that's the black dust that's everywhere lol! Thanx Ivork
 
Try power down, unplug power cord from the machine, remove cmos battery, wait 2 mins, replace cmos battery & power up. This will cause the cmos to be reset, which may well fix your problem.
 
bekdik said:
Try power down, unplug power cord from the machine, remove cmos battery, wait 2 mins, replace cmos battery & power up. This will cause the cmos to be reset, which may well fix your problem.
Click to expand...

I tried that, I think its a blown capacitor from what Ivork described,
 
Try wot previous poster suggests, but if it's one of those older DG 845 / 865 boards - they always did what you saying. Toss. Sorry. Had somthing to do with power to the cpu (caps) and no seperate psu module like some servers of same generation have.
 
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