Boot up failure

[Kenneth Lau]

I recently tried to run a hardrive partitioning program which required that I restart my computer in order to run the program.  When the computer restarted, it would freeze in the same spot every time the program tried to start (either in BIOS or directly afterwards).

Booting without the software cd would lead to a different partition program screen which would again freeze in the same spot.

I eventually went into bios and loaded the Fail-Safe, and haven't been able to boot my system at all. The fans will spool up and my hard drive light will light up, but I can never get past the initial black screen. I never see a thing. Bios doesn't even load anything so a boot disk doesn't help.

Is this fixable or do I need a new motherboard? I currently have an abit VT7 board.

[viking]

You tell that you entered BIOS. Your computer can perform the POST test? (when it writes on screen how much memory you have, what hdd is in, other information). Your hdd led turns off or stays light all the time?
If it does not perform POST or your led is always light, you may try this: unplug the signal ("IDE cable") cable from your hdd, also you could unplug your power cable from your hdd, start the computer and tell us what happens. Does your computer "beep" at you when it starts?
If not, you may also try to take off and replace the computer memory.
If youd don't know exactly how to do these, I can tell you it is very easy and learn first from a friend.

[Kenneth Lau]

Initially, I was able to reach bios. The system would post and Partition Commander would boot up and freeze right before the OS would load. After a few feeble attempts of getting around the softward boot up, I went into bios and loaded the fail-safes. Immediately after saving and quitting bios, the system went to a black screen and hd light (without the sound of activity).

After rebooting, the only thing that would happen, in this order, is this: fans spool, hard drive light would come on. Nothing else. no post/beep, no visual acknowledgement on the screen. Nothing. One second to inactivity. I've left the computer on all day in this state, hoping that it would work itself out of the problem, but it was in exactly the same state when I came home.

I will try to unplug the hd and reset the ram when I get home today.

I'm worried that I'll have to replace the motherboard (read: pain in the *censored*). Have anyone ever seen something like this before?




PS. don't buy any software from VCOM.

[knelau]

the hard drive light comes on and never turns off or flickers.

[knelau]

I wish it were that easy, but I can't boot up my system to check the hard drive.

...unless you're suggesting putting it in another system as a slave drive and testing it then.

But I'm not sure that the hard drive is even accessed, though the light does come on and stay on (i'm not sure why). Wouldn't it be something in bios that's funky?

[dl65]

Kenneth Lau........ After reading your post ........I dont see anything about whether there was data on the drive you were attempting to partition . I have no idea if you have a o/s installed or what partitioning app you are ... ( were ) using .....
Give us a bit more info .... for example how big is your HD , what size partitions are you trying to create and which O/S you have or want . Last but not least , was the computer working ok before you decided to fix it ?

dl65  

[knelau]

knelau=Kenneth Lau, btw - I registered

Here are the specs on my computer:
3.2 GHz P4
Abit VT7 motherboard
1G ram
Windows XP
Hard Drive 1: Seagate Barricuda - 5G dedicated to OS, 40G dedicated to programs, 45G dedicated to media
Hard Drive 2: Maxtor (30G for media only)

The computer is brand new; I just put it together 4 months ago and it was working smoothly. I had absolutely no problems with freezing or crashing until I installed this partitioning program. The hard drive the OS is loaded on (Seagate) is 4 months old also - the Maxtor is about 5 years old but I've never had a problem with it, even when it was in the old computer. The maxtor was completely reformatted - NTFS. There is only one OS on my system.

I was trying to add more storage space to my C: drive because it was running low (~500mb low). SO I installed Partition Commander. I never even got the chance to get the partitioning program running to move storage space around.

when the pc boots......hold down the f5/f8<unsure of o/s used!? here> and at the a:\> for example type scandisk /all
 
check the ide cables.......you may have mixed then up.....and the pc is not booting from the master drive......

Does this boot in Safe Mode? Because I tried that before when the computer would just freeze after biod and it wouldn't boot in Safe Mode.

I doubt the IDE cables are switched around because I haven't touched them since initially installing them and they've worked fine until now. And I hope that the hard drive hasn't died because it's only 4 months old.

[AlienSpider]

Initially, I was able to reach bios. The system would post and Partition Commander would boot up and freeze right before the OS would load. After a few feeble attempts of getting around the softward boot up, I went into bios and loaded the fail-safes. Immediately after saving and quitting bios, the system went to a black screen and hd light (without the sound of activity).

After rebooting, the only thing that would happen, in this order, is this: fans spool, hard drive light would come on. Nothing else. no post/beep, no visual acknowledgement on the screen. Nothing. One second to inactivity. I've left the computer on all day in this state, hoping that it would work itself out of the problem, but it was in exactly the same state when I came home. quote]

when i read this post it sounds like the bios is the problem now.

have you tride to enter the bios again or startup with a bootdisk.

if it is the bios that hangs and you can’t enter it, I think you’ll need to replays it.

hope this helps

[knelau]

Yea, I can't even get into bios. The boot up doesn't even go that far, if anywhere. There's no posting beep.

Do I really need to replace the motherboard?

[AlienSpider]

no thust the bios

[knelau]

how can i replace the bios?

[AlienSpider]

I never had to do this my self, but the bios is a programmable thip. You can find it in the documentation of the motherboard where it is on your motherboard (usually it has a sticker whit the version number on it). Normally you can take it of the motherboard and plays the new one back. I thick the old one can be reprogrammed (bios software reload) at a pc repair shop. If you cant remove the bios then you have to by a new motherboard.

When you have don this it will have solved the bios problem, but not the software fries up problem. Boot in safe mode and remove partition commander. You shoed be ok then.  

[knelau]

First of all are you sure that it isn't the drive that has gone? Heard any clicking lately?

no clicking with the hard drive. and i'm not positive it's a hard drive issue. But I was thinking/hoping that it was a bios issue.

How did you go about making the C: drive bigger?
 
Shrink the D: drive.
 
Slide it up to the E: drive.
 
Shrink the Extended partition.
 
Make the C: drive bigger.

I haven't used the program yet, but I thought that I could just take free space from my media (f:) drive and transfer it to my c: drive. no?
I wanted to repartition the C: drive, but never got a chance to. The computer started to act up when I first opened the partitioning software.

Was your anti-virus still installed when you did the partitioning?

I don't remember installing any anti virus programs - only a firewall.

[Fed]

I think you may now have 2 problems...

1) Your partitioning software screwed up your Master Boot Record. (We can deal with that later)

2) Your computer will not reach the post screen.
Did you open the case & fiddle around in there?
If so, make sure everything is connected & seated firmly.

You will need to get to the bios screen before anything else can be done.

[knelau]

So I fixed it.

I opened up the computer, reseated the ram, took out the system battery, and reset CMOS. After that, i was able to boot up to the point where the computer would freeze on the Partition Commander software screen.

I was finally back at square one - or so I thought. I had always noticed that my keyboard light and laser mouse never lit up and it dawned on me that the computer wasn't detecting the USB hardware. So I plugged in PS/2 hardware and while the mouse still didn't work, the keyboard did. I exited the software, got back to windows and deleted Partition Commander.

Now I'm back to normal, but still low on C: memory.
So what's the best way to transfer free space from my other partitions to the c: drive?

And thanks for the help, guys. I feel really stupid.