Computer crash

**gordon_s1942** · 15-02-10, 03:04 PM

A freinds computer appears to have crashed BIG time.
I managed so far to Turn it ON, the 'Flash' HP screen shows, blanks, XP start screen shows,Blanks...........WIN startup Sound heard but no Desktop, the screen stays BLACK.
Turn it off by pressing the ON power button and WIN log off sound is heard and then it shuts down.
It has a SATA drive that somebody had plugged the Floppy power plug into the port with the 2 rows of pins on the back right hand corner and untill I removed that, on START the flash screen showed then it wanted to be booted by which ever means shown.
The owner was never given any O/S discs (no floppy fitted) or a recovery CD.
The monitor is working as I can access Bios which I READ, but dont TOUCH !!
Although its not that old, I dont think it could accept either VISTA or WIN7 so they would need to get a copy of XP perhaps and do a full reformat if it turns out the current O/S is stuffed.
I have a much smarter friend than I who I intend to take it to and hopefully he can then see what has happened and maybe restart it but if as I say the O/S is stuffed, where to get XP ?
Any and all suggestions appreciated.

**Aboulaly** · 15-02-10, 03:25 PM

put your finger on the F10 and power on your computer and keep pressing it repeatedly that should boot into the recovery partition if it's still intact, and you will be able to recover to manufacturer default hopefully.

**Philquad** · 15-02-10, 03:56 PM

computer rash?
i would put some cure rash powder or paw paw cream on it

xp corps still around, torrents,ng, rapidshare?
bout 700mb

**autotuner** · 15-02-10, 06:58 PM

Doesn't have a second video card does he?
I had one a few weeks ago, on a Dell Server, customer had all the sounds plus initial boot screen but no further video. Was because "someone unknown" had moved the monitor to the onboard connector which appeared to be deactivated post boot.

**mtv** · 15-02-10, 07:36 PM

Gordon,

Have you tried starting it up in safe mode?

**Philquad** · 15-02-10, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by autotuner

Doesn't have a second video card does he?
I had one a few weeks ago, on a Dell Server, customer had all the sounds plus initial boot screen but no further video. Was because "someone unknown" had moved the monitor to the onboard connector which appeared to be deactivated post boot.

didnt you look to see if it was onboard or card?
onboard is allways deactivated if a card is in it

**puca** · 15-02-10, 10:02 PM

yeah sounds like a video card problem i would be checking that before formating

**jhojo** · 25-02-10, 07:33 AM

Could also be spyware.

Did you try safeboot allready?

Other optionL: If you get an XP SP2! CD boot it, choose install, it will recognize that there is an installation of Windows allready there and will ask you if it should do a repair re-install. That way you will keep all the data and configurations.

**Mokilok** · 28-02-10, 04:59 PM

this may seem silly and you may have tried this already, but as a computer tech i have seen this issue so many times where a computer appears to boot but the monitor doesnt pick up the signal from the computer. in 'most' cases it was that some software the user had installed had changed the resolution on the monitor to a res that the monitor did not support and thus not showing anything on the monitor. this could be resolved by doing f8 after the bios has posted during bootup, before the windows loading bar. and select "enable vga mode" from the list. enabling vga mode will lower the resolution down to 640x480 and the refresh rate down to 60hz.