Bad motherboard or hard drive?

[ARYankee]

Ok I'm not the most computer saavy person so I need some help. Hopefully I came to the right place. My computer will not boot up. When I turn it on all I get is the starting Dell screen and then it goes to a blank screen. Is my hard drive bad or mother board. My PC is about 5 years old and this is the first major issue I've had with it. I also wanted to know if my hard drive is bad, if there is a way to recover anything off of it. Thanks for the help.

[odannyboy000]

In order to help you I'll need the following:

1. List your computer hardware.
2. Have you made any recent hardware changes?
3. How long has this problem been occurring?

Your hard drive and motherboard are probably fine. If you know how to check BIOS, go into it and see if your boot sequence has changed. You also may just need to replace your CMOS battery and reset it.

[ARYankee]

I haven't changed anything on my computer as far as software or any settings. I'm not at home right now so I can't get all the info on my PC. I can get into the set up screen when the Dell screen first comes up by hitting the 2 F keys for setup and boot up. My wife said it was ok and then we lost power and she couldn't get anything except that screen after that happened.

[ski]

Press the F8 key during startup, select 'Last Known Good Configuration' from the menu using the arrow keys, and press Enter.
If the system does not start, then select 'Safe Mode' from the same menu. If no luck, insert the XP CD in the optical drive(CD-ROM or DVD-ROM), go into BIOS(Setup), configure the drive as the boot drive, save the change, at the Welcome screen press R, at the next screen press 1(if you have only one HD installed) and press Enter, at the next screen that asks for the Admin. PW press Enter, at the next screen with the C:\Windows> command prompt type fixboot and press Enter.
If that does not work, then go back to the command prompt, and select fixmbr.

[ARYankee]

Thanks. I'll try that and see what happens. The problem is Windows isn't booting up. I don't have an XP cd either. I don't even think it came with my computer when I got it. I have everything else but that cd.

[ski]

You're welcome.
I realize that your system isn't booting into Windows. However, the steps that I listed may be able to possibly fix that problem.
Did you get a recovery CD with the system? If so, then try that.

[ARYankee]

I may have one. I'll have to look. Is it a cd from Dell? I think I remember seeing one last night when I was looking for my XP cd. I really appreciate all the help. I'm looking at buying a new computer b/c the one I got is 5 years old and I figure it would just be easier to get a new one. I definately want to fix this problem b/c of all the info I have on my hard drive. This has totally stressed me out.

[ski]

All Dell systems normally come with a recovery CD.
Did you try Safe mode and Last Known Good Configuration in the Startup menu?

[ARYankee]

Well I tried the whole safe mode and last known good config.... with no luck. I also tried everything else except using the windows cd. I did get an error message when I tried last known good config. It said: A pproblem has been detected and windows has been shutdown. It told me to check for viruses and undo any changes I have made. I haven't done anything to it before it crashed. The power flickered and the computer shutdown and wouldn't come back up. I guess I'll get a hold of a windows cd and try that.

[jlreich]

What model is you system?

There should be some diagnostic lights either on the front or the back of the system. They will be A-B-C-D lights. What is the color of each one (amber or green), or which ones are on/off?

Also what is the color of the power button and is it solid or blinking?

The diagnostic lights are usually pretty accurate as to cause of the problem.

[ARYankee]

Its a Dell. I think it has the Pentium 4. The 2.4 GHz processor. As for lights, I'll have to have the lil woman tell me what colors since I am colorblind. I know my light on the front is staying solid. It doesn't blink or anything. I did get a code with the message that I got when I tried to reboot from last known good config.

[ARYankee]

Well I ended up reloading with a windows XP disc. All my settings didn't change. I am getting an error message quite often saying I have a corrupt registry and it needs to be fixd and gives me a different website to go to each time. It only appears when I am online which leads me to believe that it is a virus that took me down after the power glitch. I appreciate everyone's input and help on this problem. I think what I am going to do now is get all my important stuff off and totally erase my hard drive and start over. I did order me a new Dell and it should be here tomorrow. Thanks.