Please, help. WinXP will not boot.

PaulProteus

PaulProteus

PaulProteus

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Joined
24 Dec 2004
Posts
458
I am trying to boot up a DELL PC (Pentium 4 at 2.8 GHz 800 MHz FSB) but it only gives me the menu with
Safe mode
Safe mode with networking
Safe mode with command line
and
Start Windows normally

Neither of these gave me any luck.

I have checked the memory (Memetest86 from a bootable CD) and everything looks fine.

I have tried to look in the BIOS but there is nothing I could think of that seems strange. The machine was fine untill yesterday. The problem is that I have plenty of data on it and I do not imagine running experiments for another six months in order to get the same data.

Any advice on how to proceed further.

Thanks in advance!
 
Tried the "Last Known Good Configuration" option?

Other wise boot with Windows CD a do a repair install. Which will delete Windows, then reinstall but keeping all your stuff. (provided you do it right)
 
What model of dell is it ? - Please say it isnt a GX270 -

edit**

also if you have 2nd PC - i would pop the hard drive out of your dell into the other PC and back up your data before following any other steps
 
tedaC said:
What model of dell is it ? - Please say it isnt a GX270 -

edit**

also if you have 2nd PC - i would pop the hard drive out of your dell into the other PC and back up your data before following any other steps
Click to expand...

It is quite close GX280 :rolleyes:

I have checked using hard drive diagnostics and it returned the check failed Error code 7.

I have never got to this option (ref: Last Good configuration). It cannot access the HDD.

I am going to do this as advised (put the hard drive on another machine).

How safe are nowadays the HDD's wrt switichng them off incidentally? Any problem that might have bee induced this way?
 
hey,

if the HDD doesnt work on another machine...

Try and get hold of a copy of Bart PE...That will let you go into the HDD and backup all the information...its very simple to use ...

Good luck

P.S. If you need a hand just add me to Messenger
 
I or rather my brother (i have to fix all the familys pc's :mad: ) had this problem with his pc a few weeks ago.
To get any info off of any b0rked windows install i use Knoppix but i did have to do a repair install after,
as sticking the hd in my pc did not "fix" it. (first time it never worked)
 
Last edited:
Ok reason i said please dont say it's a 270 is because the 270 is renound for having bad capacitors on the motherboard.

I have also heard that some early models of the GX280 are affected too.

The capacitors cause a whole range of problems.

look at this link http://www.monkey.org/~blandoon/gfx/caps/

hopefully not your problem.

On the back of your GX280 near where your monitor plugs in, there will be 4 lights ( A,B,C,D ) – these are the error lights, have a look which ones of those light up and google the results

Also try downloading and running the full diagnostics for the 280 ( the inbuilt hard drive diagnostics are quite poor )

280 full diagnostics http://support.euro.dell.com/suppor...typecnt=1&libid=13&releaseid=R114681&vercnt=3

Cadet/tedaC
 
I had a GX270 starting to behave badly in work not so long ago (not booting, running very slow at some point) - we tried re-installing but the problems remained. As our warranty had expired, we replaced it with a new one.

You probably need a new motherboard.
 
Thanks TedaC!

I will check the lights (in fact I did and they were all on, is that any good?).

This machine is also at work that is why I am bit restricted (we should allegedly have someone looking after it but it takes ages before you really get helped out).

I will do some reading as you suggest.

Cheers,
Jordan
 
Dr Evil,

“Dell will service Optiplex GX270s with bad capacitor problems/failures up to 5 years after purchase date, regardless of warranty, i.e. even if the system is off warranty.”



“Jeanna Rochner, Inside Sales Representative
Phone: (800) 274-7799 ext. 72-48164
FAX: (800) 365-5329
[email protected]”

http://www.hawaii.edu/technews/item/elog/14036

dell should replace it wether it is in warranty or not.


As for your error lights PaulProteus, all 4 lights on should be fine.

As i say the full diagnostics from dells site should help you a lot more
 
Thanks TedaC - we "decommissioned" that machine 2 months ago, but i just spoke to dell support and they are sending an engineer over tomorrow to replace the motherboard. Better to have a spare gx270 with a working motherboard, no?
 
I have run the test and the message All tests passed appeared.

I do not know what to think. I expected that it would detect of the mainboard was faulty. In fact it does not check for any motherboard errors, but in my opinion it should encounter problems communicating to the different devices provided the MB was at fault.

I am expecting someone who would be "allowed" to open up tha case to come around and try to sort it out.

Cheers.
 
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