unable to boot

[wheezergeezer]

Hi can anyone help?, I write on behalf of my brother who is unable to do so due to the fact that his pc not operating,
he has win XP installed, around 2 year old pc, he called yesterday saying he was having problems, ie eratic behaviour, firstly we ran anti virus and spyware, virus's were found( adaware.bho.e) along with others not sure what ?, but we eventualy got the all clear, today he fired up the pc and was unable to get to the post, tried f5 & f8, but no response, tried to reinstall via cd drive , ie insert XP disk and boot/reinstall from there, but this method failed,as the pc didnt even pick anything up, I'm at a loss as to what to do next, Ive never encountered anything like this,

any suggestions or solutions most welcome and much appreciated,

Thank you in advance.........john

[wheezergeezer]

PS...as far as I'm aware, he has power to the pc etc.

[kpmwrestler]

It might be the hard drive that is going bad. It could also be a cpu related problem.

Is there a blue screen with a bunch of numbers at the bottom of the screen and a five paragraph explanation that you only have three seconds to read? if that screen appears, it is most likely a ram problem.





so, since you tried to re-install windows, now you don't have anything on the hdd? then you should re-format then try installing again.

[Sylvander]

How far does his PC's startup sequence get in the following...?
[He should fit a new CMOS battery just in case it's failing...]

A typical and successful startup sequence
1. Start of Boot Troubleshooting Walkthrough
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/index.htm
2. Yes: The system power supply is functioning
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/power1.htm
------------------------------------------------------
You should hear a single short beep at about this point indicating the successful running/completion of the POST.
Some PC’s beep much later, possibly as late as just before step 12.
------------------------------------------------------
3. Yes: Something is being written to the screen during boot up [This may be only a flashing cursor]
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/video1.htm
4. The video BIOS message is displayed on the screen for a few seconds and then clears from the screen, or more messages display under it
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/vbios1.htm
5. Yes: The system BIOS startup screen is appearing
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/bios1.htm
6. The memory test completes successfully
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/ram1.htm
7. The BIOS accesses the floppy drives and the boot continues
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/seek1.htm
8. The system is able to autodetect IDE devices successfully
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/auto1.htm
9. The system is not Plug and Play compatible, has no Plug and Play devices, or has PnP devices but identifies them properly
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/pnp1.htm
10. Boot sequence is A: before C: (floppy disk first)
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/seqAC.htm
11. The floppy disk makes a noise and the light comes on
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/fd1.htm
12. The floppy disk light goes off and the hard disk light comes on as it starts booting
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/fd1hdd.htm
13. The hard disk boot process will continue here, if you want to follow it.
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/hd1.htm
14. The system continues booting from the hard disk and the message "Starting MS-DOS" or "Starting Windows 95" is displayed
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/hd1os.htm
15. Operating System Loaded From Hard Disk. The system has found a boot sector on the hard disk and is now starting the load of the operating system. The hard disk is working. You have successfully completed the hardware part of the boot process. Any problems encountered after this point should be diagnosed by looking for a more specific problem with a component, or under the section that contains run-time error messages.