Troubleshooting: PC wont boot

[micky_d01]

Hey all,

ANY FEEDBACK IS APPRECIATED :)
When I 'power on' my PC, before giving me the option of pressing DEL to enter Bios etc, it diverts to the screen that says you can either:

1. Start windows in safe mode.
2. Open with MS-DOS
3. Start windows running the last known good configuration.
4. Start windows normally.
Etc.

Scary thing is, no matter what option I chose, it tries to run Windows / MS-DOS before randomly restarting. Every time it tries to boot it shuts down, restarts and goes back to that same screen I mentioned above.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to fix the problem??

Thanks heaps. :D

[odannyboy000]

Try entering BIOS as soon as you turn it on. (Just keep pressing delete)

[micky_d01]

I've tried entering the BIOS and it won't let me in.. Since (to my knowledge) the bios is part of the motherboard, I assumed the MB was the problem. Though I'll try again. Let's say somehow I can get into the BIOS, what do I do? Or what am i looking for?

Thanks.

Any other ideas?

[odannyboy000]

You can try reseting your CMOS too. That will probably let you enter.

[micky_d01]

Thanks for all your feedback so far.

I'll try your suggestions first thing this afternoon and post back on the result.
Let's say it does finally let me into the BIOS, I still have no clue what to look around for in there.
Is there anything I should pay attention to? Someone has mentioned word of a diag software. This is the first I've herd of such a program, can someone please shed some light? Perhaps where it's avaliable? What I do with it?

Thanks again, you guys are pro's!

[micky_d01]

I'm back! Over the weekend I found access to the BIOS, it was just quick booting before the monitor could warm up. So I got in there, shuffled around the boot device priority to make CD-ROM number 1. Then booted with the Windows CD in the drive. When I tried to make an installation repair, it just went to MS-DOS and said type "EXIT" to exit and didnt look like it was making any progress. When I tried to re-install windows, rather than just installing, it demanded that I must partition the drive - hence, losing all data :(

When I removed the HDD and put it in another PC as a slave (to burn important data to a DVD then partition the drive), it recognised the disk, displayed it in My Computer and said it was working properly. Though I couldn't open it due to a dialogue box saying "the drive is inaccessible". I will be trying it again shortly on another PC just in case it was the PC, but the problem sounds like a faulty HDD or a virus.

Do you all agree? Or does the symptoms point to another cause? THANKS!!