Computer died

[Anubis]

you guys might not be able to help me cause my friends is pretty much an idiot but his computer, running a p4 1.8gig 256ram, geforce2mx, 70gig, and 30gig HD's jsut died on him. he went away and when he got bacjk his computer was off adn whenver he turns it on it gives him a boot screen but never loads the windowsxp screen. any ideas as to why?

windows xphome

 

[owensdj]

TheEvil1, if it loads the boot screen there's a good chance the hardware is still OK. To help you, we need more info. How far into the boot process does his computer get? Does it get to the point where it's trying to boot Windows XP, or does it stop earlier than that? Do you see any error messages?

 

[Fixxors]

well, if it was on and then died while he was gone, and now wont reboot, it could have been a power surge that fried his system. Ive seen em so bad they took everyhting with it, even the sound card. Or it could be the thermal diode on his mobo might have cut power because his cpu was overheating. If so it may have been too late and the CPU is damaged or the cpu fan may not be workin or heatsink tranfering heat poorly.

 

[Anubis]

ill ahve to go see, he isnt very helpfull on this matter... but ill get back to you with the info

 

[Anubis]

ill chek about the power surge but i doubt it is that cause he uses a powerstrip with a backup safty power supply and all this other crap (parents got it for him) it looks like a car battery for his comp... but ill check it out tomorrow and get back to you guys

 

[AnAndAustin]

No offence but he must be an idiot (or HATE gaming) to cripple a P4 1.8ghz with a GF2MX! A Duron1ghz with GF3 or GF4TI would seriously kick his PCs ass!

Do you want to know why it most likely happended or how to go about rectifying the problem?

 

[Anubis]

i want to know about fixing the problem first and then how it happened, and his paretns got it for him for x-mas from compaq... and they dont know much about gaming etc.. so thats what he is stuck with until he upgrades... he doesnt seem to mind running GTA3 at lowest resolution...

 

[AnAndAustin]

Bought Xmas 2001? If so surely he is covered by the warranty?

Anyway I take it you've tried Safe Mode and Last Known Good Config options in the boot menu (hold F8 after RAM is counted up). If that doesn't work then you are looking at having to reinstall Windows. If there is important stuff on the disk it is best to plug the HD into another PC in order to copy the important stuff over just in case it gets lost. Best of luck!

 

[Anubis]

Thanks for reminding me about that waranty, i had forgotten he is checking to see when it expires, i hope it was good for at least a year.... and when he boots he gets the screen that says "compaq" on it and then the screen goes blue then black with the different boot options. like safe normal and factory boot etc