Booting Sequence Stops

[duke4131z]

I have a 2 yr old Dell desktop and when I start it, the boot sequence stops
with the cursor flashing in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Usually,
I can hear the hard drive engage, but it seems to freeze before that part of
the sequence starts. Do you think I have a communications problem between mb
and hd or possible a bad hd? I'm no expert so this explaination may be a
little short in the necessary info department. I would appreciate any help.
Thanks

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

When you see the flashing icon next time, reboot using Ctrl+Alt+Del, then
keep tapping the F8 key to access a screen that has 'Last Known Good
Configuration' as an option. Try that.

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[duke4131z via WindowsKB.com]

F8 does not do anything. I can access cmos via F2 and some other options via
F12 but none do anything different. I tried booting with the windows XP
installation cd. I choose "istall" and got all the way until it recognized
the windows installation on my hard drive. I then selected the 'repair'
option. When it tried to reboot, it did the same thing. Is there another way
to get to some kind of system restore?

Hi

When you see the flashing icon next time, reboot using Ctrl+Alt+Del, then
keep tapping the F8 key to access a screen that has 'Last Known Good
Configuration' as an option. Try that.

I have a 2 yr old Dell desktop and when I start it, the boot sequence stops
with the cursor flashing in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]

help.
Thanks

 

[Malke]

F8 does not do anything. I can access cmos via F2 and some other
options via F12 but none do anything different. I tried booting with
the windows XP installation cd. I choose "istall" and got all the way
until it recognized the windows installation on my hard drive. I then
selected the 'repair' option. When it tried to reboot, it did the same
thing. Is there another way to get to some kind of system restore?

Hi

When you see the flashing icon next time, reboot using Ctrl+Alt+Del,
then keep tapping the F8 key to access a screen that has 'Last Known
Good
Configuration' as an option. Try that.

I have a 2 yr old Dell desktop and when I start it, the boot sequence
stops
with the cursor flashing in the upper left hand corner of the
screen.

[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]

help.
Thanks

Then it sounds like a hardware failure. Software solutions (system
restore) will not help with hardware problems. Either run the Dell
Diagnostics and contact Dell for repair/replacement if the machine is
under warranty or run your own diagnostics:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Troubleshooting

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts
with known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA).

Malke

 

[duke4131z via WindowsKB.com]

Thanks for the help but I got it going. Evidently it was something (virus??)
in the boot sector or registry. I was able to access the drive as a slave in
my other pc and get the files I wanted with a little extra work. I then wiped
it clean and re-installed XP and its running fine. It was not a total lost. I
did learn something new about working around administrative rights and file
access. Thanks for the help and responses!

F8 does not do anything. I can access cmos via F2 and some other
options via F12 but none do anything different. I tried booting with

[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
Then it sounds like a hardware failure. Software solutions (system
restore) will not help with hardware problems. Either run the Dell
Diagnostics and contact Dell for repair/replacement if the machine is
under warranty or run your own diagnostics:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Troubleshooting

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts
with known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA).

Malke