PC Will not Boot

kid-jensen

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Guys,

Hoping you can help.

My HTPC (Advent DHE1000) suddenly won't boot. It goes into the WinXP hello screen, then reboots, then cycles again...

AS is usual with these things, it was fine yesterday.

If I boot from the XP CD (not an MCE one unfortunately...I've lost that) it doesn't give me the option to "recover", just to install and it also won't install to the partition that exists, it insists I wipe it and start again....bummer!

Won't boot into Safe mode, not even command prompt. I'm almost resigned toa re-install, but surely there is a way to recover things?
 
dont think it will recover with the XP cd as its gonna be different from the MCE 1.

as for the not booting, have u tried VGA mode? i was fixing a pc yesterday at work that wouldnt go past the windows splash screen
 
Hi,

Thanks for the depressing news.... I can't get to any menu that gives me the VGA option. Just constant recycling or the "safe" options (which also don't work)

I should say that I have Norton Goback installed, which says the system has become unstable and needs to be un-installed.
Unsurprisingly, it can't complete this operation and reboots again....

So much for "easy recovery from system crashes" as it says in the advertising....
 
Even with MCE installed you should still be able to boot from an XP disk and install XP in the same partition as MCE. The fact it won't let you do this means the partition either hasn't got enough disk space or, more likely, the partition has become corrupt.

Unless you can get hold of a utility that can do a low level repair of the partition, you're probably looking at wiping the whole thing and starting again.
 
Have you installed any updates or new programs, or has just happened out of the blue?
 
I've seen XP behave like this with some faulty RAM a couple of times.
If you can access the RAM then try reseating all memory modules. If there's more than one stick of RAM then try starting the PC with only one of them in place at a time, just in case it's a RAM issue.
 
Guys,

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

I've unplugged the ram, one at a time, and still get the same problem.

This started when I installed the latest version of Purevideo from the Nvidia site, I was using an older version before....

Of course that could just be a coincidence....
 
Boot into safemode by pressing F8 right after the bios screen and remove Purevideo. And see if it will normally after that.

I've seen this happen with few programs over the years, it's always worked when i uninstall the trouble program.
 
If you've got access to a spare PC with a DVD burner you could try downloading and burning an Ubuntu/Xubuntu live CD and running that, it would help determine whether another OS is affected (and it's a hardware problem) or whether it is windows.
 
Well the XP cd will be fine, boot from it,

go to recovery select your installation, make sure it says C:\ or whatever drive letter your is assigned to. Type chkdsk /r (dont forget the space)

reboot... if that doesnt work, try recovery console again and try fixboot and then fixmbr
 
More in this long-running headache..

Safe mode just reboots the PC (like all other modes) and I'm not given the option to "recover", just install. If I try that it says the partition is invalid and asks me to delete it.

If I do that I guess I MAY be able to install XP again, but I would guess all my original files will be lost forever. I'm not rushing to do that, obviously.

Worryingly, I can't get any Linux "run from CD" programmes to work, they just hang.....

I think I've got to the point where erasing the partition and installing XP is my only option. At least if that doesn't work, I can be more sure it's a hardware problem (unless you know different).

This is using up some serious hours of my "spare time"...
No wonder there are so many divorces..
 
have you tried a checkdisk and such? if not DO THAT! only takes a short while

as for linux not running :S thats never good, suggest testing ram with memtest. try removing the HDD and booting linux.. just incase its screwing up trying to access the HDD

EDIT::: ITS AN ADVENT< it should have onboard recovery, give that a go if you cant be bothered to test... mash f10 after powering on
 
I think I've got to the point where erasing the partition and installing XP is my only option. At least if that doesn't work, I can be more sure it's a hardware problem (unless you know different).


Hi kid-jensen,

Sorry to see you have a problem booting up.

This website gives some advice on partition recovery, including explanations of the functions offered by several freeware recovery programs.

I hope you see something there that will help you fix your problem.:)

Good Luck,

John.
 
Gow87 and Old Biker John,

Thanks for the advice, it's amazing what you can learn when you are "Incentiveized" as President Bush would probably say..

I now have a much greater insight into what goes wrong and what to do....unfortunately that doesn't cut much ice with the family who want their Media Center back...and with all the recoprdings intact, naturally.

Just explaining "it's Windows" doesn't seem to pacify them even slightly...

Under so much pressure, and bearing in mind the 4 days I've been swearing at it, I was running out of options and swearwords, so I caved-in and reformatted the drive.

Within an hour, I had MCE re-installed (from a borrowed disc) and aparently working fine.. We'll see.

Obviously, I'm not expecting to see my recordings or Family photos again, but as an experiment, I'm in the process of using "Recover My Files" to see what can be ....errr....recovered.

So far, it seems to have recovered all my photos,and quite a bit of "other stuff" as well. Who'd have thioght it? Mind, it's taken 24 hours so far and is still going.

More updates on this edge-of-the-seat saga soon.....

Thanks again Guys for the advice...
 
Gow87 and Old Biker John,

Thanks for the advice, it's amazing what you can learn when you are "Incentiveized" as President Bush would probably say..

I now have a much greater insight into what goes wrong and what to do....unfortunately that doesn't cut much ice with the family who want their Media Center back...and with all the recoprdings intact, naturally.

Just explaining "it's Windows" doesn't seem to pacify them even slightly...

Under so much pressure, and bearing in mind the 4 days I've been swearing at it, I was running out of options and swearwords, so I caved-in and reformatted the drive.

Within an hour, I had MCE re-installed (from a borrowed disc) and aparently working fine.. We'll see.

Obviously, I'm not expecting to see my recordings or Family photos again, but as an experiment, I'm in the process of using "Recover My Files" to see what can be ....errr....recovered.

So far, it seems to have recovered all my photos,and quite a bit of "other stuff" as well. Who'd have thioght it? Mind, it's taken 24 hours so far and is still going.

More updates on this edge-of-the-seat saga soon.....

Thanks again Guys for the advice...


Hi,

I had to reformat my MCE hard drive meaning I "lost" all my family phot's etc.... but I purchased this software h**p://services.seagate.com/diysoftware.aspx and was able to recover everything I wanted. You can download the software and see what you can recover before buying it. Not too difficult to use either.

After this experience, I also purchased Acronis True Image, so I am much better protected to help prevent any lose of hard drive contents.

Good luck,
UKCamaroSS
 
UKCameroSS,

Thanks for the recommendation, that Seagate file recovery software is brilliant!

I've also got Acronis disc-image type software installed now. Once bitten....
 

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