[dwatts26726]

2 days ago, the computer was shut down and worked fine. No software or hardware installed. Tried to start up this morning and Windows won't start. All the BIOS info shows but just before the Windows XP logo, I get a black screen with a cursor. If I hit F8, I don't get the normal screen asking for Safe More or last configuration, I get a chose to boot from 1) Floppy Disk, 2) Hard Drive, 3) CDROM.

Would this be caused by faulty hardware?

Thanks in advance.

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rethought things sorry for edit , seems like windows is actually responding since your getting a black screen with a cursor seems the boot has messed up.
I've read something like this before try pressing keys five times see if the sticky keys option comes up if it does click go to ease of access center. At the access center in the adress bar put in c:\windows\ and launch explorer.exe might be a virus so try a virus cleanup if you get explorer to work.

Edited by coffee_addict, 02 January 2011 - 08:17 PM.

[coffee_addict]

rethought things sorry for edit , seems like windows is actually responding since your getting a black screen with a cursor seems the boot has messed up.
I've read something like this before try pressing keys five times see if the sticky keys option comes up if it does click go to ease of access center. At the access center in the adress bar put in c:\windows\ and launch explorer.exe might be a virus so try a virus cleanup if you get explorer to work.

Edited by coffee_addict, 02 January 2011 - 08:17 PM.

[dwatts26726]

The order was changed, tried to reorganize it but it still doesn't boot. If I choose to boot from the HD, it still stops at the black screen. I believe the hard drive is still be detected. Not entirely familiar with what I'm doing but it does show, I believe, that it's detected.

[coffee_addict]

try the edit , sorry for that

[rshaffer61]

If you have Windows CD...

1. Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD and assure that your CD-ROM drive is capable of booting the CD.
2. Once you have booted from CD, do NOT select the option that states: Press F2 to initiate the Automated System Recovery (ASR) tool.
You’re going to proceed until you see the following screen, at which point you will press the “R” key to enter the recovery console:



3. After you have selected the appropriate option from step two, you will be prompted to select a valid Windows installation (typically number “1").
Select the installation number, and hit Enter.
If there is an administrator password for the administrator account, enter it and hit Enter (if asked for the password, and you don't know it, you're out of luck).
You will be greeted with this screen, which indicates a recovery console at the ready:



4. There are eight commands you must enter in sequence to repair any of the issues I noted in the opening of this guide.
I will introduce them here, and then show the results graphically in the next six steps.
NOTE. Make sure, you press Enter after each command. Make sure, all commands are exact, including "spaces".
These commands are as follows:

CD..
ATTRIB -H C:\boot.ini
ATTRIB -S C:\boot.ini
ATTRIB -R C:\boot.ini
del boot.ini
BOOTCFG /Rebuild

Note about the above command.
BOOTCFG /REBUILD command which searches for pre-existing installations of Windows XP and rebuilds sundry essential components of the Windows operating system, recompiles the BOOT.INI file and corrects a litany of common Windows errors.
It is very important that you do one or both of the following two things:
A.) Every Windows XP owner must use /FASTDETECT as OS Load Option when the rebuild process is finalizing.
B.) If you are the owner of a CPU featuring Intel’s XD or AMD’s NX buffer overflow protection, you must also use /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN as an OS Load Option.
For the Enter Load Identifier portion of this command, you should enter the name of the operating system you have installed.
If, for example, you are using Windows XP Home, you could type Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition for the identifier (it's not crucial, however what the name is, as long, as it's meaningful).
Here is your computer screen:



5. Following command verifies the integrity of the hard drive containing the Windows XP installation. While this step is not an essential function in our process, it’s still good to be sure that the drive is physically capable of running windows, in that it contains no bad sectors or other corruptions that might be the culprit:

CHKDSK /R

6. This last command writes a new boot sector to the hard drive and cleans up all the loose ends we created by rebuilding the BOOT.INI file and the system files. When the Windows Recovery Console asks you if you are Sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition C: ? just hit “Y”, then Enter to confirm your decision:

FIXBOOT

7. It’s time to reboot your PC by typing
EXIT
and pressing Enter.

With any luck, your PC will boot successfully into Windows XP as if your various DLL, Hive, EXE and NTLDR errors never existed.



2. If you don't have Windows CD...
Download Windows Recovery Console: http://www.thecomput...om/files/rc.iso
Download, and install free Imgburn: http://www.imgburn.c...hp?act=download
Using Imgburn, burn rc.iso to a CD.
Boot to the CD...let it finish loading.
When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
Then, follow instructions from Step #3 above.

Thanks To Broni For The Instructions

[dwatts26726]

When I enter the CD.. command, I get a "The command is not recognized Type HELP for a list of supported commands." and it stays in the C:\Windows directory.

[rshaffer61]

try CD\

[dwatts26726]

Edit: OK got past that step...still doing the chkdsk

Edited by dwatts26726, 02 January 2011 - 11:12 PM.

[dwatts26726]

I did all the steps and it still hangs up. Could fauly RAM cause the problem? I believe I had 512 and it detects 256.

[rshaffer61]

If you have more than one RAM module installed, try starting computer with one RAM stick at a time.

NOTE Keep in mind, the manual check listed above is always superior to the software check, listed below. DO NOT proceed with memtest, if you can go with option A

B. If you have only one RAM stick installed...
...run memtest...

1. Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)
2. Unzip downloaded memtest86+-2.11.iso.zip file.
3. Inside, you'll find memtest86+-2.11.iso file.
4. Download, and install ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/
5. Insert blank CD into your CD drive.
6. Open ImgBurn, and click on Write image file to disc
7. Click on Browse for a file... icon:



8. Locate memtest86+-2.11.iso file, and click Open button.
9. Click on ImgBurn green arrow to start burning bootable memtest86 CD:



10. Once the CD is created, boot from it, and memtest will automatically start to run. You may have to change the boot sequence in your BIOS to make it work right.

To change Boot Sequence in your BIOS

Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the DEL button
This will enter you into the Bios\Cmos area.
Find the Advanced area and click Enter
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter
Now highlight the first drive and follow the directions on the bottom of the screen on how to modify it and change it to CDrom.
Change the second drive to the C or Main Drive
Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit. Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings.


The running program will look something like this depending on the size and number of ram modules installed:




It's recommended to run 5-6 passes. Each pass contains very same 8 tests.

This will show the progress of the test. It can take a while. Be patient, or leave it running overnight.



The following image is the test results area:



The most important item here is the “errors” line. If you see ANY errors, even one, most likely, you have bad RAM.

[dwatts26726]

Zero errors...

[rshaffer61]

Then it's not a memory issue.
Lets look at the hard drive next.
Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, try the Hitachi DFT CD Image version of the software

Thanks to Broni for the instructions

[dwatts26726]

Was a Hitachi hard drive. Ran the diagnostic program and it found my Primary master and I did an advanced scan. Took a while to complete with no real info of what it did.

[rshaffer61]

Did it find and\or repair anything?

[dwatts26726]

It found the Primary Master. It didn't say it found anything.