Booting error

[mtwarren3]

I'm relatively pc illiterate and am having a major problem. I have a Dell pc that runs windows xp media edition. It's all very basic as far as installed programs. It was working fine, until I lost power then when i went to restart it came up with an alert....previous attempts at boting this system have failed at checkpoint [ithr]

The screen is otherwise black and it won't do anything from there. I have no idea what to do or if it's even worth trying to fix. Any suggestions???

[Goku]

I'm relatively pc illiterate and am having a major problem. I have a Dell pc that runs windows xp media edition. It's all very basic as far as installed programs. It was working fine, until I lost power then when i went to restart it came up with an alert....previous attempts at boting this system have failed at checkpoint [ithr]

The screen is otherwise black and it won't do anything from there. I have no idea what to do or if it's even worth trying to fix. Any suggestions???

Hello and Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help Warren. :)

 

As far as I have researched, I think that the problem has got something to do with a corrupted CMOS Battery. Why not try and replace it and see if it resolves the problem or not. To find instructions on replacing a CMOS battery, read these articles.

 

How to replace the CMOS battery

 

How to replace the CMOS battery

 

Hope that resolves the issue. Good Luck. :)

 

-- Goku

[Dalo Harkin]

Hi Warren and welcome to free pc help.

 

If you take the side panel off your case at the bottom of the motherboard there should be a battery (round one found in watches and clocks) if you pop the spring bit next to it, it should fall out - try and reinsert it and boot the system.

see if you get the same error - you do not have to have a battery in but it will not save any settings on the BIOS without one inplace.

 

have you taken the battery out recently or moved any of the jumpers?

[mtwarren3]

I'll try that out and see if it works.....wish me luck!!!

[Goku]

I'll try that out and see if it works.....wish me luck!!!

I already wished you so. :)

 

Anyways, Good Luck again. :)

 

-- Goku

[mtwarren3]

So, I popped out the battery and now it's stuck on that initial screen

 

says Dell DV051 Series

a line

BIOS Revision A03

 

in the upper right corner it offers the F2=Setup and F12 Boot Menu

 

and it's stuck on that screen.

Should i just buy a new battery or am I just missing something?

Edited June 9, 2008 by mtwarren3

[Dalo Harkin]

Ok so is the battery in or not?

you could do with going to setup and there should be an option saying 'load optimized defaults' and then SAVE and EXIT BIOS (you must have the battery in, in order for the info to be saved)

[Goku]

So, I popped out the battery and now it's stuck on that initial screen

 

says Dell DV051 Series

a line

BIOS Revision A03

 

in the upper right corner it offers the F2=Setup and F12 Boot Menu

 

and it's stuck on that screen.

Should i just buy a new battery or am I just missing something?

I think you do need to buy a new battery. They come really cheap and last a year or two so they live up to their costs. The power fluctuation probably corrupted the battery. You are lucky as sometimes such fluctuations can also cause harm to the motherboard. Anyways, buy a new battery from a local dealer and replace it with the existing one. That should hopefully fix it. Good Luck. :)

 

-- Goku

[Dalo Harkin]

I would buy 2 batteries so you have one spare ;)

some places charge extortionate prices for these batteries - look somewhere like a wholesaler to get a good price - I have seen places wanting £3 for one of these and off the net they are like 20p

[mtwarren3]

So, bought some new batteries....anything I need to know before i try and hook it all back up? By the way, I REALLY appreciate all the help...untill today I had no idea that there was a battery!

[Goku]

So, bought some new batteries....anything I need to know before i try and hook it all back up? By the way, I REALLY appreciate all the help...untill today I had no idea that there was a battery!

Not really. You just have to replace the batteries and try and see if it resolves your problem or not.

 

Note: Removing and replacing the batteries will cause the BIOS settings to reset to default. Therefore after you have replaced the batteries, reconfigure the BIOS according to your needs.

 

Thats all you need to know. Good Luck. :)

 

-- Goku

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Try going to Start, Run and type chkdsk /f

 

Please note the space between the k and the forward slash.

When it says the Volume is in use would you like to run Checkdisk on reboot? type Y.

[mtwarren3]

The new battery is in, saved the settings in BIOS and exited that, now I'm back to that "initial" screen. The one difference is that "line" (status bar?) is now 3/4 complete. Do I just leave it as is and wait and see what happens or am I just out of luck???

(can't get to the DOS prompt to check disk)

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Can you get into Safe Mode at all by tapping F8 on boot up Warren?

 

Let us know if you can please.

[mtwarren3]

Tried that and it "beeps" but other than that I'm stuck on that same screen.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Ok reboot and try F12 tell me if you can access Safe Mode doing that.

[mtwarren3]

Got the same thing with F12

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Very well, let us get more exact on this.

 

Power down and disconnect the pc from the mains.

Slide the side off like you did before and disconnect the hard disk drive.

 

Reboot and tell us if you now get a message saying "Primary hard disk not found" or words to that effect.

 

This will enable us to ascertain if this is in fact a hard drive error or a hardware/motherboard error.

[mtwarren3]

Okay, this is where your patience will be put to the test....how do i disconnect the hard drive???? Did I mention I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR HELP???

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Hey no worries Warren, I love this job.

 

Ok you will see coming from the power supply a mass of wires, most of which terminate in a white 4 pin connector called a Molex connector.

 

The link below is a picture of one

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Molex_female_connector.jpg/800px-Molex_female_connector.jpg

 

Gently ease that connector out of the hard disk drive and just leave it hanging for the time being, then reboot.

[mtwarren3]

ok got that done and rebooted, now ive got that first alert about the checkpoint but it proceeds to say invalid configuration information- pleas run SETUP program

floppy diskette seek failure

keyboard failure

 

then it says performing auto IDE configuration....

Drive 0: disk drive

Drive 3: CD- Rom defice

please run Setup program

strike f1 to continue, f2 to run the setup utility

 

this make any sense to you?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

This appears to be saying to me that you still have the primary hard drive attached Warren which is Drive 0

 

Disconnect all molex connectors except any that are attached to any part of the motherboard and reboot.

[mtwarren3]

Okay...disconnected all that wasnt on motherboard, got two beeps when i rebooted (not sure if that's important) now it says:

Floppy diskette seek failure

Drive 3 not found: Parallel ATA, PATA-1 (PRI IDE Slave)

Strike the f1 key to continue, f2 to run setup utility

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Ok reconnect everything then reboot and press F2 to enter Setup.

 

Change the boot order in the bios to Hard drive first then cdrom then floppy.

Make sure you Save the changes before exiting the bios.

 

Tell what happens then.

[mtwarren3]

Okay...followed you to the letter.......saved and exited, two beeps and now screen says

Floppy diskette seek failure

strike f1 to continue, f2 to run setup utility....