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Thread ID: 89803 2008-05-12 21:55:00 PC freezes on bootup sarel (2490) Press F1
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668674 2008-05-12 21:55:00 Hi guys

Got a PC yesterday from a friend, she just said "it freezes" and asked for help. (Why me, I don't know). Tried to start it up, freezes on Compaq screen, NONE of the F1/F10/Esc buttons working. It sounds as if it is starting to load drivers/whatever, fans are going, and then it just stops. She said she changed nothing.

Tried to boot up with her recovery disk - no chance, same screen. Will try Ultimate Boot disk tonite. Did check seating of RAM - no problem. Did check all connections - no obvious problem. Changed keyboards - no change.

I've got the funny feeling her RAM is somehow fried, but then I don't know. About the PC - I don't know much, I know it's XP, it looks like a 512RAM, and I think 1.4 Pentium.

Any other suggestions other than trying the ultimate boot disk and mem86 tests? What to do if it does not boot, even with ultimate boot disk?:badpc:

Thanks for the advice in advance

sarel 		sarel (2490)
668675 2008-05-12 22:21:00 Three things you can try....

Reset the BIOS. If there is no obvious jumper on the motherboard (saying something like clr_cmos), rip the battery off the motherboard and leave it unplugged for a half hour. Then put the battery in again, try starting it up again.

Second thing, unplug the hard drive. Turn on the PC. You should get a:

"disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter message."

If the PC doesn't get to that stage, swap out RAM, try again.

If it does, possibly the hard drive has thrown a wobbly,. and there is the possibility of data loss.

Third thing, unplug everything, including optical/hard drives, PCI cards, front USB/audio etc. If it works, plug them in one by one. Eventually either it will just work, of you'll figure out which bit is causing the problem.

Or...the motherboard's faulty.

If you can get into the UBCD, run full memory and hard drive diagnostics. (Obviously the HDD needs to be plugged in for this) 		wratterus (105)
668676 2008-05-12 22:41:00 The Compaq screen is just covering up the memory check & various POST screens that show on a normal PC.
If it's freezing there, then there is usually some hardware fault.

Compaq used to have diagnostics disks that you could download, but you'd need to reset the BIOS as in the post above to get it to boot from a floppy. 		autechre (266)
668677 2008-05-12 22:43:00 Thanks guys - will try that tonite and report back

sarel 		sarel (2490)
668678 2008-05-12 22:44:00 If you can get Ultimate to boot and load, you can also try winding the system back to yesterday using windows restore - sometimes works, just in case its some sort of software issue.


IF ultimate will boot, heres the path (www.imagef1.net.nz), select C:\windows, follow the prompts.

I may be able to shred some more light later today - got to go get a customers PC that is doing the EXACT same thing, something downloaded and installed over the weekend, I'm thinking it may be SP3.< thats only a guess till I get the PC. 		wainuitech (129)
668679 2008-05-12 23:04:00 Check the RAM. Then check the PSU- or swap it out is easier. pctek (84)
668680 2008-05-13 00:02:00 Wainuitech, I don't know what they've done - they can't tell me and they say they've done nothing. It may be SP3 or it may be PSU or RAM or whatever. I will wait to see what you found with your clients as well.

Just one question - if I couldn't get any XP or recovery/boot disk to boot up, how the heck is ultimate boot disk going to boot? Does it "force" the system to boot?

PCTek - I'll try swapping but when you really do not have spare RAM and PSU's lying around it becomes a bit more difficult. I got this job because about a year ago I reformatted the HD, reinstalled XP and solved their virus and related software problems and was seen as sitting up there with Peter at the Pearly Gates. This time I don't think it's a virus, I think it's hardware - but then I'm not an ubergeek like you guys working on this every day.

sarel 		sarel (2490)
668681 2008-05-13 00:08:00 No No No :lol: if you look both wratterus and myself mentioned IF Ultimate would boot - then options given.

Quite simply if a CD wont boot from the drive when it used to then there is more than likely a hardware problem - BUT not always - I have actually seen viruses sometimes disable the optical drive so CD's wont boot to allow repairs.

First you need to find out if its hardware or software. So try what wratterus & Pctek suggest. 		wainuitech (129)
668682 2008-05-13 00:11:00 No No No :lol: if you look both wratterus and myself mentioned IF Ultimate would boot - then options given.

Quite simply if a CD wont boot from the drive when it used to then there is more than likely a hardware problem - BUT not always - I have actually seen viruses sometimes disable the optical drive so CD's wont boot to allow repairs.

First you need to find out if its hardware or software. So try what wratterus & Pctek suggest.

Definitely. :p 		wratterus (105)
668683 2008-05-13 00:19:00 Peace, peace. :p :D OK I get the message. Will see what happens.

sarel 		sarel (2490)
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