boot failure: system halted

[Guest]

hi,
i have two PC's. one was not turning on so i removed the Mobo battery from
each one to see if that was the problem. well now i have a new problem. the
one that i know worked is now not working any more. after putting the battery
in to the working PC and turned it on windows would not load. i get a black
screen with what looks like a RAM check. there is a counter going from 0- 512
mb. after that is done i hear 3 beeps and then the message of boot failed:
system haulted. there is an choose to hit F12 to boot from the network which
i have tried. i get a blue box with what should be options to select a boot
drive. however there is none listed. i have reinstalled windows in the
attempt to fix this. this did not work and in hind sight probably should have
know the data on the HD was not currupt. so i need H-E-L-P!!!!!!

 

[Patrick Keenan]

hi,
i have two PC's. one was not turning on so i removed the Mobo battery from
each one to see if that was the problem. well now i have a new problem.
the
one that i know worked is now not working any more. after putting the
battery
in to the working PC and turned it on windows would not load. i get a
black
screen with what looks like a RAM check. there is a counter going from 0-
512
mb. after that is done i hear 3 beeps and then the message of boot failed:
system haulted. there is an choose to hit F12 to boot from the network
which
i have tried. i get a blue box with what should be options to select a
boot
drive. however there is none listed. i have reinstalled windows in the
attempt to fix this. this did not work and in hind sight probably should
have
know the data on the HD was not currupt. so i need H-E-L-P!!!!!!

You need to look at the BIOS settings, as it would appear that it isn't
detecting the drives. Watch the screens at power-on - not reboot - to see
what key to press. It's often DEL, F10, or F2.

If you shut down, take the battery out, jumper the CMOS CLEAR jumper,
remove the jumper and put the battery back, the system should want you to
reconfigure and tell you what key to press. This will also force a
re-detect of system hardware.

If your system has SATA drives, be aware that some motherboards require
specific settings to boot from SATA. Check the manual for the board.

HTH
-pk

 

[Guest]

thank alot. i had to do what you suggested twice. the first time it did not
work. what did is i put the BIOS on defult settings and that worked. windows
fired up and life is now good.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

thank alot.

You are most welcome.

i had to do what you suggested twice. the first time it did not
work.

Sometimes it takes a couple of tries, yes. You have to bleed out the
charge holding the memory settings.

Incidentally, there's a variation of this for laptops, a "secret handshake",
that can solve a lot of serious-looking no-start problems fast and cheap.

To perform this, unplug the power adapter and remove the laptop batteries.
It's important that all of the power sources be disconnected for this.

Press and hold the power switch for up to a minute. You may need to do
this a few times. Plug the power adapter back in, and try restarting.
Once the laptop starts showing signs of responding, you can put the battery
back in.

This procedure effectively clears the BIOS and sets it to defaults.

It's easy to do, and easy to walk someone through on the phone. And they
are *thrilled* when the system restarts.

what did is i put the BIOS on defult settings and that worked. windows
fired up and life is now good.

It's great when simple things make life good.

HTH
-pk