Post, won't boot to Windows

[Fitz]

My wife has an older machine based on a Biostar M7NCD Pro. While playing
WOW, the graphics became corrupt and the machine locked up. Upon a hard
restart, the machine would get to the Post screen, but with a series of
vertical dots on the screen. It will not go past post. After multiple
reboots, it also was not detecting the hard drive. I cleared the CMOS-
didn't help. Reseated the video card- no help. Flashed the BIOS - nope.
Tried booting to the Windows XP install CD- uh, no again. Stops at the
post screen, and then goes black. On one occasion it did try to get to
Windows- I got the "wait while loading" bar graphic (still corrupt
graphics), but that's where it stayed. Motherboard doesn't show any
obvious signs of failure (no leaking or bloated caps). Voltages in BIOS
hardware monitor are normal. Took out one stick of memory at a time and
changed DIMM slots- no luck.

Any ideas, or does my wife get a new computer for Christmas (I already
bought her a vacuum)?

Thanks,
Fitz

 

[DaveW]

Merry Christmas! Time for a new machine.

 

[JAD]

My wife has an older machine based on a Biostar M7NCD Pro. While playing WOW, the
graphics became corrupt and the machine locked up. Upon a hard restart, the machine
would get to the Post screen, but with a series of vertical dots on the screen. It will
not go past post. After multiple reboots, it also was not detecting the hard drive. I
cleared the CMOS- didn't help. Reseated the video card- no help. Flashed the BIOS -
nope. Tried booting to the Windows XP install CD- uh, no again. Stops at the post
screen, and then goes black. On one occasion it did try to get to Windows- I got the
"wait while loading" bar graphic (still corrupt graphics), but that's where it stayed.
Motherboard doesn't show any obvious signs of failure (no leaking or bloated caps).
Voltages in BIOS hardware monitor are normal. Took out one stick of memory at a time and
changed DIMM slots- no luck.

Any ideas, or does my wife get a new computer for Christmas (I already bought her a
vacuum)?

no worries mate, when she opens that present. you'll be dead.

lol

try a different video card (have you reseated it yet?)

 

[RobV]

My wife has an older machine based on a Biostar M7NCD Pro. While
playing WOW, the graphics became corrupt and the machine locked up.
Upon a hard restart, the machine would get to the Post screen, but
with a series of vertical dots on the screen. It will not go past
post. After multiple reboots, it also was not detecting the hard
drive. I cleared the CMOS- didn't help. Reseated the video card- no
help. Flashed the BIOS - nope. Tried booting to the Windows XP
install CD- uh, no again. Stops at the post screen, and then goes
black. On one occasion it did try to get to Windows- I got the "wait
while loading" bar graphic (still corrupt graphics), but that's where
it stayed. Motherboard doesn't show any obvious signs of failure (no
leaking or bloated caps). Voltages in BIOS hardware monitor are
normal. Took out one stick of memory at a time and changed DIMM
slots- no luck.
Any ideas, or does my wife get a new computer for Christmas (I already
bought her a vacuum)?

Thanks,
Fitz

Could be a bad video card. Your description is exactly what occurred
when a video card I had died on me (long time ago). Probably the video
card RAM went bad. Swapping it out with another one would be the best
way to tell. Otherwise, as DaveW said, it's time for a new MB, or
system.

 

[Fitz]

Could be a bad video card. Your description is exactly what occurred
when a video card I had died on me (long time ago). Probably the video
card RAM went bad. Swapping it out with another one would be the best
way to tell. Otherwise, as DaveW said, it's time for a new MB, or
system.

Thanks,

Called BFG and they said it sounded like a video problem. I've got a
machine I can install the card in. They said if it has any issues they
will replace the card (you gotta love real lifetime warranty's and 24/7
tech support in English).

Fitz

 

[RobV]

Thanks,

Called BFG and they said it sounded like a video problem. I've got a
machine I can install the card in. They said if it has any issues they
will replace the card (you gotta love real lifetime warranty's and
24/7 tech support in English).

Fitz

LOL Yes, support like that is very rare.

 

[Fitz]

Tried the video card in a different machine- still corrupt graphics,
though this one will boot to Windows. Set up a cross ship RMA with BFG,
so should have a new card in a couple days. Seems the hard drive failed-
I tried it in a different machine- set it up has both primary slave and
secondary master. It wouldn't run. With it out of the case, but
connected, I can hear it making noise it shouldn't. Don't know if the
graphics card problem is related to the hard drive failure, but either
way, have to replace them both.

Have the drive vacuum sealed in the freezer, hoping to get it working
long enough to recover some docs and pics.

Thanks for the help,

Fitz

 

[RobV]

Tried the video card in a different machine- still corrupt graphics,
though this one will boot to Windows. Set up a cross ship RMA with
BFG, so should have a new card in a couple days. Seems the hard drive
failed- I tried it in a different machine- set it up has both primary
slave and secondary master. It wouldn't run. With it out of the case,
but connected, I can hear it making noise it shouldn't. Don't know if
the graphics card problem is related to the hard drive failure, but
either way, have to replace them both.

Have the drive vacuum sealed in the freezer, hoping to get it working
long enough to recover some docs and pics.

Thanks for the help,

Fitz

Thanks for the update. Good luck getting data from the drive. Freezing
it is a long shot, but it has worked for many people.