Is my computer finished?

[denisd]

Windows XP operatng system

My computer is not geting past the boot up sequence.

when I turn on the computer, it gets to the boot screen and then shows windows opting for the "safe mode" boot sequence. The count down starts at 30 seconds and then stops at 25 seconds and goes no further.

I restart the computer press delete to enter setup. I get to setup and then try to go through the BIOS menu, but the keyboard does not respond.

I have tried to restart and enter into setup numerious times and can only get so far becuase the keyboard does not respond.

I then tried to boot from my Win XP CD. The first time I tried, I got as far as the blue screen and got no further. No keyboard response either.

The second time I tried to boot from the CD, I only got to the DOS screen, where a message was displayed saying that I was booting from the CD.

This message remains on the screen and nothing happens. The cursor blinks at the end of the message, but will not accept any keyboard entries. I have to restart the computer again to get my CD out.

I have a feeling that this may be a hardware problem, but just wanted to post and see if anyone else has had similiar experieces.

Any tips or advise on how to fix or repair would be most welcomed.

Thanks

 

[gbhall]

cant see from here

Symptoms are likely hardware-related. Why not tell us what your hardware is, I cannot see it from here!

 

[Samstoned]

welcome to the forum denisd

check cpu fan first
unplug the hard drive from system
if you are using more'n 1 memory stick
remove all ,but 1
could be not enough power from PSU ( Power supply)
reboot to bios see if it locks up

 

[denisd]

Symptoms are likely hardware-related. Why not tell us what your hardware is, I cannot see it from here!

Hi,
Thanks for the response.

The computer is a P2, 128MB ram. I don't remember the CPU speed. It was wrking fine up to a week ago, when I unplugged the hard drive (15gb Seagate) to install in another computer as a slave to copy some files. Since I put it back in I have had this problem.

I also had to unplug the mains power from the computer and plug it back in to get it started. The "on" switch didn't seem to want to deliver any power to the box.

 

[Tedster]

possibility you shorted something by static. old computers can be touchy when messing with the parts, often the smallest thing can lead to a failure.

 

[blaacksheep]

Check the jumper settings on the drive. Make sure it's set for master (or slave) like it's original position. If you use 'cable select' settings, and you trade cable positions, it'll hang. Manual master/slave settings are preferable because of that.

~bs

 

[gbhall]

Maybe CPU failure

I had very similar symptoms at work just this week. It was a similarly old PC running Win98 and would not complete booting with strange error messages. Quickly found the CPU fan was caput and hence the CPU was overheating, damaged and not fully functional.

Solution was to fit a spare CPU from another oldy. If this is your problem, and you really want to keep it going, you need to identify the CPU and then search computer fairs, ebay, boot sales and the like.

Probably more trouble than it's worth though, get a new cheapo unit and transfer your data from the HD.

 

[Samstoned]

some of these older units get cranky when you unplug stuff
but could be something as simple as a unpluged keyboard or it has gone bad