posted
I think my computer has finally died. Lately it's been mucking up and restarting itself, saying it can'd find an OS on any disks or devices. Omega suggested that it might be a problem with the IDE cables or controller. I figured that it wasn't that big of a problem because it would restart back into Windows normally. But last night it restarted itself again and I didn't think anything of it as I went to bed. Came home today and it won't start up. I turn it on, it goes through its normal routine of sounds (HD check, floppy check, CD check) but the big red "COMPAQ" doesn't come up and the screen is black and it does nothing. Any ideas? Keep in mind that I'm a poor student and no I can't get a new computer.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Correction, I now get a flashing cursor, and nothing else. Can't type anything into the keyboard, can't get it to boot from a CD.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Does your PC display an error code or play a sequence of beeps during its POST? Or does the screen just stay black?
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
It just flashes the cursor. No beeps, no error message.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Then it can't detect an active partition on your HD to boot from, which is probably a sign that the drive itself is dead (or that the MBR is corrupt, but from the other symptoms you described, I think you won't have suck luck).
As for the CD, are you sure it's bootable and that you've enabled the proper settings and boot order in your system's BIOS?
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
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Okay, after a conversation with my German-Canadian friend, I managed to get the computer working again! Woohoo. Although I still don't know what's wrong with it and would like to get it fixed, but as it is now I can't afford it. Maybe the government will be nice to me at income tax time and I'll be able to get a new computer.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
I had a similar situation with a different Compaq. You might want to look at the CPU.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
You could donate it to some needy school and write the expense off your taxes.
Sure, you'd go to hell for it, but the rent in Dis is cheap if you die during the off-season...
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
If the big red compaq doesn't come up, that implies a problem with something used at startup. Firmware, cpu, RAM, maybe a bus, but the hard disk wouldn't have anything to do with that, I don't think. You might at least open the shell and make sure everything's connected firmly, especially the RAM.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I had something very similar happen to me once. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong. At first I assumed it was the CPU-fan (it'd been making noise). But that wasn't it, so then I figured it was the Mobo or the BIOS. And since I was buying a new Mobo, I may as well get a new CPU, eh? But he problem persisted. So I figured it must be something with HD, some system problem. So painfully, and as it turns out regretfully, I formatted the drive and re-installed all my software (well all the stuff I could find, which thankfully was most of it.)
And then everything was good. For awhile. It started crashing itself again, and it wouldn't finish Scan-Disk, so I decided I needed a new hard-drive. And that seemed to work great. For awhile. But then I started getting weird error messages, frequently while I wasn't even doing anything on the machine.
Video-card? I got a new one, the old one was weak anyway. Not it. Sound card? I'd been meaning to flex my machine's new muscles with some Cakewalk. But the new card wasn't it either.
So then I finally, after so much time and expense, figured out what the problem was. It was the platform/operating system. So then I bought a mac.
Registered: Sep 2000
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
That... was low.
"You might want to look at the CPU."
And the memory. And the power supply. And, well, everything else.
Anyway, Chrissy boy, what did your friend instruct you to do to "repair" your computer? There could be a Vital Clue just waiting to be revealed!
Also, to avoid any more spontaneous reboots, dive into Control Panel ==>> Performance and Maintenance ==>> System ==>> Advanced ==>> Startup and Recovery and unselect Automatically Restart. Now if your PC still reboots without warning, then it's definitely a hardware issue, but if you get a BSOD with an error dump on it, then it's time to fire up XP's Event Viewer and go over the system log with a fine-toothed comb.
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
Funny thing, last night on telly there was a demonstration of what happens to a PC when it's exposed to an EMP. The aftermath sounds similar to this. 8)
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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