[shotgun425]

hi folks boy do i need sopme help i think that this problem is terminal though, you see i have read the posts on here from other people but i cant do a lot of what is being said for one reason or another also not as computer literate as some so needs gentle handling any help would be much appreciated

Edited by shotgun425, 14 December 2010 - 11:40 AM.

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Please tell us what make and model if branded ie: Dell Inspiron etc.
What HAVE you tried ie: Safe Mode on F8.
chkdsk
Recovery Console etc.
What were you doing when this occurred ie; downloading music, installing a program, etc.
Did you get a BSOD - Blue Screen of Death etc.

What you have told us would require a genius to start solving it.
There are some people on here close to genius level, but most of us require some more information.

[Macboatmaster]

Please tell us what make and model if branded ie: Dell Inspiron etc.
What HAVE you tried ie: Safe Mode on F8.
chkdsk
Recovery Console etc.
What were you doing when this occurred ie; downloading music, installing a program, etc.
Did you get a BSOD - Blue Screen of Death etc.

What you have told us would require a genius to start solving it.
There are some people on here close to genius level, but most of us require some more information.

[shotgun425]

right here we go, i have a dell optiflex 755 tower runing xp professional, it is just over three years old, 3 year warranty has now run out i bought it for my business which i have since sold.

i get the dell opening screen with the f2 & f12 commands which i can access but i cannot enter safe mode at all i have tried to run the disk to repair after changing the bios so that it would pick up the cd drive first. this i did because it would not load at all.

i get to the stage where the screen says press any key to enter and not one key works num's lock is locked on can't change it. the computer crashed while i was in the process of picking some items to buy on a web site buckets and keggs to use with my fish tank water changes when the site dropped out and i get a blue screen up along the lines of an hardware error. it said if you have not seen this message before please restart your comp' so i did and i thought i would do some tidying by clearing out some temp files i went into tools options and the system crashed, when i rebooted the black screen was upon me

[Macboatmaster]

what is keyboard connection please USB, PS2 or wireless.
If I am correct and you SHOULD check I think F12 is Dell recovery and includes a facility to run chkdsk.
HOWEVER if you can access that, BE VERY careful, as one incorrect click or key, if it works in recovery could end up with format and reinstall, so you would lose everything and be as it was when sold.
If you do not have it, I suggest you go here and look at the manual.
http://support.euro....=dhs&~ck=anavml

NB Offline now - not on until tomorrow.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 14 December 2010 - 12:52 PM.

[shotgun425]

thank you for your response my keyboard connection is usb
the f12 key takes me into boot device menu which allows me to select my cd rom drive,onboard or usb floppy drive, my hitachi hard drive, system set up and finaly diagnostics.

use up and down arrows to highlight item
use enter to select highlighted item

[Macboatmaster]

diagnostics and go from there, if the keyboard will work there. If there is a chkdsk run that

http://support.euro....8&isLegacy=true


The USB keyboard not working after another error is a common thing on Dell computers, if you google it you will realise just how common. I do not think it is only Dell of course.
Try disconnecting everything except the keyboard, mouse and monitor.
Connect the keyboard to the USB immediately below the ethernet connector.
Connect the mouse to one of the block of usb connectors and se if that helps. It has on occasions.
I wouls till run the diagnostics if you can.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 14 December 2010 - 05:42 PM.

[shotgun425]

ok ran diagnostics headed as

pre-boot system assessment build 4504

when finished i got a box up saying

pre-boot system assessment complete. no diagnostic utility partition identified. please select ok to reboot your system.

so i did and we are back at the black screen

i got no error codes at all whilst running the test

[shotgun425]

i can see no chkdsk anywhere and i have moved the usb connections still the same

[shotgun425]

more info for you

i have just reseated again all items in the computer i.e mem sticks , video card, and the motherboard battery.

i went back into bios and noted that the reboot device order had change, my onboard cd drive was on top so just for curiosity i tried running the xp reinstall disk again, yesterday when it said press any key to start the keyboard locked every time, today it did not so i am sitting here with a blue screen headed

windows xp professional setup

i seem to have three options

to set up windows xp now, press enter

to repair a windows xp installation using recovery consule, press r

to quit setup without installing windows xp, press f3

now i am guessing repair option may be the way to go but i will wait for your advice first

[Macboatmaster]

Yes indeed that is the first to try.
Enter the recovery console and run "chkdsk C: /r"
as per this link instructions.

http://pcsupport.abo...sc/p/chkdsk.htm

If that does not work post back.
You may try other recovery console cmds, but please obtain advice first if you are not sure.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 15 December 2010 - 02:36 PM.

[shotgun425]

ok so i press repair

i get a screen which shows

1: c:\windows

which windows installation would you like to log into

as i have only the one i pressed 1

now its asking me for a admin password, if i remember correctly somewhere in my bios told me that there was no admin password set and if i just press enter the same command keeps coming up

[Macboatmaster]

This is nothing to do with the BIOS password. That is a password set to enter SETUP ie the BIOS. This password is the windows password - but not the normal user account, the admin account.
Unless one has been set it is blank. As you have already tried that I can only recommend you try whatever passwords you know for windows.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 15 December 2010 - 04:49 PM.

[Macboatmaster]

Further to the above please see page 5 of the link I sent you

Edited by Macboatmaster, 15 December 2010 - 03:23 PM.

[shotgun425]

blimey i think i may have hit the right one i now have c:\windows>

do i now type chkdsk i see from the link you sent me there are several other commands that i could type but im guessing chkdsk is the one i need

[shotgun425]

sorry but i see you wanted me to run chkdsk c:/r but i must be doing something wrong as i keep getting the parameter is not valid sorry if im being daft but not a computer buff in any sense of the word