pc boot issue any help?

emails · 31/03/15 - 16:10

i don't know why but for some reason my pc has just dicided not to boot properly. it was fine in the last hour or so .my wife switched it off i think off at the mains & left it . so i go on it & suddenly it is not booting properly. what i get is this. black screen with the usal message sorry for the incovence etc try booting in safe mode etc or the last time it worked normally.so do all that ,but to no avalial. tried finding an old boot disc to use ,but lost them all so can't do that. so its going round in circles at the moment trying to start up then back to the black screen message with the count down to start up. switching off at the mains has been done before but not like this?? any help? my pc is on WXP

chrisjr · 31/03/15 - 16:31

Was Windows shut down properly from the Start button before the power was turned off. If not that might have corrupted something.

One thing to try is to press the F8 key repeatedly immediately after switching on. When the text menu appears try "Last known good configuration" and see if that will let the computer boot.

If that works then test things out for a while to make sure nothing serious is broken then shut it down cleanly and restart to make sure it boots back up OK.

emails · 31/03/15 - 16:38

chrisjr wrote: »

Was Windows shut down properly from the Start button before the power was turned off. If not that might have corrupted something.

One thing to try is to press the F8 key repeatedly immediately after switching on. When the text menu appears try "Last known good configuration" and see if that will let the computer boot.

If that works then test things out for a while to make sure nothing serious is broken then shut it down cleanly and restart to make sure it boots back up OK.

ok will give f8 a go as i have not tryed that yet ,but did try LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIG & that did NOT work

chrisjr · 31/03/15 - 16:47

emails wrote: »

ok will give f8 a go as i have not tryed that yet ,but did try LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIG & that did NOT work

If you've seen Last Known etc. then you must have got into the F8 menu, possibly automatically.

If it just goes round in a loop coming back almost immediately to this menu no matter what option you select then that suggests something is really broken.

I have had that a couple of times with XP. The only solution I found was to re-install it. Which would obviously require an XP install disk and could result in data loss so I hope you have a good working back-up of everything important.

You might get away with an "upgrade" install which theoretically just replaces Windows and keeps your programs and data but even so always wise to have a safety back-up just in case.

emails · 31/03/15 - 16:48

emails wrote: »

ok will give f8 a go as i have not tryed that yet ,but did try LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIG & that did NOT work

that has just been tryed but again not working.

emails · 31/03/15 - 16:52

chrisjr wrote: »

If you've seen Last Known etc. then you must have got into the F8 menu, possibly automatically.

If it just goes round in a loop coming back almost immediately to this menu no matter what option you select then that suggests something is really broken.

I have had that a couple of times with XP. The only solution I found was to re-install it. Which would obviously require an XP install disk and could result in data loss so I hope you have a good working back-up of everything important.

You might get away with an "upgrade" install which theoretically just replaces Windows and keeps your programs and data but even so always wise to have a safety back-up just in case.

i think the windows disc i had for it i may of thrown out ,largly because i could not find the PK code for it ,at the moment it looks like going to a pc repair shop but i hope not

Kleist · 31/03/15 - 17:21

a PC supplied with Windows XP ,,,, bought before 2007 most likely.

It really isn't worth paying anyone to look at it. Keep the hard drive though as it may be possible to recover your data from it.

archiver · 31/03/15 - 21:42

If you think you might have had more than about 7G of free space on your hard drive, or you have a spare drive - you could install Ubuntu and use it to get your important files back at least. It's pretty straightforward these days. You just need to download the latest version and burn it to a DVD. Then just boot it and follow the instructions.

You needn't even go as far as to install it as it'll run reasonably well (unless there's something wrong with your hardware) as a 'Live' OS without writing anything to your HDD.

Just don't choose the 'Replace Windows' option if you want to retrieve your files.

Plenty of YouTube videos to show you how:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=install+ubuntu+14.04+alongside+windows+7

Worth a try, unless you just want to buy a new one. :cool:

dragonrapide · 31/03/15 - 22:30

I had a similar thing with my pc, but with Vista. It just decided it was not going to boot up, would get so far and then up came the message to put the disc in which I did not have. Fortunately I had backed up most things but found that if I turned it off and rocked the computer from side to side it did come back on. This kept happening so in the end I called in an engineer who said hard drive was on its way out. I do still wonder if something was loose inside. As it was quite old I decided to get a new computer with windows 8.1

This was a struggle to learn although I have managed to get over most problems by googling. The thing I really hate is the windows mail app which remains the most hated program/app I have ever had the misfortune to use. I shall be downloading outlook as soon as I have the energy and time.

emails · 02/05/15 - 07:55

i now got a new problem,same pc started yesterday .it boots up ok no issues there,but after a a min or so it crashes then re-boots .i have checked the varous points through F8 to sort it out ie re-store to earlyer date etc & safe mode but as yet still no better. i did take it to the shop last time ,they did manged to right the system ,& all has been well til now .so whats happened now ? & what can i do??

