[Lafser]

Today I was messing around on the computer and it suddenly locked up. I restarted the computer and the computer hangs at 100% on the bios loading screen. I than unplugged the hard drive and rebooted the computer again. The bios loaded successfully but it could not find a boot device. With the harddrive in I am unable to boot off a disk, with the harddrive out I am able to.

Intel Core2 Duo processor E6700 (2.67GHz,1066FSB) w/DualCore Technology and 4MB cache
4GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
Dual 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual-GPU Graphics Cards Quad SLI
Dell Mombo YF432

Thanks for your help

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Could you explain this: "the computer hangs at 100% on the bios loading screen"? I don't understand what that means.

What did you do when you were "messing around" with the computer? Did you open the box for any purpose? Was it software changes?

[The Skeptic]

Could you explain this: "the computer hangs at 100% on the bios loading screen"? I don't understand what that means.

What did you do when you were "messing around" with the computer? Did you open the box for any purpose? Was it software changes?

[Lafser]

Sorry for being so vague, I feel that the best way for you to understand is to take a picture.

[The Skeptic]

"What did you do when you were "messing around" with the computer? Did you open the box for any purpose? Was it software changes?" It's important to know what actions were taken just before the problem started.

1: If you opened the box disconnect the power cable and double check every cable connection inside, particularly those that connect to the hard disk.

2: Reset the BIOS by taking the button battery out for about 15 minutes. reinstall and set time and date in the BIOS.

[Lafser]

"What did you do when you were "messing around" with the computer? Did you open the box for any purpose? Was it software changes?" It's important to know what actions were taken just before the problem started.

1: If you opened the box disconnect the power cable and double check every cable connection inside, particularly those that connect to the hard disk.

2: Reset the BIOS by taking the button battery out for about 15 minutes. reinstall and set time and date in the BIOS.

I was just checking email and listening to music when to computer locked up. I held the button till it shutoff, when I started up again this occurred

I reset the bios but only got the same result.

[The Skeptic]

Try to repair the problem by using Recovery Console. For this you will need xp installation CD. If you don't have the CD try to borrow one.

To get to Recovery Console insert the disk into the CD drive and reboot the computer. Windows Setup screen will show up. If it doesn't, enter BIOS and set the CD drive to be first priority boot device.

Let Setup run until three setup options are shown. Choose Recovery Console by pressing R. When asked for XP installation, type 1 (assuming you have only one operating system installed). When asked for password type your password or press Enter if you don't have a password. A black DOS-like screen will show up. At the prompt type chkdsk /r (please note the space in the command) and press Enter. The process can be quite long. Let it run to the end.

[Neil Jones]

Most Dells that hang on the front Dell logo screen do so because there's an issue with the hard drive.
Your symptoms would suggest your hard drive is either defective or has packed up, bearing in mind the system goes straight through when you unplug the drive.

[Lafser]

Try to repair the problem by using Recovery Console. For this you will need xp installation CD. If you don't have the CD try to borrow one.

To get to Recovery Console insert the disk into the CD drive and reboot the computer. Windows Setup screen will show up. If it doesn't, enter BIOS and set the CD drive to be first priority boot device.

Let Setup run until three setup options are shown. Choose Recovery Console by pressing R. When asked for XP installation, type 1 (assuming you have only one operating system installed). When asked for password type your password or press Enter if you don't have a password. A black DOS-like screen will show up. At the prompt type chkdsk /r (please note the space in the command) and press Enter. The process can be quite long. Let it run to the end.

I am unable to boot from a cd drive or any other drive when the hardrive is in.

Most Dells that hang on the front Dell logo screen do so because there's an issue with the hard drive.
Your symptoms would suggest your hard drive is either defective or has packed up, bearing in mind the system goes straight through when you unplug the drive.

This is what I am thinking at this point. I don't understand why it wouldn't say anything.

[The Skeptic]

Could you move the disk to another computer? If yes see, first, if it is recognized in My Computer. If it does, right-click the drive > properties > tools > error checking > check now > check the two baxes > click Start. Reboot the computer to start the process.

If you can't move the disk to another I would try to boot it with another operating system that does not require hard disk to load. Download Puppy Linux from my list of links below. Download "puppy 2.16.1 seamonkey fulldrivers.ISO". Burn the ISO file to create a bootable CD. For this purpose you can download BurnCDCC from the links below. It's a very simple tool, used exclusively to burn ISO files.

Insert the disk into the CD/DVD drive and boot the computer. If it doesn't boot, please set boot order in the BIOS so that the CD drive is first priority boot device. Click the icon that looks like a pen drive and see if you can reach your hard disk and files.

[Neil Jones]

Most Dells that hang on the front Dell logo screen do so because there's an issue with the hard drive.
Your symptoms would suggest your hard drive is either defective or has packed up, bearing in mind the system goes straight through when you unplug the drive.

This is what I am thinking at this point. I don't understand why it wouldn't say anything.

It won't. Dells don't tell you there's an issue with the hard drive, most other setups you'd see "Detecting Primary IDE" and what not and if it hangs on that you'd know there's an issue with the drive. Dell just show you a Dell screen and leave it up to you to find out.

I'd argue your drive is shot if you can't boot off any other device with it connected.