Dell crashed all of the sudden!!! HELP!!

[samjohnson]

Ok well my sister and I were playing america's army when my internet crashed. So I restarted the modem and the ethernet light came on indicating that I got the internet to my computer now, but the usb did not, which is the cable running to the dell. So we restarted it and when we went to turn it back on it runs a blue screen really really fast so you can't even possibly read it. Then it goes to where you can select to go to safe mode or start windows normally or even start windows with last known good configuration. So I hit start windows normally, and it comes up with the windows xp logo with the little scrolling bar. But then it restarts. And I get this cycle, where it never boots up. I tried taking out the memory modules one at a time to see if it would boot with one of them, that didn't work. I took out the cmos battery and that didn't work. As far as I know all the cables should be good and secure. I removed the PCI graphics card and used the onboard video and that didn't do anything either. So I am really stuck to what to do here. I do have some stuff I need to get off there, so if it comes to the point that I can't get it to run, I will pop it into my computer and hopefully I can get my parents program they have to do their bills with backed up. So if any one has suggestions as to what could have happend that would be great. I guess if it involves much of a part change or something I am probably going to junk it.

Specs,
Dell Dimension E310
1gig of ram
Geforce FX 5200 video card, has been crashing a few times lately, but I thought maybe it was graphics overeheating.
60gig HD
Intel Pentium 4 3.06Ghz processor

Well it would be great if anybody has any suggestions.

 

[fastco]

Boot off of a recovery disk like BartPE if you can get to one and run Checkdisk.
If that doesn't work then follow this guide on doing a repair install of XP, you won't lose any files. (Famous Last Words)
https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic8356.html

Yes it could just be overheated. Let it cool off for an hour or so and try it.

 

[samjohnson]

the problem is that the dell did not come with any cds.
I do have a oem windows xp cd that I bought when I built my computer. Could I use that and do the windows repair or would that not work. I have never herd of bartpe, is it free? What does it do?
One other thing, it also gives two beeps a couple of seconds after I hit the power button. Any body know what that means?

**Edit**

Ok well right now I am beginning to think that something failed.
But since I don't have anyway to check any of the internal components except the HD, I am thinking of taking the HD and putting it into my computer and getting all the files off of it that I can. Does anybody know if this will work? Will it even boot up since it came from a different computer?

 

[samjohnson]

Ok well I discoverd the problem. The hard drive failed or something. I put it into a different computer and it did the same cycle thing. SO what I am wondering now is can I use my XP oem CD that I bought and use the repair function on there. OR would that not work becuase that is not the CD that was used to put windows on the dell. If I can't do that is there anyway to get files off of it?

 

[nickc]

if both copies are the same (home - home, Pro - Pro) then yes it would work but if they are not the same then no it will not work.

 

[samjohnson]

Ya the dell is Home and the CD is Home. So then I could do it? Just want to make sure. So if I do the repair option then hopefully I won't lose any data?
I did the BartPE thing but for some reason when it was trying to do the search for the files it needs to make the CD it can't find any. Does anybody know how to fix this?