Vista Boot Help

[lodog00]

I recently cleaned out my system, and re-did the cabling and in the process, cleaned the CPU and Heatsink. My case has a removable mobo tray, so it was very easy to unplug everything, and then clean the CPU without removing it from the socket. I used arctic silver's two-part cleaning solution.

I'm going to keep a long story short, and refer to this thread I started a while ago that detailed a similar problem, when I installed a new CPU and new RAM into my system.

The problem is similar....can't boot into windows, and I've made sure everything is properly connected/configured and that my bios settings contain the same boot order and whatnot.

The difference is I didn't install a new CPU, just reseated the heatsink, and all the components are the same.

I've tested the memory before (using memtest off a SUSE 10.3 install DVD I made) and it's passed, so I'm fairly sure it's not memory related. I can POST, but I cannot boot. The HDs are all detected properly in BIOS, but after managing to get into Vista's repair utility, it didn't detect that I have any HD's installed let alone any installations of Vista....

if anyone can help, this time around, it would be great, at the very least for the future. The last time this happened, the general advice was buy a new HD, reinstall windows, and transfer all your files. This is extremely time consuming, re-installing all the programs/games I use, and re-installing windows. Thankfully, I had the foresight to store all my documents and media on separate HDs, so if I did have to reinstall windows again, I at least retain all my relevant data. But if anyone can suggest a solution other than spending money and re-installing windows, it would be REALLY appreciated.

the system:

Windows Vista Premium 32-bit
EVGA 680i SLI Mobo
Core2Duo E6700 w/ASUS Silent Square PRO and Arctic Silver 5
2GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2 1066
EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB
SoundBlaster X-FI Fatal1ty Gamer
3 X 320GB Seagate Hard Drives (no RAID)
OCZ GameXtream 700W

Again, nothing has been changed, this is the same system I've been running for months now, 24/7, and if at all possible, I'd rather NOT have to go about buying another HD and re-installing windows and migrating all my data back on it. Sorry for the long post...but hopefully this is thorough enough that someone out there can help me, for now, and for the future in case this happens again....

 

[lodog00]

I spent about an hour re-building the PC again, this time removing the CPU and reseating it, and re-doing all the cabling. Somehow, magically, my PC is now working, and at the very least, the cable management is much cleaner and more organized. I didn't do anything different from before...and I didn't change the boot order or cable position of my Hard Drives....none of the components have moved or changed.

Does anyone know what might have happened? This stuff never happened with my Athlon X2 build. And I used to regularly change procs until recently, so I'm really not sure why this time get these random problems.

Anyway, I somehow fixed my problem, so I guess I apologize if I wasted you people's time.


so I guess the moderator can delete this thread unless anyone actually has input for me.

 

[mechBgon]

One possible show-stopper is if you accidentally connect PS/2 (round-plug) mice or keyboards to the wrong PS/2 port (it's no accident they're color-coded).