My computer decided this morning that it no longer wants to boot up when I turn it on. I have no idea how long it'll be broken, but it might be awhile, and I won't be back until then. I'm sending this out on my sisters laptop. Well, see you all whenever, I guess...
Try to press which ever f1-12 button your computer requires to enter the internal options and see if there's a repair button. If that doesn't work, try inserting a Windows cd into your computer, and see if you can wipe and reinstall the OS.
(I'm intermediate with computers, not an expert, this could be completely wrong)
Theres no button whatsoever, it just blackscreens. Also, I'll be on this old craptastic computer until this gets sorted out.
And thank you, Book Smarts, for being apparently the only person on this forum to actually care about this.
I saw this during the morning, didn't have time to reply.
I care about you, hope you get this fixed soon.
It's really weird that that happened to you. You don't think it could be from a virus, do you? :I
I think I'm just unlucky, as these kinda crashes can randomly happen. Also, since I forgot to back up my files, I'm gonna lose all of my Minecraft worlds, my Minecraft skins, my desktop backgrounds, my schoolwork, my mods, my games, and everything else. I swear, life hates me...
There's a way to backup your files still, if it's a desktop PC it will be really easy to if you know how to take the HDD out.
But the screen doesn't work at all, no text or anything when you turn it on?
I also know of a data recovery program if you need to get your files back once your OS is formatted, but you can't use the OS if it is formatted until you get the files back or the data will be overwritten or corrupted.
Quote from: Zaner-Boy on 2012 Oct 01, 16:47:16
I think I'm just unlucky, as these kinda crashes can randomly happen. Also, since I forgot to back up my files, I'm gonna lose all of my Minecraft worlds, my Minecraft skins, my desktop backgrounds, my schoolwork, my mods, my games, and everything else. I swear, life hates me...
Im trying to think of something to say that will cheer you up a bit but nothing comes to mind.
Sorry.
Quote from: Trege on 2012 Oct 01, 17:19:47
There's a way to backup your files still, if it's a desktop PC it will be really easy to if you know how to take the HDD out.
But the screen doesn't work at all, no text or anything when you turn it on?
I also know of a data recovery program if you need to get your files back once your OS is formatted, but you can't use the OS if it is formatted until you get the files back or the data will be overwritten or corrupted.
I have no idea how to do that, and I don't care enough to, either. If I really want to get a certain skin or picture back, I have a lot of them posted about this forum. Also, there's no text, but there's a little flashing white line as if text is supposed to be typed. No, typing doesn't work. I tried.
That means your computer isn't dead at least it's still fixable, the fact that you see a white line on the screen.
What brand is your PC?
It's a Dell, I think. That's what the startup screen says, anyway. By the way, when I do turn it on, that startup screen with the progress bar does show up, but once the progress bar is full, it goes to that black screen. I did try hitting the F2 and F12 buttons to bring up the menus and junk, but they both led to the black screen, too.
Ugh, Dells I've had to help my cousins and aunt fix a lot of those. They seem to go bad way too often. Anyways do you know your PC's full name? Like what type of Dell is it? It should say somewhere on the tower. Dell has instructions for each model they have. and it sounds like a boot issue which can be fixed if you're willing to try and fix it with instructions.
(That's assuming nothing else in the PC is causing the problem, it could be a dying HDD or messed up bios settings.)
I'd love to try, but since this is a used laptop, I have no paperwork or instructions or anything. Anyways, on the back it says Dell Windows XP Professional. I might be looking in the wrong place, so let me know where I need to look if that's not what your looking for.
Ok if it's a laptop the model number may be on the tag that's on the bottom of it. Knowing the model number will help in fixing it.
An example of the model number is something like this.
(http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/images/DellLatitudeC400.jpg)
Alright, I found it. It's a Latitude D620.
Ok because of how fast some computers want to start you have to keep pressing the F2 key multiple times after turning on the power button it should enter the bios. If we can get it to enter the bios we can reset the bios to see if it's the HDD that's the problem or if the bios isn't using the correct boot device for one reason or another. or diagnose what the actual problem is.
The fact that it shows a white line means the PC itself is still alive but something isn't booting correctly or a part is not working correctly hopefully it's a boot related issue.
I'd be more of a help if it wasn't a laptop, as i'd say to try installing windows on another drive and switch your drive that has your stuff on it to a slave. That'll tell ya if your HDD is gone(I had to do this once) and that way you wouldn't have to reinstall windows and risk formatting your data.
But don't listen to me, Trege seems to know what he's talking about, i'm pretending I know what i'm talking about X3
I've lost years of programming and animating work cause of a drive crash. I know how ya feel, hope it works out for ya.
