Can someone help me with a computer problem?

[rsal]

My brother had his computer made and now its stuck when you turn it on it stays on a screen and never goes past that. I had an idea to reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything but I have no idea how to do this. Can someone show me some step by step instructions on how to do this. Thanks

[austin_spurs_fan]

what does the screen say?
what operating system was on it?
what were you doing on it before it crashed?
is it brand new or has it been runnging for a few weeks?
do you need anything on the computer or can you wipe the whole thing?

[Crashtec8]

I installed a second SATA HD this weekend and I figured it would work fine because I already had 1 SATA HD installed but it would only partially boot then hang before booting into WinXpPro. I figured out that my motherboard was having a problem dealing with the drive and its very large size and I had to update my motherboard's BIOS and it was fixed.


So if you want help, tell us the Operating system, Motherboard, HardDrive type, and any experience you have had with the system like if it has ever booted before or what the screen says or if there are many beeps when booting...Be descriptive.

[duncanstein]

firstly check the bios settings

then when u format ur comp again and if ur installing winxp, and ur using sata hdd, it will ask u a quick question at the blue screen to press F6 or sumthing if u wanna install third party sata hdd, this is when the system anaylse ur system b4 it starts to install winxp..

[rsal]

Sorry for the late response.
It say's this when you turn it on and stays stuck on this screen
Delete Setup: F8 Boot Menu
F12 Network

[baseline bum]

Originally Posted by rsal

My brother had his computer made and now its stuck when you turn it on it stays on a screen and never goes past that. I had an idea to reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything but I have no idea how to do this. Can someone show me some step by step instructions on how to do this. Thanks

1. Download a windows bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com and extract to a floppy, and leave the floppy in the drive
Note: there's no need to download the 5 or 6 disk set of Windows XP bootdisks... the one I use is for Windows ME, but any bootdisk from 95, 98, Me, or even MS-DOS or Dr DOS should work

2. Set your bios to boot from floppy first... it looks like F8 is the button you press right after turning the computer on to get into BIOS, but it could be something else (on my computer it's delete, others it's anything from F1 to F12)

3. boot with CD-rom support (it will be one of the choices)

4. type fdisk and hit enter to run the disk partitioning utility

5. Delete all partitions.. usually you should delete all non-DOS partitions first (delete non-DOS partition is one of the choices when you run fdisk) and then delete the extended DOS partitions and then the primary DOS partitions (these will also be choices)

6. If you only want one partition just choose 'create primary DOS partition' and answer yes to the questions.

7. restart your computer, choose CD rom support, and type format c: enter
NOTE: I assume you're installing it on your first hard drive... Windows will always write its boot loader to the master boot record of the first hard drive on the first IDE channel (unless you're lucky enough to have a SCSI or SATA system).... it's a pain in the ass to install windows on a slave drive or on a secondary IDE channel

8. restart your computer, choose CD rom support, put in the windows cd and go to the drive listed as your cd rom (i'll assume it's E for example... the bootdisk will tell you the drive name after booting)

9. if it's windows xp:
go to E: and then cd i386 enter and type winnt and hit enter to run the windows setup program...
if it's windows 98 or Me:
go to E: and type setup and hit enter to run the windows setup program
not sure if it's 2000, but it's prob the same step as in xp

10. after doing a few things it will restart your computer, so you'll have to go back into the BIOS and change it to boot the hard drive first (assuming you only have 1 hard-drive or you're installing it to the first hard drive it should be hard drive 0)

11. after that it's pretty much smooth sailing... answer a couple of questions and let the installation do it's thing
NOTE: if you use XP you have to activate it through microsoft unless you happen to have a copy of XP-Pro corporate edition

[rsal]

Cool I will give this a try. Thanks!

[mouse]

If you live in San Antonio give me a call or an e mail, My standard fee is an 18 pack of beer unless it's just a software issue And I charge a 6 pack. You can go to the Casting Call topic for the info on how to reach me, I don't want to spam the site. keep in mind if the battery on the mother board is dead then the PC's memory has a hard time remembering display, clock, and sometimes you will get a Dos page at boot sequence, I fixed this lady's PC last week after the folks at help me computers wanted $200.00 dollars to install a mother board and she still had to buy the mother board.

I saw her battery was dead and took one from a PC laying around here. In the meantime I lent her a gateway so she could get on line in case I would be longer than one day. She called me and asked me if she could use my AOL account. I told her sure. Bad mistake, She is on the PC from 4:30 till Midnight at times and I can't be on at the same time she is on. And I can't call her because she is using dial up and does not have call notes. I don't want to be rude but I need to figure out a way to get my gateway back and collect on my six pack w/o her thinking I am being rude. I can tell she loves free AOL and playing my Atari classics I downloaded, I can just see her playing centipede and trying to break my high score.

come to think of it, maybe my problem is worst than yours.

[Blizz™]

it's not seeing the hard drive, the hard drive is not bootable (no windows) or the hard drive isn't in the boot order. make sure the hard drive is being detected, clear/reset the BIOS and make sure there is an operating system on the hard drive.

[mouse]

That may be true, But a PC does not need a hard drive to go into DOS and reset configuration. In fact Mother boards can be fixed or upgraded w/o the use of the hard drive, I would insert a 98 start up disk,after it boots up? insert your CD ROM windows disc and press D:\> then press setup, and install your windows all over follow the instructions and when it says save old Window files click yes.

Keep in mind a bad modem, video card, sound card, or CD ROM will keep your system from fully booting up as it may be trying to short out the mother board. Try installing a CD ROM in a PC that won't accept it like an apple or E machine. You will pull out your hair trying to figure out what went wrong. I know one thing, I am not a big fan of Western Digital, they have hard drives that go out every two years if you do a lot of surfing, I will be home all day Friday if you want to hook up.
If not? Good Luck. and I hope you have a great 2005.

[Blizz™]

the PC IS booting up as far as it can go without a HD. it's getting past the POST and is looking for something bootable. if he knows for a fact that windows is installed, then the BIOS doesn't have the HD listed as a bootable device. if XP was installed off the CD, the boot order could have changed to ONLY use the CD ROM and if there is no bootable media in the drive it isn't going to boot unless the BIOS is changed and told to use the HD as the bootable device. it's either that or there is no Windows on the drive, OR the PC doesn't detect a HD at all.