Startup Problems

[huntly9]

Hi,

My computer shut down telling me that windows had stopped to protect my
data. I then went to restart but on the black screen recovery console I can
no longer choose which option I want ie. boot with safe mode, safe mode with
networking or command prompt.
My keys will not move the selector bar. I also now find that when I insert
my Vista Premium 32 bit disc to utilise the repair windows function it keeps
just rebooting to the desktop. My 1st boot drive is my dvd. How can I get
past this startup problem?Thanks.

 

[Bob Noble]

Sounds like your dvd player is not starting your disc.
The most likely cause for this, since you say it is selected as the first
boot device is the players jumpers are set wrong.
They can be set wrong and windows will still make the player work in
windows, but if they are set wrong, startup doesn't use windows yet and the
jumpers better be set properly, or it won't start the startup disk.
It's also slightly possible that you are having some other hardware problem
that is causing all hardware on the computer to get messed up.
Hard drive is ok, or you wouldn't have gotten as far as you did. But the
system software may just be messed up.
I'd do everything in my power to get that system disk to boot, even if it
means taking out most of the other hardware or whatever it takes.
New player? I doubt you need one.
Start with making sure the jumpers are set right for all devices on the
cable the dvd player is on.
You can disconnect the hard drive while testing to get the dvd to boot if
you think it might be causing a problem as the computer doesn't need a hard
drive to startup with a system dvd. If you remove the hard drive and it's on
the same cable as the dvd player, it will change how the jumpers should be
set on the dvd player unless it is set to cable select.

Have you tried another keyboard as if it's caput, the system wouldn't like
it and could do a lot of what you describe.

 

[huntly9]

Sounds like your dvd player is not starting your disc.
The most likely cause for this, since you say it is selected as the first
boot device is the players jumpers are set wrong.
They can be set wrong and windows will still make the player work in
windows, but if they are set wrong, startup doesn't use windows yet and the
jumpers better be set properly, or it won't start the startup disk.
It's also slightly possible that you are having some other hardware problem
that is causing all hardware on the computer to get messed up.
Hard drive is ok, or you wouldn't have gotten as far as you did. But the
system software may just be messed up.
I'd do everything in my power to get that system disk to boot, even if it
means taking out most of the other hardware or whatever it takes.
New player? I doubt you need one.
Start with making sure the jumpers are set right for all devices on the
cable the dvd player is on.
You can disconnect the hard drive while testing to get the dvd to boot if
you think it might be causing a problem as the computer doesn't need a hard
drive to startup with a system dvd. If you remove the hard drive and it's on
the same cable as the dvd player, it will change how the jumpers should be
set on the dvd player unless it is set to cable select.

Have you tried another keyboard as if it's caput, the system wouldn't like
it and could do a lot of what you describe.

--
Bob Noble
http://www.sonic.net/bnoble



Hi,

Thanks for posting! I can't see why it would be the jumpers as the system is
only 1 year old and I installed Vista from the disc in the same way I am
trying to use repair now? The keyboard is only 3 months old and is Vista
compatible, I updated my keyboard as Vista did not like my old one. I just
ran Vista memory check and it tells me I have hardware issues. Could my ram
if it is faulty cause the whole system to do weird things? Thanks again as
your suggestions have certainly got me thinking.

 

[Bob Noble]

So, I miss understood. Your keyboard works, but just won't select at that
window, so it's ok.
The jumpers are likely set right if the player worked before as you said.
Bad memory can cause all sorts of problems. Get and run memtest86. It's run
from a disk, you start the computer with it and see what it says about your
memory.
It's free on the internet somewhere.
If it won't run, I'd check your disk startup sequence again in the bios.

 

[Mick Murphy]

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Above is the MS link to download and make a bootable Memory testing disk.