RobinOfLoxley · 02/05/15 - 08:21

Make and model of PC? OS? What did the shops say last time? How does it crash? Do you get a blue screen and any error codes? Did you make an Ubuntu disc and try that?

emails · 02/05/15 - 09:36

RobinOfLoxley wrote: »

Make and model of PC? OS? What did the shops say last time? How does it crash? Do you get a blue screen and any error codes? Did you make an Ubuntu disc and try that?

ok this is what i got
intel pen r 4 cpu 3.40ghz em64t capable .right now it boots up ok,& goues to the desk top. then it freezes & crashes ,then starts to re-boot. ,but also it freezes & stays where it is ,but you can't move the mouse or anything ,so you just have to push the re-set button to start all over again. as for the shop what they did i can't remember ,but somehow managed to get it working again. the info on the machine came via the f2 bios section

njp · 02/05/15 - 10:30

You've already been told what you need to do. Create an Ubuntu disc.

It could be a hardware problem. The first thing I would do, on booting the Ubuntu disc, is to run a memory test. If that passes, boot Ubuntu itself. See if it will run stably. See if you can access your hard drive without problems. Consider backing up your data.

emails · 02/05/15 - 10:41

njp wrote: »

You've already been told what you need to do. Create an Ubuntu disc.

It could be a hardware problem. The first thing I would do, on booting the Ubuntu disc, is to run a memory test. If that passes, boot Ubuntu itself. See if it will run stably. See if you can access your hard drive without problems. Consider backing up your data.

ok thanks for that. so ok 1. how do i create a ubuntu disc? & 2. how do i run a memory test?

RobinOfLoxley · 02/05/15 - 10:52

You'll need a working computer or laptop, connected to the Internet, blank DVDs or a USB Flash stick of 4GB or more to put Ubuntu on.

Do you have those?

emails · 02/05/15 - 11:38

RobinOfLoxley wrote: »

You'll need a working computer or laptop, connected to the Internet, blank DVDs or a USB Flash stick of 4GB or more to put Ubuntu on.

Do you have those?

yes i got a working pc & blank dvds

njp · 02/05/15 - 11:46

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Burn the DVD. Use it to boot your faulty PC (you might have to fiddle with BIOS options or press a function key as your PC is booting to allow this). Select the MEMTEST option. If that passes (all the memory failures I've seen showed up within a few seconds, though in theory it could take a lot longer, so let it run through 1 complete pass to be sure), reboot and run Ubuntu itself (don't install it!).

If your PC can boot from a USB stick, write an image to that instead. It will be faster. The website tells you how to do it.

RobinOfLoxley · 02/05/15 - 12:11

Yes. Just right-click the iso file when downloaded and Burn to DVD.

Get the Memtest here

http://askubuntu.com/questions/343114/how-to-check-for-errors-in-ram-via-linux

If there is a problem post back with exact detailed details.

Otherwise, use Ubuntu for a day or two or more (if you want) to confirm PC behaves.

Firefox browser is on the Desktop Screen.

Don't Install Ubuntu, you are just running it from the DVD

max99 · 02/05/15 - 13:25

Give up. You can buy a refurbished Windows 7 desktop from around £60 delivered. No point at all in you spending more time and money on an ancient machine.

For example:

http://www.tier1online.com/windows-7-refurbished-pcs/?sort=priceasc

emails · 02/05/15 - 15:36

i will have a look at it as soon as i have 5 mins spare & see what happens

emails · 03/05/15 - 16:49

i have had a look at this with little joy,i think because it asks me to pay for it which i wont so do not know how to get around that.though a thought in my mind say it could be a hard drive issue? in which case i could do a swap of some kind? being there two hd in the machine?

RobinOfLoxley · 03/05/15 - 17:58

Pay for what?

emails · 03/05/15 - 18:14

RobinOfLoxley wrote: »

Pay for what?

the unbuntu or whatever it is called ,download

max99 · 03/05/15 - 18:55

emails wrote: »

though a thought in my mind say it could be a hard drive issue? in which case i could do a swap of some kind? being there two hd in the machine?

It could be the hard drive. Or the RAM, or motherboard or PSU. Or it could be a driver problem, or malware, or various other Windows/software issues.

If you unable to carry out tasks like downloading Ubuntu, you could be in for an awfully long troubleshooting experience. There comes a point where, unless you have the skills to keep an old machine running, it's best to think about replacing it.

RobinOfLoxley · 03/05/15 - 19:06

Ubuntu is just asking for a Voluntary contribution. Just click "Not now, take me to the download"

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/contribute/?version=14.04.2&architecture=amd64

It perhaps could be slightly clearer.

emails · 03/05/15 - 19:15

max99 wrote: »

It could be the hard drive. Or the RAM, or motherboard or PSU. Or it could be a driver problem, or malware, or various other Windows/software issues.

If you unable to carry out tasks like downloading Ubuntu, you could be in for an awfully long troubleshooting experience. There comes a point where, unless you have the skills to keep an old machine running, it's best to think about replacing it.

i have managed to download ubuntu which i didn't see earler trouble now the pc i am using that still works hasn't got freemake on it yet ,its the only burn software i know well enough to burn discs

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pc boot issue any help?

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