XP bios boot failure

[Tuss]

Hi everybody,

I am new to this site and I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on a computer I have been given to repair for a relative.
All I know is it is an 800mhz cpu with 128 meg ram running on XP. The problem is it will start its boot up sequence pass the post and primary and secondary divice test then halt and go no further. I cannot get it to use a startup floppy or a bootable disk as it goes not further. The hard drive will boot and run in a different computer and all the other hardware appears to be working.
Any ideas would be gratefully received.
Thanks Tuss

 

[hnsexeter]

Try going into bios and turning off everything apart from the things you need - eg onboard LAN, sound etc see if it boots

then remove the CD Drive / floppy so all you've got is Hard Disk, RAM and graphics

Check all IDE cables and make sure theyre pushed in firmly, along with the power connectors

If you can remove internal dust using a can of compressed air

If that fails a new motherbaord may be needed

 

[Tuss]

Thanks for that, I will give it a go this weekend.
Regards
Tuss

 

[smore9648]

Hi everybody,

I am new to this site and I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on a computer I have been given to repair for a relative.
All I know is it is an 800mhz cpu with 128 meg ram running on XP. The problem is it will start its boot up sequence pass the post and primary and secondary divice test then halt and go no further. I cannot get it to use a startup floppy or a bootable disk as it goes not further. The hard drive will boot and run in a different computer and all the other hardware appears to be working.
Any ideas would be gratefully received.
Thanks Tuss

Are you receiving any error messages? Ensure the BIOS recognizes all the devices and boot from the Recovery CD. Run CHKDSK /R and see what happens.

 

[Tuss]

Hi,
I can't use the boot cd or a floppy as the system halts immediately after recognising the primary and secondary drives on the first screen to appear and then nothing happens the screen halts. I can't get to a dos promt to run anything. I have been into the bios and changed the start up sequence settings to floppy/cdrom/hdd-0 and it still halts after recognising them.
Do you think a boot virus could cause this problem?

 

[Liquidlen]

Did you confirm that old hardware is compatible with XP Check the HAL listing at Microsoft.
I suspect you have a driver conflict from something in that older system.
Also 128 mg of Ram is on the light side , I know it will run XP but you need to minimize start up programs and processes when you get booted.
Also try to reset the CMOS this may allow you to boot to Floppy and then see about any Bios updates.

 

[maku.ji]

I have same problem (may be no exactly same). Computer don´t try to boot. If there is some activity, I think I´ll see the LED blink or any sound from floppy or cd-drive, but nothing. in the time (or place) where you should see "press any key to install" or boot failure, there is only blinking "_" and sometimes it´s under the table and sometimes it is on black screen.. to now nothing helped even reset CMOS not. 700Mhz 256MB dimm ram ...
..I don´t have problem with detection of hard drive or cd-rom... but it isn´t booting at all...

 

[Tuss]

I havn't checked with Microsoft Hal listings because I can't get it started to find out whats in it. It has been running on XP for six months without a problem. I have reset the cmos but it will still not fire up past the post tests.

 

[maku.ji]

Can be the problem because of motherboard?... just guestimate... because almost all posibillities are exhausted...

 

[Liquidlen]

Hi,
I can't use the boot cd or a floppy as the system halts immediately after recognising the primary and secondary drives on the first screen to appear and then nothing happens the screen halts. I can't get to a dos promt to run anything. I have been into the bios and changed the start up sequence settings to floppy/cdrom/hdd-0 and it still halts after recognising them.
Do you think a boot virus could cause this

problem?

If you are getting to this point in the boot process you have already passed the selection to enter your CMOS (eg pressing Del key) Enter the BIos setup and change the boot order to Cdrom first. You should be able to boot to Window's repair etc.