Please Help

[dawninoldham]

I have an E machines desktop Model: E40872

When i try to turn my PC on I get a message which says start computer with one of the following .....

- Safe mode

- safe mode with networking

- safe mode with command prompt

- last known configuration

- start windows normally

 

I have tried every one of the above and they do not work, my pc just starts to try to load and then returns back to the same screen with the message above.

 

also my PC is making strange noises like a car revving its engine again and again.

[ukbobboy]

Hi dawninoldham

 

Sounds like a mechanical problem, you need to get your PC down to a repair shop or, if you have the necessary electrical experience, open up your PC and see what is making that noise.

 

 

UK Bob

[dawninoldham]

Hi dawninoldham

 

Sounds like a mechanical problem, you need to get your PC down to a repair shop or, if you have the necessary electrical experience, open up your PC and see what is making that noise.

 

 

UK Bob

 

Thanks

[BeeCeeBee]

Can you be a little more specific about the sounds that you are hearing before you take that advice and start paying out good cash. There are very few moving parts in a computer there are the fans and the hard drive. Is your sound a clicking or grinding sound. If so it sounds like a failed or failing hard drive.

[ukbobboy]

PC's making strange noises like a car revving its engine

 

Hi dawninoldham

 

Thinking about your problem a bit more, and following on from BeeCeeBee's post, it is most probably one (or more) of your PC's fans are failing. Without working fans to keep your PC (and CPU) cool they will soon crash and could display the message you are seeing.

 

However, it is possible that your HD could be failing instead but they usually make clicking sounds when they start to go wrong.

 

Now, depending how much your PC and its data is worth to you, not monetary value, I believe that if you cannot replace the parts yourself, i.e. fans and HD, you should visit a repair shop before it's too late.

 

 

UK Bob

[BeeCeeBee]

I don't mean to be argumentative but, since this machine is unable to boot, I doubt very much that it is an overheating problem. If the machine were overheating it would simply shut down and not suggest options from "Advanced Boot Options" menu. This indicates a Windows issue.

 

Were it not for the noise I would suspect some form of windows corruption. My guess is the hard drive.

[dawninoldham]

Please Help

 

The noise seems to have gone a little quieter now, the noise is not the sound of the fan or a overheating noise.

However it still will not come on. I have tried all of the options on the screen; safe mode, safe mode with networking etc.

 

I now have a different message on the screen which is

NTLDR is compressed

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

_ (this cursor is flashing).

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks :confused:

[RandyL]

My two cents worth.

 

Many Emachines emit a high powered fan noise at boot up. I have one myself. I can only guess that this is by design in order to cool at startup which is when over heating often happens. Over heating in itself will not cause noise. Nor will a machine that is just over heating emit extra fan noises.

 

As bee said a shutdown or restart is what usually happens.

 

Fan noises are usually caused by a clogged or failing fan. A hard drive going bad noise is completely different noise.

 

In my opinion your symptoms indicate a failing or corrupt hard drive.

 

None of the advanced boot options work but you can boot to the advanced options.

NTLDR indicates a corrupt OS or drive.

Both of these seem to be hard drive or corrupt system.

Couple that with some sort of noise. Probably the drive.

 

bee and bob both gave excellent possibilities. With the limited information you provided I'm guessing you had better backup all your files before doing anything else.

 

dawn please be very specific in describing exactly what is happening and in what order.

 

bee and bob what do you think with the latest NTLDR information?

[ukbobboy]

Hi RandyL

 

Your advice is based on your own experience with EMachines, which is going to be far better that anything I can hope to offer, however I will take a stab at the NTLDR problem.

 

It seems to me that Dawn's boot system has become corrupt, which may have been caused by some sort of malware (or just bad luck).

 

If the problem has been caused by a virus then Dawn should boot up the PC from another device, e.g. CD, and run her AV software from her CD drive to clean up her PC.

 

Then I would suggest doing the following:

 

1) Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.

 

2) When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.

 

3) Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.

 

4) Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter.

 

5) You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password.

 

6) Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard drive. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter, which in this case is "e." This letter may be different on your computer.

 

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\

copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

 

Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the computer and reboot.

 

Good Luck

 

 

UK Bob