HELP - Can't start up Computer AT ALL. even with floppy or CD's

[jb]

Hi, thanks for takign the time to read this: I cant start my computer AT
ALL. not from the drive, the startup floppys or the recovery CD's. the
screen stays blank. here's what i did:

I have a gateway P4 1.7 GHZ computer running Windows XP. I decided to try
Mandrake 9.1 (first time trying linux) and used it to shrink the windows
partition and dual boot linux. The first time I did this I installed
LILO(the bootloader) to the MBR of the computer, but I didn't configure my
monitor correctly, so when it finished installing linux it would only start
up with the text version. I didnt know what to do so I reinstalled
mandrake, this time setting LILO to install on the partiton of mandrake (is
lilo now both here and on the MBR?) and set up my monitor so that KDE
started when linux did. LILO had linux as the default OS, but I wanted
windowsXP to be the default. SO under the LILO options there was some
setting where I changed somehting like "boot from: hda(5)" to "hda(1)",
hoping that would do it. I'm guessing this was a huge mistake. When I
restarted nothing showed up on my screen. I guess I set it to look for lilo
on the windows xp partition where it isn't. Now all I want to do is get XP
back, but I can't boot from a CD-ROM or a floppy. I don't know what to do.
I can't even get into the BIOS. The screen is always blank. I even tried
to boot with my 2nd hard drive (data only) as master, and boot with no
drives in. I also removed the battery on the motherboard for a minute, stil
nothing. I really dont know what to do. If anyone can help please email me
at (e-mail address removed)
just remove NOSPAM from above.
IT is very appreciated.
thanks

 

[Robert Newson]

Hi, thanks for takign the time to read this: I cant start my computer AT
ALL. not from the drive, the startup floppys or the recovery CD's. the
screen stays blank. here's what i did:

I have a gateway P4 1.7 GHZ computer running Windows XP. I decided to try
Mandrake 9.1 (first time trying linux) and used it to shrink the windows
partition and dual boot linux. The first time I did this I installed
LILO(the bootloader) to the MBR of the computer, but I didn't configure my
monitor correctly, so when it finished installing linux it would only start
up with the text version. I didnt know what to do so I reinstalled
mandrake, this time setting LILO to install on the partiton of mandrake (is
lilo now both here and on the MBR?) and set up my monitor so that KDE
started when linux did. LILO had linux as the default OS, but I wanted
windowsXP to be the default. SO under the LILO options there was some
setting where I changed somehting like "boot from: hda(5)" to "hda(1)",
hoping that would do it. I'm guessing this was a huge mistake. When I
restarted nothing showed up on my screen. I guess I set it to look for lilo
on the windows xp partition where it isn't. Now all I want to do is get XP
back, but I can't boot from a CD-ROM or a floppy. I don't know what to do.
I can't even get into the BIOS. The screen is always blank.

Does the machine "beep" when you switch it on? (A single "Beep" or a series
of "beeps"?)

I even tried
to boot with my 2nd hard drive (data only) as master, and boot with no
drives in. I also removed the battery on the motherboard for a minute, stil
nothing.

That may/should have wiped the cmos and so the bios may not know what drives
you have installed to try and boot.

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

It appears that he is not seeing anything, including a splash screen!

 

[Edward J. Neth]

Try reseating the video card and memory first.

 

[jb]

in case anyone cares,
The problem was my ****ing monitor...I had no idea. I just hooked up my
video card to my TV, and it worked. The 2 short beeps were the BIOS wanting
me to reset the date and time. I have no idea why my monitor is not
working. It is a flat panel SGI 1600SW....i dont think i can still get
service on it or replace it.

Could it have been linux? mandrake had no info on my monitor, so i selected
some random flat panel. the wizard told me to becareful setting custom
settings as it could damage the monitor. is this possible??

 

[Phil Ellett]

Quite likely ....

I killed a CRT monitor some years ago playing with X-Windows ... luckily for
me however monitor
was still under warranty and I got it replaced ....

I suprised that this should happen to a modern flat panel however ... a lot
of monitors now just display "invalid frequency