PC Wont Boot! Please Help!

R

Raz3r

New Member
Last friday I came home and saw that my little brothers (they are 4) had gotten in my room. The computer was shut off by the serge protector. When i went to turn it on it wouldnt boot. This is bad because I run a T-Shirt company and that was the main computer that I used for my business.

I did take a video of what is happening, your can view it here: www.defused.us/brknpc.MPG. I also have some pics: http://defused.us/brknpc and http://defused.us/brknpc2.

If you need any more info let me know, ill be watching this thread like a hawk to get this problem solved!
 
What operating system are you running and if Windows do you have a Windows installation disk available? It looks there like your master boot record needs to be repaired. If Windows you can boot with the installation to the recovery console in XP and type "Fixmbr" at the command prompt there. If you have a floppy drive you can boot from a 98 or ME startup floppy and type "fdisk /mbr" at the dos prompt.
 
Im running XP pro, and yes I do have the disk available. I tried to boot from disk but even the CD drive didnt want to open, ill swap in a different one and see what happens. Did the video and pics help you at all?
 
Its not detecting any HDDs.

EDIT: Ok I tried swapping this HDD im typing with now with my one in my broken pc. When I put the broked pc's hdd in this computer I get the blue screen of death, and when I put this hdd (good working one) in the broken pc it acts as if the other hdd was still in, meaning its still not detecting even a working HDD.
 
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You may want to try a different cable on the other case. Another reason that the good running drive may not have worked could be the difference in makes and models or you needed to change the jumper setting. With the problem drive the hard shutdown probably goofed the boot sector as well as the master boot record or it simply said "goodbye"? The blue screen being seen in the other case kind of rules that out suggesting a repair install of Windows would be needed to run it there.
 
So by cable I should try to swap the ribbon cables? And im not sure this is the first time the HDD had gone out on me, how do i know its usable and can trust it again. might be easier to get a new one. But yeah ive tried every HDD i got and it still doesnt detect any of em. How do I test the cpu/mobo/ram? Think one of those could of went out?
 
Take one look at the screens you took of the disk boot failure message seen to answer that. You wouldn't have seen the system make it that far if the cpu, board, or memory failed on you. You mentioned that your younger brothers got into your room and shut of the power strip which would see a hard shutdown there. But the system itself is acting normally upto that point.

Upon trying different drives and seeing the same problem especially when you know those are good the cable is the first thing to look at there. Ribbon cables can get dryed out and start seeing problems with drives after a long period of time. When I first assembled the case here the old floppy won't work at all. When a new ribbon cable was used the old one was tossed. That can easily hold true on hard drive ribbon cables as well.

Before assuming a bad drive try a new cable with the drive you were running there back in the case where it was. When starting the system press the F8 key to get into the start menu just after the post tests end before Windows starts loading. The BSOD points at the drive having errors that need to reparied due to a hard shutdown. Once you are in the start menu choose the safe mode/command prompt only option and type in chkdsk at the command prompt; press enter after. That will show if the drive is seeing bad sectors. Later if you start seeing Windows load and then stall boot with the cd and try the fixmbr command at the recovery console to see if that gets you running. For a repair install as the last option review the article seen at http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
 
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