Boot Failure: System Halted

[lorne]

Hi,
Never a dull moment!!
Got a computer that the power was shut off accidentally from the power bar.
When restarting the computer, I get the following:
System starts to do a ram count (real slow up to 512MB) with a line at the
bottom of the screen (F12) to boot from network,
then black screen with the line at the top: Boot Failure: System Halted.
I cannot get into BIOS, system will not boot from floppy or CD drive.....
I changed the ribbon cable - no success
tried a difference power supply - no success

Any ideas on the next stop??

Lorne

 

[Guest]

hi ,

repair your windows xp
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

regards

senthil

 

[lorne]

Thank you for the quick response.... however, my post says, i cannot boot
from cd or floppy nor can i enter BIOS settings.

 

[Bob S.]

Tell us a little about the computer. Sometimes the CMOS battery goes dead
and resets all the BIOS settings and there are motherboards (like Abit) that
require you to power down, remove the power cord (30 sec delay), reinsert
power cord, and hold-down the Insert key while powering up to get back into
the BIOS after it's been reset or otherwise - glitched.

Look at the manual for the motherboard and see what the procedures are.
I've had a problem with a couple of Gigabit boards that had their BIOS code
scrambled for no apparent reason and had to get replacement chips from the
company.

Also, any LED's on the back panel or inside the case that indicate a
particular failure? Minimize the system by removing all but one stick of
memory and all other cards except the video card and see what happens. Try
substituting the video card with a known good one.

Even if you have a bad boot record / sector, you should be able to get into
the BIOS. From there, see if it recognizes the drives, amount of memory,
power supply readings, fan speed, etc.

Bob S.

 

[Guest]

Lorne,

Have you tried removing the battery from the motherboard or using the reset
jumper to reset the MB? Try removing the battery for 24 hours then put it
back in. I've seen it work before.

 

[Lee Chapelle]

Thank you for the quick response.... however, my post says, i cannot boot
from cd or floppy nor can i enter BIOS settings.

BIOS damaged? You could try ordering a replacement BIOS chip from the mfg. I
have done that a couple of times with Abit in California, the chips were
sent in a regular envelope, only cost a few bucks, and arrived within a
week. It's much cheaper than finding a shop that can reprogram chips.

Lee

 

[lorne]

You guys, including Bob S., are genius's!!
I popped out the CMOS battery, checked in on a meter (read below 1.0 volts),
popped in another one i had lying around.. rebooted... changed the clock and
date settings ... and vwella.... system boots up!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Lorne

 

[Charlie]

and removing the power cord.

Lorne,

Have you tried removing the battery from the motherboard or using the reset
jumper to reset the MB? Try removing the battery for 24 hours then put it
back in. I've seen it work before.