Won't boot into windows

[operaflute]

I had posted this as a hard drive question, but I'm having the same problem
after replacing my hard drive so...

Basically, if I shut down, I can't boot back up. Before Windows starts to
load, I get a black screen with a blinking cursor and that's it. I can
restore from some of my backup images (not all - some will give me the same
black screen upon reboot.) but then I can't shut down or I'm back to square
one (sorta defeats the purpose of a laptop, doesn't it?)

Can not boot to safe mode.
Fixmbr and fixboot don't help.

Scanned for viruses, spyware, malware etc. etc. - nothing.

Could this be a bios problem? I'm running out of ideas, and I SO SO SO do
NOT want to reinstall and start from scratch.

XP Pro SP 2 Dell Inspiron 8600

 

[nass]

I had posted this as a hard drive question, but I'm having the same problem
after replacing my hard drive so...

Basically, if I shut down, I can't boot back up. Before Windows starts to
load, I get a black screen with a blinking cursor and that's it. I can
restore from some of my backup images (not all - some will give me the same
black screen upon reboot.) but then I can't shut down or I'm back to square
one (sorta defeats the purpose of a laptop, doesn't it?)

Can not boot to safe mode.
Fixmbr and fixboot don't help.

Scanned for viruses, spyware, malware etc. etc. - nothing.

Could this be a bios problem? I'm running out of ideas, and I SO SO SO do
NOT want to reinstall and start from scratch.

XP Pro SP 2 Dell Inspiron 8600

Can you sned the error message and did you tried to test the memory/RAM to
see if they are okay?
On Start Up press F8 as you do for Safe Mode and on the Boot up Options
select Disable Automatic Restart on Failure and see if you can capture the
error message and post it back in your reply.
HTH,
nass

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I had posted this as a hard drive question, but I'm having the same problem
after replacing my hard drive so...

Basically, if I shut down, I can't boot back up. Before Windows starts to
load, I get a black screen with a blinking cursor and that's it. I can
restore from some of my backup images (not all - some will give me the
same
black screen upon reboot.) but then I can't shut down or I'm back to
square
one (sorta defeats the purpose of a laptop, doesn't it?)

Can not boot to safe mode.
Fixmbr and fixboot don't help.

Scanned for viruses, spyware, malware etc. etc. - nothing.

Could this be a bios problem? I'm running out of ideas, and I SO SO SO do
NOT want to reinstall and start from scratch.

XP Pro SP 2 Dell Inspiron 8600

A blinking cursor in the top left corner is usually a sign of a damaged boot
environment. I would boot the machine off a floppy boot disk in order to
establish if the Windows installation itself is intact. Here is how to make
one:
- Format a floppy disk on some other WinXP PC.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Boot diskette" /fastdetect
/noexecute=optin

If you don't have a floppy disk drive, create the boot floppy on some other
machine that does have an FDD, then burn a boot CD based on this boot
diskette.

 

[independent site]

I had posted this as a hard drive question, but I'm having the same problem
after replacing my hard drive so...

Basically, if I shut down, I can't boot back up.  Before Windows startsto
load, I get a black screen with a blinking cursor and that's it.  I can
restore from some of my backup images (not all - some will give me the same
black screen upon reboot.) but then I can't shut down or I'm back to square
one (sorta defeats the purpose of a laptop, doesn't it?)

Can not boot to safe mode.
Fixmbr and fixboot don't help.

Scanned for viruses, spyware, malware etc. etc. - nothing.

Could this be a bios problem?  I'm running out of ideas, and I SO SO SOdo
NOT want to reinstall and start from scratch.

XP Pro SP 2 Dell Inspiron 8600

SEE YOUR VGA CART OR SCREEN

 

[operaflute]

Error message? There's no error message. I get the Dell Splash screen,
then the black screen with blinking cursor. When this first happened, I ran
the diagnostics using F12 and got DST Short Status Test Error 1000-0142.
Unit 4: Drive Self Test failed Status byte = 79. That pointed me towards
the hard drive, but I jsut replaced it and have same problem.
Will try boot disk when I get a moment...

 

[operaflute]

Can you explain this in more detail? I can format and copy the files, but
how do I create the file?

BTW - I did MemTest overnight last night - no errors.


:

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Can you explain this in more detail? I can format and copy the files, but
how do I create the file?

BTW - I did MemTest overnight last night - no errors.

- Click Start / Run / notepad a:\boot.ini{OK}
- Accept the prompt to create a new file.
- Copy and paste the lines I previously gave you.
- Save & close the file.

 

[operaflute]

Okay, I made the floppy, and know how to boot from it. But will it just
automatically "go" from the floppy to the C drive after booting, or do I need
to know to do something to make that happen?
(I want to make sure I understand everything before I shut this thing down
again!)
THanks!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

This boot.ini line
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
tells the floppy disk-based boot loader to continue loading Windows from the
\Windows folder located on the first partition of the first hard disk in the
system.

 

[operaflute]

How do I know for sure Windows is on the first partition? There is a little
Dell Diagnostic partition on the same disk, and when I look at Disk Manager
it shows up left of the C drive in the graphic representation of the disk.
Thanks for your help!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If Windows is not located on the first partition then the boot process will
fail. You can then replace (1) with (2) or (3).

 

[operaflute]

Okay, I've made one disk of each, which I'll try tonight. In the meantime -
curious: why does a floppy need to be involved at all? Why not just put the
files directly onto a CD?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Okay, I've made one disk of each, which I'll try tonight. In the
meantime -
curious: why does a floppy need to be involved at all? Why not just put
the
files directly onto a CD?

Floppy disks are somewhat easier to create than CDs - suit yourself!

 

[operaflute]

Wouldn't you know it, the dang thing has restarted normally a good 5 times
now! I wonder if when I installed the new hard drive I inadvertently
transferred some bad files to it... I really made a point not to do that,
but after all the repeated backing up/restoring I could have lost track. I'm
out of town now, and not brave enough to shut it down now, but if the problem
recurs, I'll certainly be back here!
Weird.

 

[operaflute]

NG? MS? TS?
's dat?

 

[operaflute]

Gah!!! It happened again. Today I decided to get brave and have the
machine "hibernate" while was at work. Guess what happened when I tried to
wake it up? Yup - black screen with blinking cursor. The boot diskette
didn't work - said the file windows\system 32\hal.dll was missing or corrupt.
Restoring that file from backup didn't do a thing. I had to restore the
entire disk from backup.... AGAIN.

Seriously I am on the brink of insanity as this had been going on almost 2
months. (But I'm still resisting a total re-format/reinstall).

More ideas?