Can't Boot PC

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Neil - 23 May 2008 23:33 GMT

Does anyone know how to revive a PC that suddenly won't boot?

The PC just today stopped booting - if I try to boot Windows normally then
the PC just re-starts & goes back to the text based menu with various boot
options. The same happens with 'Last known good configuration' and if I try
Safe Mode, some of the drivers appear to load then the same, re-boot to BIOS
then text menu.

If anyone has any advice on how to overcome this I'd love to hear it - also,
no software or hardware has been installed in the last few weeks (Except
Windows automatic updates) it just re-started when I switched on this morning.

Thanks in advance.

Neil

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David H. Lipman - 23 May 2008 23:41 GMT

From: "Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com>

| Does anyone know how to revive a PC that suddenly won't boot?
|
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
|
| Neil

Go to the hard disk manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic software
respective to your hard disk. After the test, you will know if the hard disk is bad or
not..

Quantum/Maxtor - PowerMax
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Western Digital - Data LifeGuard Tools (DLGDiag)
http://support.wdc.com/download/

Hitachi/IBM - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate - SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Fujitsu - Diagnostic Tool
http://www.fcpa.com/download/hard-drives/

Samsung - Disk manager
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/shdiag.htm

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Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

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artfudd - 23 May 2008 23:43 GMT

I just had that happen on a computer I am fixing for a client.. and the only
solution in this instance was to do a repair install of XP (XP w/sp2) by booting
into the XP disk - that is the second instance of the option to press "R" to
repair that comes up during the install process. The owner had tried to install
SP3 through WU, and it failed... so this was a fix for that as well... It now
has XP w/SP3 and all is well.

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Art (artfudd)..
----------------

> Does anyone know how to revive a PC that suddenly won't boot?
>
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Neil

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R. McCarty - 23 May 2008 23:47 GMT

The restarts are due to a Windows setting "Automatic Restart". Due
to this any diagnostic information is immediately cleared as the PC
restarts. Normally a halt condition (BSOD, Blue Screen of Death )
will report a Hexadecimal error code. This code contains information
on what caused the fault. It's almost impossible to say what is going
on without additional details. It could be a disk error, Registry Hive
issue or some hardware component in the PC failing.

If you have a Windows XP install CD, you can boot to the Recovery
Console and do a Chkdsk on your windows volume as a starting
point for diagnostics.

> Does anyone know how to revive a PC that suddenly won't boot?
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> Neil

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dadiOH - 23 May 2008 23:52 GMT

> Does anyone know how to revive a PC that suddenly won't boot?
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> configuration' and if I try Safe Mode, some of the drivers appear to
> load then the same, re-boot to BIOS then text menu.

In that boot menu, select the option to "Disable automatic restart on system
failure" and see what sort of error/error code is thrown up. Google that
result (or post it here).

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dadiOH
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