ThreadBare

I have been looking the last 2 days at other users problems to see if I could use the info to help my problem and have tried cleaning, reseating cards, removing and replacing battery (reconfigging bios), etc, but nothing, yet.
My issue is: The computer is a custom built (I bought it from a coworker a couple years ago for my sons) and has been working great. The other day it was sluggish so my son re-booted and it started the circle of NOT-A, which is the black screen where a problem was encountered and it gives a list of bootable choices (last known good config, safe mode, normal windows, etc). It will boot to none of these. Upon trying, the Intel screen comes up for a few seconds, the green num lock, etc lights flash, the green lights for the cd drives flash green (then go to orange), then the firsts black windows screen appears for 3 seconds, then goes to the flashing underscore in the top left, then back to the bootable choices screen (norm, last good config, safe, etc) - thus the circle of NOT-A. I am definitely no expert, but when trying to boot, I do not hear the beep. I don't see or hear anything from the Hard Drive, either.
I can get to my Bios and have tried changing order of boot just to see if I can get it to boot up. Please help. Here is my system (4-5 years old I think):
HD Western Digital Caviar blue WD800JB
Intel (R) P4 1.7GHz
Bus 400 MHz
Cache 256
High Power 300W PS
Bios HV84510A.86A.0018.P04
DVD RW
CD RW
Network card (wireless)
ATI VisionTek 9250 128MB vid card

Hope I gave you enough info- let me know if I left something out.

Thanks for anything you can do - T-Bare

tecknomage

What is "NOT-A"

I Googled it and got numerous unrelated hits.

When you boot you should get one beep when the BIOS loads.

If you are NOT getting one beep, you BIOS is not even loading. BIG problem, time for a new PC

Note, this could be caused by a missing voltage from your PSU. I've seen this symptom in the past caused by a bad PSU.

Do you have an old DOS Boot floppy? (I always keep one around, a Win98SE boot floppy with Win98 tools). If you do, try putting it in and powering up your PC.

If you don't have a DOS Boot floppy, try getting one from someone.

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Tecknomage
Computer System Specialist
IT Technician

ThreadBare

circle of not-a (notta damn thing!)ha!
I have looked for an old DOS Boot floppy I used to have years ago for another system, but cannot locate (yet)
I did make a McAfee rescue floppy for my current computer (different system than my son's), but haven't tried to boot from that or not even sure it is for this type of problem (maybe you can advise). Question, though...when I ctrl alt del and F1 I can get to my bios and change the boot order and see it change (CD, HD, floppy), so wouldn't that mean my bios is loading? Just a thought. Thanks.

Doby

Yes you are passing post (power on self test) if you can enter bios, this seems either a windows problem or a bad hardrive, from what you have described its possible the hardrive is bad, go to the hardrive manufactuers website and download there utilities to test the drive. You have to do this of course on another computer, but with their utilities you can create a bootable floppy or cd to boot from and test the problem computer

If the drive passes the extended tests then try a repair install of XP but be prepared to reinstall all drivers and windows updates, all your user data will remain

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Pharaohz

If the hard drive checks out, Id look at the psu. 4-5 years is a good lifespan for a psu.

Also, is there a good spyware remover on it and does it get used?

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ThreadBare

Weird....I burnt a diag CD from WD and did both a quick and extended scan of the HD. No errors were found, so I rebooted. It loaded to the black screen with the safe mode, last known good config, normal windows, etc I made the normal selection and she booted right up! I was not expecting it to load since no errors were found, but not complaining! Is it possible it fixes things it can fix without reporting? I wouldn't think so, but what do I know.
Thanks for the support and I will also look at replacing the PSU on your guys advice.

Threadbare

ThreadBare

Oh, I almost forgot Pharaohz's last question. Yes, I use McAfee, spybot SD, adaware, HJT etc (some of the recommended tools by your team).

Thanks

dai

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