Windows won't boot

[Aryder]

Ok, i have a custom computer that i built not too long ago that has been working perfectly. This morning the computer was working, i left it on while i left the house, came back to the house like 6 hours later and the computer was turned off. So i turn it back on and it goes through the bios info and post messgase, then right before it is supposed to load windows xp, the screen goes blank, with a little curser blinking in the top left corner. The keyboard is unresponsive and I can't do anything on this screen except restart the computer manually. Bios is detecting the hard drives, theres no loose cables...i don't know what else to do. Please help.

 

[unmerited]

If you haven't already, you could try booting from your Windows cd or other bootable disk to check if the same thing happens.


unmerited

 

[Aryder]

Yeah, i've tried that alraedy...put the windows cd in and booted it up and it won't autorun it...I can't even get it to run in safe mode, wtf. So, i'm thinking the hard drive failed, its a WD raptor 74gig. I'm going to try and remove it, and load windows on my slave drive, see if that works. Lemme know if that is a bad idea.

 

[bluestrobe]

safe mode or do you even get far enough to see the option?

 

[Aryder]

Don't get far enough to see the option

 

[unmerited]

Just a thought, Aryder, but have you taken a look at your BIOS settings?


unmerited

 

[Aryder]

Yeah man, i've gone through the bios and looked at everything, and it all seems to be just like it should be, i've even tried changing some things around in the bios, but it didn't work. Although I did find out what might of caused this mishap....While I was gone from my house, there was a power surge, thats why the power was off when I got home. Can power surges damage hard drives, or operating systems?

 

[unmerited]

Yeah, they can damage hardware especially if not plugged into a surge protector. Swapping out the hard drive sounds like an idea but unless you can get the Windows CD to boot it's going to be tough installing the OS.


unmerited

 

[Aryder]

Wow, i just tried swapping out hard drives. Put my slave drive into sata1 and removed the old master...and not a damn thing changed. It still just goes the same blank screen after bios and post messages. The windows CD still won't boot...I don't know what else to do.

 

[unmerited]

If it were me, I would give clearing the CMOS a try.


unmerited

 

[lilstewart92]

Try a WinXP boot floppy, see if that works and then put the CD in the drive and run setup.exe from there; after you change it to D: (or whatever your drive is) and then put in setup.exe in dos.

See if that works.

 

[lilstewart92]

How would you do that? The CMOS trick.

 

[unmerited]

It would probably make more sense if I said resetting the BIOS. Usually done by moving a jumper on the mb.


unmerited

 

[Aryder]

Yeah, i've already cleared the cmos and it did not help the situation. As for the winxp boot floppy, i don't have one. My windows was an oem cd.

 

[RBBRMADE]

Could be your power supply. Any way you can swap it?
Ron

 

[lilstewart92]

I doubt that would do the things that this machine is doing.

 

[Aryder]

I had a tech come out and look at it, it seems that the motherboard was fried during the power surge

 

[unmerited]

Wow! Sorry to hear that, man. Here's hoping you will be able to replace it without to much hassle (mula).


unmerited