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Operating System won't start up


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#1
VenusLily

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Last night my computer worked, then a friend came over and was helping us fix our sound problem. (our sound card went out, and he was trying to setup the sound that is on the motherboard) Well, we couldn't find the disk we needed that had the driver. My friend decided that he was going to locate the name of the motherboard (so we could download the diver) through our BIOS system rather than just taking the cover off. Since he was messing in the BIOS our operating system will no longer startup. It will boot still, but right before XP should start the computer just restarts. I tried everything, and can't figure out what he did. The only thing I didn't do was mess with the BIOS. I don't know enough about the settings to comfortably change things. Is there anything I can do myself? :tazz:
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#2
gerryf

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shoot your "friend" ?

It may just be a coincidence, that he was messing in bios and now you have this issue.

What kind of motherboard? Do you know? Can you enter bios, and do you see something like setup default values (usually, by pressing f7 key)
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#3
VenusLily

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Well, I won't be able to find that out for 2 hours, I have to go home at lunch and get the PC and bring it back to work. Could all of this be related to us removing our bad sound card without having another one installed? I didn't think it worked that way, but i've been wrong before. Thanks for your help!

If I don't shoot him, he will definately be tortuerd. I have a certain doll that scares the pants off of him... Now it's really war!!! :tazz:
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#4
gerryf

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removing the sound card should not have resulted in this error
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#5
VenusLily

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Well, I looked all over the motherboard, and could not find a name or anything.. could you give me an idea where I would normally find it? I also was able to start the computer in safe mode, it is saying that there is a hardware problem that is not allowing it to start up regularly. From safe mode I tried to do a system restore, but it didn't work. If I put the sound card that failed back in do you think it would alliviate the problem? If not, would downloading the drive for the motherboad sound card work (if I can find the name of it :tazz:) Thank you for your support and aid, it is greatly appreicated.
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#6
gerryf

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In safe mode:

Right click MY COMPUTER, choose PROPERTIES, choose ADVANCED, choose the SETTINGS button in the Startup And RECOVERY section, and uncheck AUTOMATICALLY RESTART

Now reboot. This will result in the BSOD error...report the STOP ERROR and any parameters.
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#7
VenusLily

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I did exactly as you said and it still automatically restarts.. I don't get it.... Oh, I also have the computer hooked up here at my work, so I can respond more frequently today.
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#8
gerryf

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then you are rebooting before windows loads

I would be looking for a short somewhere....some wire that was connected is dangling somewhere or something is resting against the motherboard and the case.

Some of these things can be difficult to find

OR, worst cases scanario....something is badly damaged....If it were me, I'd probably take it all apart all the way down to removing the motherboard and slowly put it back together again...

You can probably start by removing any cards that are in the PCI slots (soudn card, modem, nic)-- also checking for a wire that once ran from soundcard to CD-rom that may be dangling around now.
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#9
VenusLily

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It's very funny you say that. My boyfriend built this computer, and for some reason not everything fits suggly as it should. He's always telling me to be careful when I plug the sound in and such because it is so unstable..So I just need to go through it piece by piece?
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#10
gerryf

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sadly, yes....if it is unstable, and always has been, I am inclined to believe there is something (screw?) trapped between the motherbaord and the case...does it rattle at all when moved?
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#11
VenusLily

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yes it does... is that very terribly bad? Can it be fixed with out many problems? Well, here's what happens. I just found some screws (there's always some laying around here, it seems) and I screwed the hard drive? into a slot, and restarted it, with no luck, but I will see if I can hear a screw this time.


Also, it makes it to the XP screen, like it is loading XP and then just as it should start to display it restarts.. I don't know if this helps at all, but that is what the comp seems to be doing....
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#12
gerryf

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hmm, but you can start in safe mode (had to go back and read)--that does not sound like a short....a puzzler you have

load into safe mode,

start > run
devmgmt.msc
<enter>


what do you see?
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#13
VenusLily

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okay, well it opened up my device manager, and I saw:

Standard Game Port: Had a Red X through the icon

Other Devices:
All had yellow exclaimations for:
Ethernet
Multimedia Audio
SM Bus Controller

Standard Open HCD USB Host Controller:
Two listings both with Red Xes
USB root hub: also with a red X

FYI: This computer that has the problem is not connected to the internet ever, and we just took the old sound card out b/c it died. (We were wanting to use the on board sound card, but do not have the motherboard name to get the driver.)
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#14
gerryf

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right click each RED X, see if you can click ENABLE


right clcik each yellow !, and select UNINSTALL

Reboot as normal...what happens?
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#15
VenusLily

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Everytime I clicked uninstall on the yellow items, right after it said it uninstalled, my computer popped up with the installation wizard saying if found new hardware... I think the yellow ones just don't have a driver, but were always listed that way.(at least since the rebuild)

Now it won't even start in safe mode.. I did all that you said, so maybe it has to do with the onboard sound card not having the correct driver.


One thing, if you could help me find where the name of the motherboard would be, I could try to download the drivers for that, I think i'll need it anyway... THANKS!!
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