Dead hard drive-virus- windows malfunction?

X

Xantipis

Running WinXP with all the updates.
While on line the machine made a static noise through
the speakers and the screen went dark. I rebooted and got a message
that I had "disk failure" and for me to let windows scan
the disk. It returned an O. K. Rebooted agian
this time it started to windows but when it got to the
log-in screen it went dark and rebooted itself then
went to a DOS (?) screen asking how it should
boot. ( Safe, to Dos prompt, etc) I have chosen all of the options
individually to no avail.
In Start normally or last best start it appears to start normaly proceeding
to the log-in screen then it flashes a "blue" screen which I cannot read
and reboots.
In command prompt choice it lists a number of files on the screen,stops then
reboots.
Ran a Western Digital program that shows disk O.K. (000)
Ran Windows "repair" (chkdsk /r ans/p) from original XP disk don't really
know what it was telling me but DIDN'T say my disk was bad if that's what
it's supposed to report.
Any ideas?
Thanks
 
G

Guest

Hello Xantipis. Would you please give some imformation. What kind of
computer do you have. How old is it, how about memory, motherboard, video
card. Do you have a utilities such as Norton SystemWorks or McAfee that can
tell the state of the battery for the cmos, or do a scan in safemode to see
if it can be corrected that way.
 
X

Xantipis

Charlie said:
Hello Xantipis. Would you please give some imformation. What kind of
computer do you have. How old is it, how about memory, motherboard, video
card. Do you have a utilities such as Norton SystemWorks or McAfee that
can
tell the state of the battery for the cmos, or do a scan in safemode to
see
if it can be corrected that way.

The machine is a 4 year old "self build" with an MSI mainboard, Athlon
XP2500 CPU,
1.5 GB RAM, Western Digital 80GB HD, Nvidia graphics.
I have no diagnostic programs.
I cannot get to "safe mode".
The machine boots, posts normaly then goes to Windows "splash" screen
THEN goes to a DOS looking screen giving me options to boot to windows.
(Normal, Safe, Dos prompt, network)
Choosing any of the three gets the same results. Machine flashes a "blue"
screen
so fast I can't read it then loops backto the screen giving me the options.
Thanks
 
D

DL

You've tried a winxp repair, via the winxp cd?

Xantipis said:
The machine is a 4 year old "self build" with an MSI mainboard, Athlon
XP2500 CPU,
1.5 GB RAM, Western Digital 80GB HD, Nvidia graphics.
I have no diagnostic programs.
I cannot get to "safe mode".
The machine boots, posts normaly then goes to Windows "splash" screen
THEN goes to a DOS looking screen giving me options to boot to windows.
(Normal, Safe, Dos prompt, network)
Choosing any of the three gets the same results. Machine flashes a "blue"
screen
so fast I can't read it then loops backto the screen giving me the
options.
Thanks
 
M

Malke

Xantipis said:
The machine is a 4 year old "self build" with an MSI mainboard, Athlon
XP2500 CPU,
1.5 GB RAM, Western Digital 80GB HD, Nvidia graphics.
I have no diagnostic programs.
I cannot get to "safe mode".
The machine boots, posts normaly then goes to Windows "splash" screen
THEN goes to a DOS looking screen giving me options to boot to windows.
(Normal, Safe, Dos prompt, network)
Choosing any of the three gets the same results. Machine flashes a "blue"
screen
so fast I can't read it then loops backto the screen giving me the options.
Thanks

Go to Western Digital's site and download their free diagnostic utility.
Create the bootable media per instructions on their website and boot the
affected machine with it. Do a thorough test of the hard drive and if it
fails any physical tests, replace it. If the hard drive tests good, do
some other hardware troubleshooting, starting with the RAM:

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


Malke
 
E

Elmo

Xantipis said:
The machine is a 4 year old "self build" with an MSI mainboard, Athlon
XP2500 CPU,
1.5 GB RAM, Western Digital 80GB HD, Nvidia graphics.
I have no diagnostic programs.
I cannot get to "safe mode".
The machine boots, posts normally then goes to Windows "splash" screen
THEN goes to a DOS looking screen giving me options to boot to windows.
(Normal, Safe, Dos prompt, network)
Choosing any of the three gets the same results. Machine flashes a "blue"
screen
so fast I can't read it then loops backto the screen giving me the options.
Thanks

Is there an option to disable restart on error? That might allow you to
see the BSoD and its error codes..
 
X

Xantipis

Elmo said:
Is there an option to disable restart on error? That might allow you to
see the BSoD and its error codes..


Thanks for the reply. Now, if you could interpret it for me.
What is the BSoD?
I find nothing in my BIOS configuration allowing me to
disable restart, or at least not in that terminology.
Thanks again
Xant
 
X

Xantipis

DL said:
You've tried a winxp repair, via the winxp cd?

Yes but only to the extent that I "checked" the hard drive which
showed O.K.
I can find no instructions on the MS web site telling me what the
various entry's I can make (as shown in Help) will do.
Know of any instructions to the repair function?
Xant
 
G

Guest

BSOD
Blue Screen of Death

Xantipis said:
Thanks for the reply. Now, if you could interpret it for me.
What is the BSoD?
I find nothing in my BIOS configuration allowing me to
disable restart, or at least not in that terminology.
Thanks again
Xant
 
E

Elmo

Xantipis said:
Thanks for the reply. Now, if you could interpret it for me.
What is the BSoD?
I find nothing in my BIOS configuration allowing me to
disable restart, or at least not in that terminology.
Thanks again
Xant

The Boot screen that comes up and gives you options such as Safe Mode,
Safe Mode with Networking, etc. sometimes includes an option to "disable
restart on error". It isn't a BIOS function.
 
P

Plato

Xantipis said:
While on line the machine made a static noise through

Everybody is "online" when a problem occurs.
the speakers and the screen went dark. I rebooted and got a message
that I had "disk failure" and for me to let windows scan

My son just had the same problem. All it was, was a bad case fan.
 

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