[Gambit66]

This is a 3 year old Gateway GT5220. About 6 months ago my mother inlaw said her computer was not booting up, and wanted to know if I could fix it. While over the phone trying to help her, I could not exact her problem. So I guided her through a partial restore/reinstall of the os system. Well 1 month later, her computer had the same problem. So this time I got her computer and took it home to investigate further, and if I needed to do a reinstall, I wanted my internet cable vs her dialup for updates upon the reinstall of the OS.

Anyway, This time I did a destructive (full format) reinstall of the OS, since I did not know if it was a virus or what was causing this problem. And that she did not have, or had an expired mcafee virus protection on the computer. I told her it would be like brand new this time, and also found her a free anti virus from CNET that would work well with her slow dial up.

Well from september untill this past week, everything worked just fine on her computer. THis time I called my brother, and he recomended to come here for help.

Problem;
1. After turning on the computer, it boots to first windows screen with options (f2 & f10), then has a brief(very brief that I cannot make out what is written) blue lettering on a black screen at the top of the screen, then goes to the Device listing screen, then boot from cd, then gives 3 seconds to choose (F11)recovery option. After that it does nothing, no activity from the hard drive and nothing on the screen.

I`ve tried
1. AVG rescue cd, it found 0 viruses, and 2 errors. but it would not list what errors it found.
2. tried (F8) safe mode, safe mode with networking, last known good configuration, debugging mode & start windows normally. All only with the same result, I can hear the hard drive for a split second make a noise, but still after that it`s 0 activity.
3. Also tried BIOS safe mode default settings, and optimized settings. And 1,2 & 3 boot options all set to hard drive, thinking it would get the hard drive to do a little more them a peep, but to no avail.

I know how to reinstall the os, but I don`t want to have to reinstall again, and not find out the problem.

Maybe a bad hard drive that acts up, or maybe she needs a surge protector on her phoneline???? I`m stumped.

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Hi,



Lets give this a try throughout an External Environment, which simply means you will need to burn a boot CD with especial tools. You will also need a flash drive to move information from the troubled computer to a working computer. It is the only way we can see the progress of our actions. Save these instructions in your flash drive as a text file (use notepad) so you can have access to these while in an external environment (PE).

Here is what you need to do.

• Download OTLPEStd.exe to your desktop. NOTE: This file is 93.5MB in size so it may take some time to download.
• Once downloaded, insert a blank CD in your burner and click on OTLPEStd.exe.The executable includes the OTLPE_New_Std.iso and a copy of imgburn, a program to burn .iso files. When executed, the application will extract both and start the burning process automatically.
• Once the CD is burned, boot the Non working computer using the boot CD you just created.
• In order to do so, the computer must be set to boot from the CD first
  Note : For information click here
  
• Your system should now display a REATOGO-X-PE desktop.
• Double-click on the OTLPE icon.
• When asked "Do you wish to load the remote registry", select Yes
• When asked "Do you wish to load remote user profile(s) for scanning", select Yes
• Ensure the box "Automatically Load All Remaining Users" is checked and press OK
• OTL should now start. Change the following settings
  
  • Change Drivers to All
  • Change Standard Registry to All
  • Under the Custom Scan box paste this in
    

    
    /md5start
    UXTHEME.DLL
    eventlog.dll
    scecli.dll
    netlogon.dll
    cngaudit.dll
    sceclt.dll
    ntelogon.dll
    logevent.dll
    iaStor.sys
    nvstor.sys
    atapi.sys
    IdeChnDr.sys
    viasraid.sys
    AGP440.sys
    vaxscsi.sys
    nvatabus.sys
    viamraid.sys
    nvata.sys
    nvgts.sys
    iastorv.sys
    ViPrt.sys
    eNetHook.dll
    ahcix86.sys
    KR10N.sys
    nvstor32.sys
    ahcix86s.sys
    nvrd32.sys
    userinit.exe
    explorer.exe
    winlogon.exe
    ntoskrnl.exe
    /md5stop
    %SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.*
    %systemroot%\*. /mp /s
    %systemroot%\System32\config\*.sav
    

• Press Run Scan to start the scan.
• When finished, the file will be saved in drive C:\OTL.txt
• Copy this file to your USB drive.
• Please post the contents of the C:\OTL.txt file in your reply.

[JSntgRvr]

Hi,



Lets give this a try throughout an External Environment, which simply means you will need to burn a boot CD with especial tools. You will also need a flash drive to move information from the troubled computer to a working computer. It is the only way we can see the progress of our actions. Save these instructions in your flash drive as a text file (use notepad) so you can have access to these while in an external environment (PE).

Here is what you need to do.

• Download OTLPEStd.exe to your desktop. NOTE: This file is 93.5MB in size so it may take some time to download.
• Once downloaded, insert a blank CD in your burner and click on OTLPEStd.exe.The executable includes the OTLPE_New_Std.iso and a copy of imgburn, a program to burn .iso files. When executed, the application will extract both and start the burning process automatically.
• Once the CD is burned, boot the Non working computer using the boot CD you just created.
• In order to do so, the computer must be set to boot from the CD first
  Note : For information click here
  
• Your system should now display a REATOGO-X-PE desktop.
• Double-click on the OTLPE icon.
• When asked "Do you wish to load the remote registry", select Yes
• When asked "Do you wish to load remote user profile(s) for scanning", select Yes
• Ensure the box "Automatically Load All Remaining Users" is checked and press OK
• OTL should now start. Change the following settings
  
  • Change Drivers to All
  • Change Standard Registry to All
  • Under the Custom Scan box paste this in
    

    
    /md5start
    UXTHEME.DLL
    eventlog.dll
    scecli.dll
    netlogon.dll
    cngaudit.dll
    sceclt.dll
    ntelogon.dll
    logevent.dll
    iaStor.sys
    nvstor.sys
    atapi.sys
    IdeChnDr.sys
    viasraid.sys
    AGP440.sys
    vaxscsi.sys
    nvatabus.sys
    viamraid.sys
    nvata.sys
    nvgts.sys
    iastorv.sys
    ViPrt.sys
    eNetHook.dll
    ahcix86.sys
    KR10N.sys
    nvstor32.sys
    ahcix86s.sys
    nvrd32.sys
    userinit.exe
    explorer.exe
    winlogon.exe
    ntoskrnl.exe
    /md5stop
    %SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.*
    %systemroot%\*. /mp /s
    %systemroot%\System32\config\*.sav
    

• Press Run Scan to start the scan.
• When finished, the file will be saved in drive C:\OTL.txt
• Copy this file to your USB drive.
• Please post the contents of the C:\OTL.txt file in your reply.

[Gambit66]

I understand, and wish I could do all that, but I have no flash drive available at the moment. I`ll try to pick one up this week and post the results.

Thanks for the reply.

[JSntgRvr]

[Gambit66]

Never mind. catastrophic freeze up on recovery, seems I cut the power when recovery with back up just started . Then after restart, recovery froze on the please wait screen, and never went to the recovery screen. As luck would have it, I have a older gateway computer too, and the red recovery disc . this disc works on every gateway computer no matter what the problem. So I did a full format (destructive, erased all data, etc..) then took out the my red cd, and put the original OS recovery cd in, and bingo! recovery started! Since I did a full format of the hard drive with my red cd, their was no options, went straight to restoring windows XP.

I sure did not want to have to reinstall with out finding out the problem, but thats the way the ball bounced!

Thanks for the help JS.

P.S. If it happens to her computer again, I will come back here and follow your advice. Should have a flash drive by then

Edited by Gambit66, 01 February 2011 - 08:29 AM.

[JSntgRvr]

Thanks for the feedback.