Is there any hope?

C

cctabb

New Member
Hi everyone,
Apparently I am a "noob." I have enough computer knowledge to get on-line, so we are talking babysteps here.

The problem:

Monday morning I was using the computer as normal, got up to fix my dd some breakfast, came back and there was some type of error message on the screen. Something about not enough memory and windows needs to close. I clicked o.k. Windows shut down the computer and that was the last time I saw windows on that particular computer.

I tried to restart in "safe-mode" and didn't get any further than the black screen with "safe-mode" in all four corners. It never would load. I tried the system recovery disks, they won't load. I had a friend come over tonight who has more tech know-how than me. He tried to format the hard drive with out success.

Is the whole thing shot? If not, what do I do?

If all is well and truly lost do I need to buy a new computer? Can I just buy new parts, i.e. hard drive, etc.?

Thanks,
C.C.
 
Does the computer beep at all during the start up? It sounds like some sort of hardware failure, but I'll let someone who has more knowledge than me determine what... (I'd say motherboard, hard drive, or RAM)
 
If your are getting to the "safe mode' screen with the four corners it isnt likly that is a major Hardware problem.. byu the sounds of it you would be better to just format it and start over!
 
No it does't beep. Actually won't get to the windows start-up.

Specifications? It is a Compaq Presario with an AMD Sempron processor. It is supposed to have Windows XP home, and it has what ever it came out of the box with. I think 256MB memory, 40 or 60GB hard drive ( I don't remember which, but probably 40 since it was cheap). So I guess it has enough RAM since now all I am trying to do is get it to load Windows XP again. Actually I just want it to format so I can start over as Seth suggested, and it won't even do that.

Could it be viral, as in maybe it picked up a virus that is refusing to let it format/reload the stock software?
 
No it does't beep. Actually won't get to the windows start-up.
Click to expand...
what we are saying is that since the machine reaches a significant proportion of the way to booting (i.e. you can see the safe mode letters) then the hardware is more than likely ok.

You will have recieved a cd pack when you bought the machine, this will contain a windows installation cd. Insert it into you machine and turn it on, if the computer boots from the cd then select repair installation option; if the computer doesn't boot from the cd then we will need to play in bios a little (we'll cross that bridge if need be)
 
apj101 said:
what we are saying is that since the machine reaches a significant proportion of the way to booting (i.e. you can see the safe mode letters) then the hardware is more than likely ok.

You will have recieved a cd pack when you bought the machine, this will contain a windows installation cd. Insert it into you machine and turn it on, if the computer boots from the cd then select repair installation option; if the computer doesn't boot from the cd then we will need to play in bios a little (we'll cross that bridge if need be)
Click to expand...


I can't see the safe mode screen anymore after all the fiddling with trying to get the recovery disks started. :eek:

So from what you said last "the computer doesn't boot from the cd" seems to be where I am now. I don't have the windows installation cd. All I have are 7 recovery cds. I guess we are at the point of crossing the bridge.
 
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