Quote from: Trege on 2012 Oct 01, 17:54:03
Ok because of how fast some computers want to start you have to keep pressing the F2 key multiple times after turning on the power button it should enter the bios. If we can get it to enter the bios we can reset the bios to see if it's the HDD that's the problem or if the bios isn't using the correct boot device for one reason or another. or diagnose what the actual problem is.
The fact that it shows a white line means the PC itself is still alive but something isn't booting correctly or a part is not working correctly hopefully it's a boot related issue.
Alright, I did that and it brought me to a blue screen with a lot of text, and the left side has a lot of things like System Info and Memory Info that I can check out. What next?
Ok we got in the bios that's a good sign is it possible at all for you to take a picture of the screen with a camera or something and upload it? If not I'll have to figure out the type of bios you have through questions.
(http://i.imgur.com/TFVmi.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/jsYZa.jpg)
Alright I'll keep those pictures in mind while we work on this. First can you check boot sequence and tell me what it lists?
1: CD/DVD/CD-RW Device
2: Internal HDD
3: USB Storage Device
4: Diskette Drive
Modular Bay HDD
Cardbus NIC
D/Dock PCI slot NIC
Onboard NIC
Okay in the boot sequence does it say any devices are not present?
What I typed is exactly what it said on-screen, not including the explanation of what the Boot Sequence is. So no.
Alright can you check the onboard devices area and tell me what it says?
Fast IR
Integrated NIC
Internal Modem
External USB ports
Integrated USB hub
Parallel Port
Serial Port
PC Card
Okay try going back to the boot sequence area and see if it lets you select internal HDD and if it does tell me if anything pops up.
It allows me to select it, take it off of the list for starting up, and move it up and down the list. Nothing special shows up when I do any of these things.
Alright I have an idea though I'm not sure this will work. You said you typed everything you saw so press spacebar on the internal HDD and tell me if a number appears by it.
Err nevermind my brain derped on me yet again sorry.
There's already a number by it. I typed a 2 next to it in the post. Pressing Space takes the number away, and puts it back again if I press it twice.
Try moving the HDD to the top of the list and taking the numbers off the other devices. If it still won't boot the OS either the MBR is damaged or the HDD itself is damaged. The MBR is fixable though. Make sure you save and exit the bios after changing the settings though.
When your computer decided not to boot what were you doing on it last before it messed up? and was it acting odd at all.
Er mah gerd, it worked! The computer is booting up now. Thanks Trege, you're a lifesaver!
No problem. ^-^ I've had to deal with Dells a lot they are pretty annoying when they decide to break over stupid reasons. For some reason your PC was trying to boot the wrong device that had nothing on it.
If you lost power or anything the bios settings were likely corrupted and needed to be set to something normal.
Nothing too odd happened yesterday. Maybe it was because my computer REALLY hated the LoE Pre-Alpha. Oh well, thanks for the help, man. :D
If you restart it and it happens again. The bios may have something that's preventing it from saving, which isn't that big of an issue it just means setting the boot sequence each time it starts Hopefully it stays saved now though.
More bad news. It wouldn't boot up again this morning, and wouldn't let me in the bios until I unplugged all of the usb ports. Even then, the save options hadn't changed, but when I exited the bios, it worked fine. What the heck is going on?
So the options you set were the same? Did you have any flash drives during start up. The PC does consider them disks so it could have tried to boot from those although I'm not sure why usually you have to tell the bios what you want it to boot and then it keeps those settings.
Quote from: Zaner-Boy on 2012 Oct 02, 05:48:33
More bad news. It wouldn't boot up again this morning, and wouldn't let me in the bios until I unplugged all of the usb ports. Even then, the save options hadn't changed, but when I exited the bios, it worked fine. What the heck is going on?
I would suggest if you can, do a BIOS update. Sounds to me like a corrupt BIOS there.
Quote from: SweBow on 2012 Oct 02, 07:30:35
Quote from: Zaner-Boy on 2012 Oct 02, 05:48:33
More bad news. It wouldn't boot up again this morning, and wouldn't let me in the bios until I unplugged all of the usb ports. Even then, the save options hadn't changed, but when I exited the bios, it worked fine. What the heck is going on?
I would suggest if you can, do a BIOS update. Sounds to me like a corrupt BIOS there.
^ im a second opinion. Do what SweBow says.
It worked when I booted it up five minutes ago after getting home... maybe the computer was just a bit slow, and I was impatient this morning. Oh well, if it happens again, I'll try that.
Quote from: Zaner-Boy on 2012 Oct 02, 14:33:47
It worked when I booted it up five minutes ago after getting home... maybe the computer was just a bit slow, and I was impatient this morning. Oh well, if it happens again, I'll try that.
ok