Boot Problem XP

1889 Views 13 Replies 4 Participants Last post by tiberia, Sep 29, 2005

tiberia

Discussion Starter · Sep 19, 2005

today i turned off my computer, but then needed to quickly do something and so turned it back on. But during the dos screens before it gets to windows splash screen it gets stuck saying "boot CD".

I dont know why this error has all of a sudden occured as no cmos settings have been changed and i have never tried to boot from a CD on this machine before. I have checked in my cmos for the boot settings and they all seem to be correct.

The only way that i seem to be able to get into windows is by spending 10 to 20 mins restarting the machine and hitting F8 to get into windows advanced boot settings (although this is very hit and miss, as most of the time it just gets stuck at the "boot CD" line, hence the 10 to 20 mins of trying)

if anyone has any suggestions i would much appreciate them, at this point i am not willing to format my hdd as i have far to much irreplacable data and no room for backing it up.

i have also tried many differend variations of tacking out optical drives and D: hdd but same thing happens, i have also tried changing it so that CD boot is not in my boot listing in cmos but it still gets stuck at the same point, just without the actual line saying "Boot CD".

Many thanks for any replies

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Tumbleweed36

· #2 · Sep 20, 2005

Hi,

Why not start the process of trouble shooting by clearing your CMOS and see if that helps. There may have been an error caused by an electrical malfunction when you suddenly turned it off and on again.

Let us know if this gets you any results.

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Ha-y-n

· #3 · Sep 20, 2005

this might be a stupid question, but is there a cd in the drive?

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keymaker

· #4 · Sep 20, 2005

no there is no cd in the drive. usually when the computer says "boot cd", it means that the first boot device got change to cdrom and when the computer boot up, i will try to boot to the cd first.

i recommend clearing the cmos on the motherboard. refer to your motherboard manual for the cmos location.

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tiberia

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 20, 2005 (Edited)

my mobo didnt come with a manual and i have never cleared cmos bfore, how difficult is it and how likely would i be to fudge it up lol...

...i will quickly try and find an online manual for it...

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tiberia

Discussion Starter · #6 · Sep 20, 2005 (Edited)

sissoft analysis tells me that these are the details for the mobo:

manufacturer = First international computer, inc
model = P4M-915G/PD1
Version PCB 2.X
System Bios Pheonix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG

dont know if thats any help, going to carry on looking for online manual

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Ha-y-n

· #7 · Sep 26, 2005

hey tiberia,

check this page it might help

http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboard/motherboard_all.aspx

I couldn't find your model but a couple that might be it.

hope this helps

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tiberia

Discussion Starter · #8 · Sep 27, 2005

cheers for that, my mobo is listed but no documentation for it, lol.
also a friend of mine mentioned that the problem could be that the boot.ini file could be currupted, went to take a look and cannot find it anywhere (looked in windows folder, C:, etc.) and made sure that i could see hidden files etc, but it just does not simply seem to be anywhere, any suggestions on that idea???

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Tumbleweed36

· #9 · Sep 27, 2005 (Edited)

Hi,

Yep, is possible that it is a boot.ini file. If you want to give that a try, it won't hurt anything:

However, let's save that as a later option and clear the CMOS as a first line of defense. O.K., so no manual, no big deal. Take the battery out (make sure which way you take it out so you can put it back correctly) for about twenty minutes, put it back in the same way you took it out and fire up the computer. That will clear the CMOS and should reset everything.

THis is a possible remedy for the boot.ini if clearing CMOS did not work:

You can boot to the XP cd and when you see the "Welcome to setup" message, press the letter R.
You will then get a DOS prompt.
Then type: chkdsk /p [enter]
When that is done type: fixboot [enter]
Type: Y at the next prompt [enter]
Then type: exit [enter]
The system will now reboot into Windows.

If for some reason that didn't work, you can boot to the recovery console .
Type: "chkdsk /r" [enter]
When done type: exit [enter].
This takes a bit longer, but the system should boot back into Windows.

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tiberia

Discussion Starter · #10 · Sep 27, 2005 (Edited)

my comp when i bought it (from shop ready built, which was a big mistake that i wont make again) didnt come with an OS disk but instead just a preinstalled XP full of crap.

i have tried booting from friends XP cd but nothing happened when i tried

good suggestion though

with the clearing CMOS option i have have never done it before, after the twenty minutes are up, and i put the battery back in what happens then???

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Tumbleweed36

· #11 · Sep 27, 2005

Hi,

It will simply enter the BIOS setup menu and that is all. You select default settings and away you go if that was the problem.

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tiberia

Discussion Starter · #12 · Sep 27, 2005

yeh i was just a bit worried that i would have to re-enter all of the settings myself, as in my version of bios a lot of settings seem to be locked, hense one reason why i do not want to buy comp from a shop again.

i will open comp in a min to have a look for the battery

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tiberia

Discussion Starter · #13 · Sep 27, 2005

i think i may have to wait for morning to look for it as i have no decent light at the moment

how likely do you think that this is the cause? (as i am unsure because i can still get around the prob using advanced win startup, although lengthy time needed to actually get the timing right)

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tiberia

Discussion Starter · #14 · Sep 29, 2005

still havent found battery on the mobo yet, look again tomorow night after work (dark by the time i get home and i have no bright light).

I also no why i cannot use cd to boot from, the CD drive at the point where it asks to boot from it seems to loose its power, although seconds before this point where i can enter bios it still has power, im very puzzled and annoyed, this means that i cant even do a clean install of XP even if i wanted to

suggestions????

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