24 replies to this topic

[C2C]

Well if this topic does not belong here, please feel free to delete/move it. Here's how the story went: My friend's computer crashed on him and he asked me to come over and have a look. So I did and here are some errors that appear:

Boot cd-rom
Boot cd-rom
Cannot load press ctrl+alt+delete to restart

After I restart it the same thing happens all over again. (Note: the message is very similiar to that above but I didn't write the exact message down). I tried the restore disk and then that too did not work even after I log into windows, the computer freezes and the message above appears again. When I load the computer again, this message appears:

The following file is corrupted or missing
<windows root> \system32\hal.dll

Well now I have no clue what to do. I believe the problem is in the hard drive but I'm not sure so I brought my friend's hard drive home to check it out and when I put it in my old computer, it said, "Operating system not found on any devices. Press any key and try again"

So...what do I do now? I'm totally lost. Any help or comment would be greatly appreciated.

[Inspiron]

This type are my favourite questions...

As for your question, the operating system seemed to crash already...

If its Windows XP, try booting from the Windows XP disc itself and do a repair using the Repair Console...
However, you will need to know what's really happening to cure with the recovery console or else it may worsen the situation...

Best solution for me, I would format the computer...
This would clear off all OS settings and reconfigure from fresh...
However, your data in the Root Drive will be erased as well..
But this is very effective for computers that has a partition drive for OS and another partition drive for data...
This is how I manage my computer too...

Hope that helps...

[C2C]

Yeah I'm sure the hard drive is messed up already so I wanted to format it (since that's the only thing I can do now I think) but the problem is I cannot boot from cd-rom either! I tried to boot from a floppy start up disk but that didn't work out either. Currently I am trying to make it in a cd-rom disk and see if that has any effect.

[shigajet]

The same thing happened to my "old clunker" laptop (running Windows ME) earlier this year. Every time I tried to boot it up, it kept going to the scan disk and restarted the scan endlessly until I became fed up and turned off the machine. Luckily, I didn't a whole lot of software to re-install, so I formatted the computer and began anew. Doesn' t seem to have any problems now.

[C2C]

I cannot format the computer at all. The cd rom does not boot. The command prompt would not let me open fdisk and format. The window xp would not boot. Nothing works. I'm sure the files on the hard drive is erased but I can't even boot any disk...this is irritating.

[Styx]

If you're not able to boot from either CD or floppy, could be that your BIOS is messed up, or a virus. try putting it in your old computer as a slave, and reformat.

[psychiccyberfreak]

Something similar happened to my laptop. The graphics card fan would not spin. What I did was in my computer, I took it under the hood, and had to reconect the wire to the motherboard. Now it works fine. So anotherwords, try checking that everything is plugged in inside of the computer. for your os problem, try copying all of your documents onto a CD and then wipe the drive clean, format it, re-install the os, and load your files back on with the CD. Dont use the CD for programs, though, only for documents. If all else fails, get a good computer. If you get a dell though, do NOT use their coustomer service. Either that or try using a computer repair shop. They do this stuff for a living, so they will definatly fix it. Hope that helped you.

[C2C]

Well I talk to one of my friends and he advised me to put my friend's hard drive into my other computer in the living room and use it as a slave drive and reformat. He also advised me to changed the IDE cable just in case. psychiccyberfreak - Everything is plugged in correctly from ide to everything.

[BuffaloHelp]

Is it possible that the CD-ROM drive is bad? I would need more information of the computer’s specification. But try this in the mean time. Take out all hardware expect for CPU, RAM, video (if not built-in), known working CD-ROM drive and the hard-drive. That’s it! Set it from your BIOS to boot from CD-ROM drive. And see if you can repeat either the restore console or install fully. Keep us in update of your progress.

Good luck.

[C2C]

Well computer specs are as followed:

1 ghz proccess from Pentium
Memory is more than 512 (didn't check)

I also have a spare dvd rom that I can put in or I can just take out my main computer's cd-rw drive and try if that works or not. I don't want to put my friend's hard drive into my main computer because I'm afraid it might jack it up. I still got about a week or so to see what happens.

[lava.alt]

make shure that your boot sequence is right and the cd-rom is eneabled for booting ... if those two things are right maybe you have a problem with your cd-rom ...

try booting with xp cdrom ... win 98, me and 95 will not work because are made for fat partition not for ntfs, win xp partition, but maybe your xp is working with fat ...

[C2C]

I tried all different boot sequence such as 1) CD rom 2) floppy 3) hard drive. I mixed them around to see if anything happens but to no avail. Sorry, I have no clue what FAT or NTFS is and I only use window xp disk.

[Galahad]

FAT and NTFS are two different filesystems used by Windows. FAT is originaly used by DOS, and earlier versions of windows (3.1, 3.11WG, etc.), then evolved to FAT32, and used on Win9x/Me. NTFS was used on NT platforms.

Now, if the boot sequence has no effect, I suggest somehow flashing your BIOS... Also, is the computer brand name, or custom built? This may be the cause, because brand name computers do like to stop functioning if some of the hardware is changed... But, I do suspect the BIOS is at fault here...

