Uber-Dead PC

G18241

G18241

G18241

Soldato
Joined
3 Mar 2004
Posts
7,340
Location
Sheffield
Right i posted this up the other day, now i have had a look at it thought id make another thread with what i have found out.

It is a pre-built computer from a pc shop...has the OS preinstalled by the manufactorer, so to format you just press F11 on startup and this does that for you etc. Since bought its had the RAM upgraded, another DVD-RW put in, another HDD and an ATI9800pro with cooler in it

It used to reset itself a bit, but apparantly my sister knocked it with her knee the other day and since then it wouldn't load up past the windows xp screen. Aparantly SOMEONE told my sister to press F11 and do some other stuff to "fix" it, which hasnt worked...at all, she got into the bios somehow because my mum today said "oh your sister has been on that screen before"

Now it doesnt even load into windows, it just automatically tries to do the reinstall of the OS, goes to the bluey/green screen and thats it...the cursor moves and the egg timer keeps coming up and thats you lot, so i cant boot into safe mode, cant get into windows what so ever. Sometimes the monitor doesnt even come on, and sometimes when you press the power button the DVD drive ejects :confused:

Checked all cabling etc had a clean up as there was a fair bit of dust in there and went into BIOS, the system temp was around 30* and the CPU was about 50*, im not sure what these are supposed to be, but to me that seemed quite high, all fans were working fine though. Went into the event logand there were a few from a few years ago, then some form 2007, then it jumped back to 2003 again, as though BIOS had been reset to when we bought the computer :confused: had 3 different errors; CMON config error, CMON checksum error and CMON battery failure.

To be honest im stumped, never really had anything like this happen before, its not as though i can just put the windows disk in and start from scratch because of the way the OS is preinstalled and everything

ANY ideas what so ever?

I reckon it might have to be taken back to the shop and have the HDD with the OS on re-done???

Sorry for such a long post, just thought id give as much detail as possible, as i dont go across to my parents very much anymore, thanks for reading and cheers in advance for any ideas on how to make the piece of junk work again :D
 
Surely you can just format the hard drive and put windows back on. It sounds as though it may be a hard drive issue though, since both the OS installation and the recovery partition seem to have messed up. She should have the cd on the sticker on the case somewhere so if you dont have the OS disk, just download one and use the correct key
 
there is a serial code on the side of the case yeah, and ive got an origianl XP disk, could give that a go. Doesnt explain the random resets though, or why it went in the first place?
 
before you do anything, slap your sister/ whoever told her how to (not) sort it =p
 
Ben M said:
before you do anything, slap your sister/ whoever told her how to (not) sort it =p
Click to expand...

oh trust me she knows im annoyed lol, when they rang me saying it wasnt getting past the windows load screen i told them NOT to turn the computer on again...obviously not :rolleyes:
 
I did check to see if things were loose, everything seemed fine, but if all else fails i might just take everything out and start again lol
 
If you have a spare motherboard battery kicking about then replace it and see what that does.

The cmon errors you list are generally due to a dead battery and the re-boots are not saved to the bios so thats maybe why your getting the issues with dates and so on.

Report back if that does not solve most issues.
 
Wiggins said:
If you have a spare motherboard battery kicking about then replace it and see what that does.

The cmon errors you list are generally due to a dead battery and the re-boots are not saved to the bios so thats maybe why your getting the issues with dates and so on.

Report back if that does not solve most issues.
Click to expand...

think ive got one somewhere, its going to be xmas the next time i get over there, will report back when anything has been tried :)
 
as already suggested above, the CMON battery failure is the bios / motherboard battery

thats obviously played up / gone and as a result its reset the date. That doesnt usually cause issues with the PC rebooting, but it could put it back to some funky settings that could cause the system to be unstable.
 
G18241 said:
To be honest im stumped, never really had anything like this happen before, its not as though i can just put the windows disk in and start from scratch because of the way the OS is preinstalled and everything

ANY ideas what so ever?

I reckon it might have to be taken back to the shop and have the HDD with the OS on re-done???
Click to expand...

you should have a microsoft sticker with your windows product key stuck on your case right?...

if so do either 1 of the following, borrow your friends disk, install it and use your cd key, or download windows from a torrent site, install it and use your cd key, not the crack :( .

cant help with any technical problems, but i assume there is no physical prob if it was working before?
 
G18241 said:
apparantly my sister knocked it with her knee
Click to expand...

Knock your sister with your fist :P im sure that will tell her not to try and fix summin she knows nothing about.

Have you tried loading optimal settings in bios????

As the mobo on my family pc reset and it defaults the cpu to a realy slow speed.

Give it a go as it may have cocked up a setting that windows didnt like.

u may still need to complete the installation process as your sister may have formatted the hdd and began the install.

hope u get it sorted, i know how abusive family members can be if their computers stop working :(
 
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