Computer Wont Start

[Le Pen]

Hi Guys,

My fathrer in Law's pc wont start up.

He is running a Celeron 500Mhz with 64 Mb ram.

After swithching on, it runs through the initial start up ok. But when it starts looking for the Drives, it hangs, then starts looking for "Network boot records". He isnt networked and has not had this problem before.

Sorry if there isnt enough info, I got this from Mrs LP. And haven't been able to contact the old man!!

Thanks

LP

[Spitoon]

A stab in the dark.

No mention of OS but if it's Windows try booting into Safe Mode and run some diagnostics on the hard disk.

[handyandyuk]

If you can get into the BIOS - usually f2 or f8 from the start screen or whatever it says to enter Setup - check the device it is trying to boot from.
The standard order should be Floppy, IDE 0 (HDD), CD ROM

Then save and exit... make sure the floppy drive is empty and reboot. Hopefully it should then boot from the hard drive.

[EGLD]

Hi Le Pen,

When you say it hangs when detecting drives, do you mean on the screen when it is counting memory etc?

Basically, when you switch the computer on, it tests RAM, processor, floppy and detects the hard drive(s)/cd-roms

Can you see if its detecting a drive successfully? Go into BIOS setup and make sure it is configured to AUTODETECT on all IDE devices (Primary master/slave secondary master/slave)

You then need to check the order of cables and jumpes on the hardware, basically you will have 2 IDE controllers. You generally on home computers can have 2 devices on each controller, one configured as a master and one as a slave, the hardware should have stickers on explaining how to configure as a master or slave

If you get past this point and it is not booting, you may have a problem with the windows partition. First step is probably to get a boot disk to see if you can access the drive from a command prompt. You can make a boot disk through any version of windows, if you are unsure how to, you can download a bootdisk here www.bootdisk.com

To be honest, if alls been well in the past, and its stopped for no apparent reason, it hints at hardware failure or a corrupt partition/boot sector

If you could get some further information that would be great, you could try formatting the master boot record, once you've got to a command prompt above A:\ type fdisk /MBR

If you are familiar with FDISK, you could check to see if your windows partition is marked as active. You could try software such as Partition Magic which will tell you the status of the partitions on the compute

Any chance you can have a look and come back with some further info?

good luck

[Le Pen]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your prompt answers. I had a chat with him and it seems that it may well be a hardware problem. (Its difficult to tell from another country!!!)

He's running W98.

He doesn't seem to be able to get into the Bios setup either.

Also, of course, he does not have a start up disk. :rolleyes:

Brilliant info EG, Thanks. It sounds as if it counts the memory but gets no further. He is in his seventies and only uses it once in a while.


I think he will have to get someone in.

Thanks again.

LP