Help, my PC's broken. Sob ......

[Finless]

My work PC wont boot up. When I switch on it shows the screen with the F2 and F12 options for choosing to go to the system and boot up menus and then restarts again (doesn't get as far as the CTRL+Alt+Del and input username screen). It makes no diff to what happens if I select Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Network etc.

In order of problems:-

1. It has been running slow for a while (6 months) and taking up to 5 mins to boot up.

2. On Friday I ran the Trojan file (apparently) - vili.us/hypno.html but I don't think that is the cause of the problem because it was also opened on another office PC and that is still running fine.

3. After the trojan scare I got a "virus identified/couldn't be repaired/has been quarantined" warning. Not come up on the other PC so no link to the trojan file unless it came with one of the Trojan removers I downloaded.

The broken PC is a Dell and came with no disks so I assume the Win XP Pro software is hidden on the hard drive somewhere?

I can think of 3 options:-

a) Create a bootable CD and hope I can repair the disk (the PC doesn't have a floppy disk drive).
b) Put the drive into my home PC and hope I can read it as a non bootable disk and try to effect some repairs.
c) Hope there is some other built in safety/boot up procedure.

I am wondering if the disk is physically knackered as there is an unpleasant mechanical noise from the PC but this may just be the cooling fan motor.

Any suggestions? It has been so long since I have done this sort of thing and that was with Win 98 (mine runs XP Pro)!

[jb2cool]

Does how far does it get? does it boot up and then blue-screen and reboot or does it just reboot?

If it's blue-screening, you can probably fix it ok but you'll need a Windows CD to do this.
What i'd suggest is booting up to the Windows CD and then going into the recovery console. From there i'd run a checkdisk (chkdsk /p /r) and then reboot and see if it boots then.
If that does not work, you can try going back into recovery console and running a 'fixboot' and 'fixmbr' but this is more intrusive than the first option.

If it's not blue-screening then it might be more or a hardware issue. Open up the PC and check out the motherboard. A lot of Dell's had problems with leaking capacitors.



You should be able to run a hard disk diagnostic by booting up and pressing the F12 menu and then choosing hard drive diag from there.

[littlemermaid]

Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again!!?!!?

[Finless]

Originally Posted by jb2cool

Does how far does it get? does it boot up and then blue-screen and reboot or does it just reboot?

If it's blue-screening, you can probably fix it ok but you'll need a Windows CD to do this.
What i'd suggest is booting up to the Windows CD and then going into the recovery console. From there i'd run a checkdisk (chkdsk /p /r) and then reboot and see if it boots then.
If that does not work, you can try going back into recovery console and running a 'fixboot' and 'fixmbr' but this is more intrusive than the first option.

If it's not blue-screening then it might be more or a hardware issue. Open up the PC and check out the motherboard. A lot of Dell's had problems with leaking capacitors.



You should be able to run a hard disk diagnostic by booting up and pressing the F12 menu and then choosing hard drive diag from there.

I get as far as an opening Window screen and then a 'progress bar' and then a reboot.

I can't see any capacitor leakage.

Oh, it did lock up on Friday and I just turned the power off - I know flaky PCs really don't like that.

[Finless]

Originally Posted by littlemermaid

Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again!!?!!?

Yes, and I kicked it too.

[jb2cool]

Originally Posted by Finless

I get as far as an opening Window screen and then a 'progress bar' and then a reboot.

That sounds promising for the chkdsk fix. This is what some of our PC's do at work and a chkdsk fixes it most of the time. Just find yourself a Windows CD.

[Finless]

Originally Posted by jb2cool

That sounds promising for the chkdsk fix. This is what some of our PC's do at work and a chkdsk fixes it most of the time. Just find yourself a Windows CD.

I found a web site (Answers That Work) from where I am trying to download the required files to create a bootable CD. I just need to format the CD first which will take 20 mins.

I'm off to watch some footie and de-stress with a cold Stella.

[littlemermaid]

Originally Posted by Finless

Yes, and I kicked it too.

Ah now the truth is coming out....

[Finless]

Originally Posted by littlemermaid

Ah now the truth is coming out....

Eh? What chusayin? Shaock therapy is a proven remedy for electrical equipment?

[jb2cool]

you mean Percussive maintenance