[modestmoose]

Yesterday, I was using Internet Explorer, looking around for some things and all the sudden, my computer reboots on it's own. It went to my bios and made a weird noise. After a few seconds of idling, it started ..but then it went to this screen saying that my hard drive had some kind of error or something. This has happened before, so I skipped it. It was about to boot into windows, but then stopped and rebooted again. This time, after checking my memory, it asked if I wanted to reboot regularly, so I did. Rebooted on its own. It had a few options, including "Reboot Using Last Working Configurations" or whatever and Reboot into Safe mode. None of these worked.

So today, I bought a copy of Windows Home. Before, I was running Windows XP, but I didn't have $300 to buy it. So everything was fine, reformating went kind of quick, windows installed, all that. The problem I'm having now is that, whenever I reboot, it goes to a black screen and after 3 minutes, these little squares appear at the bottom of the screen. Within a few minutes, it looks like its loading something. It takes almost 20 minutes to finish this, then it just loads Windows.

How do I fix this? Everything was installed from the CD. Whenever it reboots, it asks if I wanna reboot from the CD.. Should I do this or no? It's becoming a big pain, waiting 20 minutes to restart :/ Any help would be appreciated.

Also, is there any way I can go back to Service Pack 1? Or is Service Pack 2 just fine to use?

Edited by modestmoose, 14 July 2005 - 04:55 PM.

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Most likely the reason it's asking if you want to boot to the cd is because you still have the Windows cd in the drive. Take it out and that should stop. Also, you might want to go into your BIOS and change the boot order so that your hard drive is first on the list instead of the CD-ROM.

As for SP2 over SP1, you're fine. SP2 include numerous security updates and other changes to help protect your computer and is a highly recommended update to have on your PC by most everyone I know. Make sure to go to http://www.windowsupdate.com frequently to keep your computer up to date with all the newest security patches and other updates from Microsoft.

[The_Sloth]

Most likely the reason it's asking if you want to boot to the cd is because you still have the Windows cd in the drive. Take it out and that should stop. Also, you might want to go into your BIOS and change the boot order so that your hard drive is first on the list instead of the CD-ROM.

As for SP2 over SP1, you're fine. SP2 include numerous security updates and other changes to help protect your computer and is a highly recommended update to have on your PC by most everyone I know. Make sure to go to http://www.windowsupdate.com frequently to keep your computer up to date with all the newest security patches and other updates from Microsoft.

[modestmoose]

Well, I went into the boot menu and my floppy drive is first, then my hard drive, then CD rom. I don't know how to set my hard drive to go first though.

Also, I removed the CD and rebooted. It'll do a memory check then go to the black screen again for a half hour, with the little boxes loading. Is this due to something wrong with my hard drive? This is the only problem I'm having right now and it takes so long that I'm afraid of rebooting now. Any more suggestions?

[The_Sloth]

Your hard drive is fine in the second boot slot, as long as your CD-ROM is after it. What I want you to do now is go back into the BIOS and see if you can find a setting called Quick Boot or something similar. Make sure it is enabled. Also, disable anything you see in there about a virus scan. I'll probably have you re-enable it later on, but I'm trying to eliminate anything I can at the moment.

[modestmoose]

Well, that took 13 minutes.

Quick Boot was enabled and I couldn't find anything saying Antivirus.

I did notice though, that it says something about ID05 found and OKing it.. meaning, it's booting it up? Before I had this problem, it only had two options.. harddrive and CD Rom. This time it has four, if that makes sense.

I remember when I first had this problem, yesterday, going into the Bios and choosing the option that says something about using the settings that are best for performance. So it seems like I enabled something that I shouldnt of, like it's checking a drive.. ..or something? I don't know what I'm talking about, so.

[The_Sloth]

Ok, I don't know what this ID05 setting might be. What I want you to do is reset your BIOS to its default settings. It should have an option in there to do it. If not look here for instructions on how to clear it manually. I suggest looking there first and writing down or printing off the instructions to save time if you can't find the option in the BIOS.

Edited by The_Sloth, 14 July 2005 - 06:33 PM.

[modestmoose]

If I reset it to default settings, does that mean I have to set everything to run properly on my computer? Like my memory and all that? Or no?

Also, I hope I don't have to do it manually. You mention something about the mother board having a battery? I've never heard of that and I don't wanna mess it up. I really appreciate all the help you've given me so far, though.

Edited by modestmoose, 14 July 2005 - 06:45 PM.

[The_Sloth]

No, you won't need to set everything up again. The default settings should be just fine.

Don't worry about doing it manually if you have to. It's a very simple process and I promise that as long as you remember to touch the metal inside your case before touching the battery everything will be fine. If you've ever changed the batteries in your remote control, you can handle this without a problem. It's just as easy. The battery should be right out in the open, although a cable or 2 might hide it a bit.

[modestmoose]

I hit F6 which said, Default BIOS Settings. Saved. It did the same thing.

I did the manual reset thing. Nothing happened.

I don't know what the problem is. It's really annoying though. Everything else is fine, just this black screen..

[The_Sloth]

How long is it taking to restart now?

[modestmoose]

It seems to take longer now. From 10 minutes to almost 15. I remember it doing this before, when I was installing Windows XP Home. It seems like it's checking all my files or something, but it just shows a black screen with white boxes at the bottom that load slowly.

[The_Sloth]

To be honest, I have no clue what's going on. It's obviously not a setting in the BIOS like I originally thought.

Let's try 1 more thing before I bring in some backup. Boot to your XP cd again, like you did when you reinstalled Windows but instead of choosing the new install option choose Repair. On the next screen choose to go to the Recovery Console. This will take you to a black screen that asks you to choose your Windows install. Press 1 then enter a password if it asks you for one. When you get to the command prompt which will look like this

C:\>

type in chkdsk /r and press Enter. Let me know if it finds any errors.

[modestmoose]

I give up.

I rebooted and it doesn't even allow me to choose to boot up from the CD. That whole ..screen is gone. It loads my BIOS and then goes to the black screen of [bleep] for 10 minutes.

Would there be a solution that doesn't require rebooting? I'm thinking about buying a new computer altogether, since this ones old and obviously crappy.

[The_Sloth]

One thing I forgot about. I had you reset the BIOS earlier. This puts the hard drive before the CD-ROM in the boot order. Go into your BIOS and edit the boot order so the CD-ROM is first on the list. Your BIOS should tell you what key(s) to press to change the order. After this try my last post again.

Unfortunately, since I still don't know exactly what the problem is I don't know if it can be fixed in Windows. This means restarting, as annoying and slow as it is. If you want to wait to continue until a later time, please do...I'll be willing to help more whenever you're ready.

Edited by The_Sloth, 14 July 2005 - 08:27 PM.

[modestmoose]

Bah, confused :[

Earlier you said that my hard drive should be before the CD rom. Should the CD rom be before the hard drive?

I'm sorry for bothering you for so much. I think if this doesn't help, then.. oh well. I needed a new PC anyways.