Get back to us with more info on this... And I'll ask arround with my friends, maybe someone has seen something similar to this...

[ARNEL]

Galahad, on May 25 2005, 03:33 PM, said:

FAT and NTFS are two different filesystems used by Windows. FAT is originaly used by DOS, and earlier versions of windows (3.1, 3.11WG, etc.), then evolved to FAT32, and used on Win9x/Me. NTFS was used on NT platforms.

Now, if the boot sequence has no effect, I suggest somehow flashing your BIOS... Also, is the computer brand name, or custom built? This may be the cause, because brand name computers do like to stop functioning if some of the hardware is changed... But, I do suspect the BIOS is at fault here...

Get back to us with more info on this... And I'll ask arround with my friends, maybe someone has seen something similar to this...

Did hear you any sound from the CPU when you try to boot up. identifying the beep from CPU define which of your device is not functioning, if you hear continues beep with 3 seconds interval it could be your memory card, if out hear the beep three times it may be the video card. so check it out maybe it could help you fix that thing, also try to check your jumper settings in your CDrom drive, hard drive, it should be in the right place, windows dont boot up if there is a conflict in jumper settings...

[C2C]

The computer is from Compaq which was bought about 3-4 years ago. And nope I do not hear any abnormal beeps which usually occurs when there is something wrong. How do I flash the BIOS?

[dundun2007]

What comes up when you try and start your computer. If something in your computer in not plugged in all the way or something burns out it can cause the whole computer not to start up. I recently fried a network card on my computer and it didnt start up. What i did was take everything out of the computer that was no needed for it to run and then i seen if that worked. If the computer starts put the parts in one by one to locate the problem if it doesnt start after you take it all out then i suggest getting another harddrive with windows just incase windows may not be working. You can also of course use the windows disk to load the computer and reinstall windows. I dont know what error comes up or anything else explain to us some more in detail what exactly happens when you try to load up the computer.

[C2C]

The only two things that happen when booted without floppy disK: COMPAQ (computer brand) and then No Os detected ....and so on. Nothing else. Nada. Zip. When booted with a floppy disk, the command prompt appears. That's pretty much it.

[Styx]

C2C, on May 26 2005, 03:09 AM, said:

The computer is from Compaq which was bought about 3-4 years ago.  And nope I do not hear any abnormal beeps which usually occurs when there is something wrong.  How do I flash the BIOS?

to flash the bios, download the appropriate bios from the internet, then generally unzip to a floppy, and stick it in your computer. plus the instructions should be on the site where you'll download the bios from.

[C2C]

FINALLY! WHOOOPIE! I changed the IDE cables into a better one, took out my main computer's cd-rw and plugged it in and it finally read the window xp disk. Then another problem arises...there are some files that cannot be installed (all contains ----.sys). I'm gonna borrow my friend's window xp disk and see if that works.

[ARNEL]

C2C, on May 23 2005, 01:20 AM, said:

I cannot format the computer at all.  The cd rom does not boot.  The command prompt would not let me open fdisk and format.  The window xp would not boot.  Nothing works.  I'm sure the files on the hard drive is erased but I can't even boot any disk...this is irritating.

May be you hard drive is NTFS formatted, you cannot use fdisk and format since it is in NFTS and not FAT32, fdisk and format works only on FAT32 formatted disk drive. Here the solution, drivepro program can delete cylinder from your harddrive doing this will make your hardisk FA32 and then you can use fdisk and format the hardisk, if you don't have this tool then boot from cdrom drive, since during installation process you can still partition and reformat your hardisk. this is a clean setup to replace all the missing file system in your computer... fixing the corrupted files is not highly recommended there is a tendency that the problem will keep on coming back....

[jmar71n]

I had the exact same problem you have described. What i did was change my monherboard and changed my heatsink, but i clumsyly smeared some of the heat conductive paste over the edge of the surface of the processor core.

Once i whiped this off with a soft cloth the computer started up as it should of.

[jibnet]

Hey it seems you havent made appropriate changes in BIOS utility. you need to set the boot priorities and also check if the operating system has not crashed.
I would recommend to format C drive and reinstall windows

[Magic1492]

Get your Windows XP recovery disk and boot on the cd (Do this by getting into your BIOS, you'll have to press a key, mine is F12, and reearange the boot order so the CD will boot first.) Then hit R to start a repair, this might fix the problem, but if you can call whoever made the computer if it was a company, then they'll give you some better support.

[harshcpu]

Well lets take this one step at a time.

The first thing that i would recommend is that you try booting in safe mode ( f8 when the system is

booting) if you are luckily it will boot. If it does just do a system restore. If that does not work

The second thing that I would recommend is that you get a boot able windows xp cd.

Bood from the cd and when it reaches the menu get into the repair menu (usually r)

You should get to a repair prompt

Type in chkdsk /r and let it run - hopefully it will scan all the files and repair the corrupted files.

Once it has completed restart the computer - hopefully that will have fixed your problem if not i

recommend you back up all the information from the hard drive ( documents, software, drivers, ect.)

[megabytemb]

i had the same thing so i reinstalled windows and it worked fine