Help! Windows not booting!

[jononew22]

So, for a while now when I play CS source, after a lot of play time (about 3 hours) the game just freezes and I can't get it to go to the desktop so I just turn the computer off at the switch (Probably not such a good idea I know, but the problem is not 100% consistent). The other day when this happened and I tried to reboot. My Motherboard (NF4 Lanparty) logo popped up, but after that there was no video on the screen. Windows did not start up. I tried switching the RAM around and it still did not work. Do I just need to reinstall the OS??

My Specs

NF4 Lanparty
Athlon 64 3200+
Radeon X800XL
1 Gig cosair dual channel
Western Digital 180gb harddrive sata

 

[mechBgon]

1) Does the motherboard go all the way through its POST procedure? If it does not, then you have something beyond a Windows problem. Check your power-supply output voltages with a voltage meter, as a starting point.

2) Do you have all four power connectors :camera: hooked up? People sometimes overlook #1, which takes a floppy-drive-style power cable.

 

[jononew22]

I mean, I can get into the bios and look at everything. The Lanparty Logo pops up and usually, it goes from that logo straight to the windows XP start up screen, but it's just not doing it now. Is there anyway so many game freezes and improper shut downs could have messed up the OS? As for the power chords I haven't checked yet, but I don't see why that would be the problem considering the computer has been running problem free for almost a year now. Just this one game (CS source) freezes. I'll check the connectors though.

 

[mechBgon]

For the short term, you could do a repair installation of WinXP, method 2. If your WinXP CD does not already have Service Pack 2 built into it, then take precautions against worms (scroll down the page to the large picture and start there). Your WinXP will revert to whatever your CD contains, which can leave it vulnerable to worms, so if it's going to end up pre-SP2, make sure to firewall it before letting it touch a network connection.

One possible scenario would be if your system is overheating, or parts of it are (the video card or PSU perhaps), after an extended gaming session that works the whole system hard. If you think that could be it, then try aiming a big house fan into the side of the case for super ventilation, and see if that helps.

 

[jononew22]

So, I attempted to repair XP. I get to the screen where it says press any key to boot from cd. After I press a key the screen just goes blank and nothing happens. What's wrong?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: jononew22
So, I attempted to repair XP. I get to the screen where it says press any key to boot from cd. After I press a key the screen just goes blank and nothing happens. What's wrong?

For your next fact-finding step, try unplugging the data cable from your hard drive, then try running Windows Setup from CD without a hard drive connected. Does it go further now that the HDD is not present?

Other ideas: try a different video card if possible.

 

[jononew22]

yeah i tried it with the HD unplugged and it went further. does this mean my hard drive is dead?

 

[jononew22]

yeah, so it was my hard drive after all. I took an old hard drive out of a dell that was no longer in use and it works. Thanks mechBgon