• Boot up problems.
    13 replies, posted
I come to Facepunch once again for computer aid, as I know not where else to get actual answers from people who normally don't make much sense. Onto the problem. Let's start with the simple stuff. I built this comp and it ran fine for about 8 months. Loved it to death, no problems, nothing. 4gb RAM, quad-core Processor, ATI 4850 HD Radeon, and that's all I've got on my memory. (Lol.) So about 4 weeks ago my computer started having trouble booting up. Receiving various errors, I'll try to recite them all. First one I remember is simply a "Failed to boot. Please insert boot disk." or something along those lines. And I don't own a vista disk, nor does anyone I have regular contact with. Next one would be something like "I/O error has occurred." and it says caused by removable storage being unplugged, yet nothing of the sort happens to my knowledge. Then, the most common error, simply a black screen freeze while in boot up. I've let my comp sit for 45 minutes at one point, and it stayed. Once I manage to get booted up and logged in, I still fear the last error I receive. Whole comp will freeze up and if Ctrl + Alt + Del is used, after a moment the screen goes black with an error box in the middle saying "Failure - Security Options." This happened about once in every 3 or 4 successful boot ups. And finally, today I got a new error message after my comp crashed. "BOOTMGR is corrupt. System cannot boot." This scared me shitless. However, after 3 restarts, I've booted successfully and made it to FP to see if I can't find an answer. After researching a bit, and finding little, I came across 3 causes. 1, a Vista bug. 2, faulty wiring between Harddrive and Motherboard. 3, failing Harddrive. Hoping for the best, I installed Windows 7 to attempt to combat it, as I was intending to get Win 7 anyways. However, this failed me, so I've come to assume it's not #1. No further testing was done. Money is short, so hoping the problem isn't much, yet I'm prepared for the worst, and ready to get this over with. I now ask you, Facepunch, for help. If any other info is needed, please ask. Any help will be appreciated...
Sounds like your HDD is about to die. Backup everything important, and buy a new one.
Hard drive type? SATA or IDE? Assure that the SATA/IDE cable's are seated firmly in their sockets on the motherboard. SATA cables are red, IDE cables look like big flat grey wire tape things. Other than that, all I can say is the hard drive could be failing. You could run a S.M.A.R.T test on it to be sure. Speedfan has a SMART test usility, and its completely free. [url]http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php[/url]
Not sure if I ran it properly, but the results I got from the SMART test are here: Your hard disk is not below any attribute threshold. This is good. Your hard disk was never below any attribute threshold. This is good. The overall fitness for this drive is 89%. The overall performance for this drive is 90%. Don't suppose it's possible it could be wrong? Don't wanna get my hopes up then tomarrow have a HDD failure.
It may be wrong, I would still do a back up. The partition table could be corrupt. I suggest completly erasing all the partition (after a backup of course) and making new ones. If your not good with computers, take it into a technician and ask them to completely format the harddrive and delete all the partitions, and make new ones. If they have no idea what your talking about, they are not technicians, kill then for their ignorance and move on to another technician. If though you do know your way around computers pretty well, than use Unetbootin to install Gparted on a USB drive GPARTED ISO: [url]http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/files/gparted-live-stable/[/url] Unetbootin: [url]http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/[/url] Its pretty straightforward. Just read the guide on Unetbootins page to install it onto a USB drive. As for GPARTED [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb54TsYI6UA[/url]
Lol, I like how you went about that. I do know my way around enough, and as I said, I built the comp and installed the OS's, plus did all the partitioning myself. I'm going to find a way to scrape up enough cash to afford a new HDD and try to back it up... Not so happy about losing my 1TB HDD though. Probably go with a 500Gb instead next time, seeing as to how in 8 months I only used 200Gb, never deleting anything. I appreciate the help, and I'll check out the links for Unetbootin and GPARTED. Despite the bad news that came with it, I am thankful to know what plagues my computer. [editline]02:20PM[/editline] Using my netbook to post this. Computer just crashed and seems to be running in a ring of the mentioned errors. Something tells me I won't be getting back on for a bit. Never had the chance to delete or format anything...Guess I'll have to squeeze out any cash I can get and pray a new HD fixes everything. [editline]02:31PM[/editline] Actually, I do have 1 last question. Not sure how to figure out if a Harddrive will be compatible with my comp. Using a Lanparty P45T2RS Motherboard and looking at this Hard drive: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073[/url] Any problems?
[QUOTE=Cripple;19686983]Actually, I do have 1 last question. Not sure how to figure out if a Harddrive will be compatible with my comp. Using a Lanparty P45T2RS Motherboard and looking at this Hard drive: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073[/url] Any problems?[/QUOTE] They are compatible. Have you tried making sure the HD is properly connected to the motherboard? If it is SATA, try connecting it to different ports. If it's IDE, maybe trying a different cable if you have one? If that doesn't work, try sticking the hard drive in another computer as a slave and see if BIOS and Windows have any problems recognizing it.
[QUOTE=DiscoPony;19688626]They are compatible. Have you tried making sure the HD is properly connected to the motherboard? If it is SATA, try connecting it to different ports. If it's IDE, maybe trying a different cable if you have one? If that doesn't work, try sticking the hard drive in another computer as a slave and see if BIOS and Windows have any problems recognizing it.[/QUOTE] I have not tried this, because I have no backup cables, and no clue how to go about finding them, and other than my netbook, this is my only computer. [editline]03:26PM[/editline] And I'm not certain which kind it is, but I believe it's IDE.
[QUOTE=Cripple;19689186]I have not tried this, because I have no backup cables, and no clue how to go about finding them, and other than my netbook, this is my only computer. [editline]03:26PM[/editline] And I'm not certain which kind it is, but I believe it's IDE.[/QUOTE] well you should get on board because it really really sounds like it could be a bad cable go to newegg or radioshack and get one using a bad cable could result in corrupted data
Alright, I'll get a cable. Sounds cheaper than a new Harddrive, and much less complicated. Anything specific I need, or just one that looks like my cable?
Any unusual noises coming from the computer?
And no, not that I've noticed. [editline]04:09PM[/editline] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812104203&cm_re=ide_cable-_-12-104-203-_-Product[/url] Looks exactly like the cable connecting my HD and Motherboard, cept for color. Gonna order this, I suppose. [editline]04:31PM[/editline] Correction, I have SATA. Need to find a SATA cable then. [editline]04:48PM[/editline] I feel like a goddamn genious, and yet, like a moron at the same time. Opened my comp to look at the cable, and noticed it was SATA. Unplugged it, and something hit me. I rushed through my drawers frantically and found the spare one I remembered seeing come with the parts originally. Glad I kept em. Plug the new cable in, booted up, and everything works like a charm. So happy now. :D Thanks everyone who gave me assistance!
Glad you got it fixed, I'll bet all that scared you shitless.. I don't know what I'd do if my laptop started having all those errors, I'm not a computer wiz so I could never do all that xD.
[QUOTE=Kevincs316;19691289]Glad you got it fixed, I'll bet all that scared you shitless.. I don't know what I'd do if my laptop started having all those errors, I'm not a computer wiz so I could never do all that xD.[/QUOTE] Yeah, been pretty damn scared for a while. Thanking the heavens above that it was just the cable and that I kept the spare that came with the HDD in the beginning.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.