What to do with a PC that won't boot?

LeeRichLuck

Posts: 42   +0
Hi, i have just been given an old Pack-Bell iMedia 1418 from a friend but he did say it wont work, but if i can make anything of it, then its mine for free, so i took a look.
The pc needs a little updating as it only has a whopping 80gig HD and 256mb of ram lol lol lol but it does have a Pentium4 3.0GHz chip with hyperthreading so if i were to get some more ram (possibly 2 or 3 gig) another HD (500gig) and XP home OS then it would probably make a semi decent web browsing / letter writting machine for my daughter to learn with.
Problem is when it boots the error message :-

NTLDR is missing, press alt.ctrl,del to restart......

But this is just a loop that go's no further.

If i replace the HD etc will this probelm go away or is it a MB/Bios problem ?

Hope you can shed some light on this for me,

Regards,

Lee.

P.S the machine has the XP home serial key on the side but my friend never made a recovery disk so i will probably need to just get another OS, which i appreciate.
 
Quick "No frills" way: Format the HD, reinstall the OS. Simple as that. :)

This is what i would do....but then i'm impatient also.
 
Ok, i will try that first. I have an old copy of Vista that i kept from an old pc so will try it as i dont have XP..... i will be back in a jiffy lol,

Thanks Benny ;)
 
Vista wont take on a machine that has less than 512mb of RAM bud :(

A RAM upgrade of a least another 512mb i would recommend...Then put Vista on.
 
I hear you mate, my brother has got an old copy of XP pro so i just checked the requirements and i am ok with this, thanks again, i will post back when installed ;)

Cheers matey.
 
Ok, I got a different problem now lol, I got the xp disk, went into boot order and changed to cd but when it boots now, it comes up with some media failure and to check the ethernet cable so because I didnt have a cable plugged in I plugged one in and here is what I get when I boot now ?
See pic.

Funny thing is, why is it trying to connect to the net before it even installs the OS ?

Ideas peeps ;p

Cheers.
 

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That's just the BIOS moving along the boot line, nothing to do with the CD (IE: If it doesn't find a boot option on the HD or CD, it will almost always go to the ethernet cable)

Are you fully sure that the BIOS is set up correctly for booting from CD first...? Check for any options, say, options for removable drives and such. Make sure the BIOS is reading your optical drive.
 
Ok, cleaned the disk and bingo, XP pro is installed, cheers mate,

Right, big problem, i cant connect to the internet, i need an ethernet controller driver, along with a few other yellow flags in DM.
here is the list.

Ethernet controller
Multimedia controller
SM bus controller
USB controller
Video controller

I have searched the net but cant find any help.... any ideas ?

Thanks.
 
Ah, good news! :)

Ok, we need to identify just what's in the machine, but instead of getting inside you can download a simple program that will identify all the major parts..and then we can find (hopefully) some drivers for you.

Downoad this little program ---> CPU-Z

Then to start off: Transfer it to the XP Pro machine, run it, highlight the "Mainboard" section, and give me the manufacturer and model of your motherboard. The motherboard drivers should cover most of what you have listed here. Once we get this out of the way we can move on to other drivers.

(I'll have to answer you tomorrow mate, I'm knackerd, off to bed) :D
 
Thanks Benny, I have saved the .txt doc for the whole cpuid info.
I also installed SP 2 and it sorted 2 of the yellow flags, I am left with drivers missing for :-

Ethernet con
Multimedia con
Video con

Thanks agin for the help matey, I just need it to connect now ;)
 

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Benny, you are a star mate. all but the vga controller is good to go, the link for the intel chipset 915GV is for Xp64 and wont work on my 32bit xp version, i did a windows update but it cant find a driver... any ideas where to look ?
Thanks again mate...appreciated ;p
 
Hang on, i found one based on the 915GL you mentioned. I got it from Intel download center lol, easy ;p
Thanks again Benny. Have a great weekend, if ever your up Hull way i will buy you a pint ;)
Cheers.
Lee.
 
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