Comp won't boot

[Guest Barb and Ray]

Dell Dimension 8400 computer working fine one day, the next, it won't

completely boot and freezes at blue screen asking for Windows XP Home

Premium Sp2 CD to be placed in CD drive.

 

We set boot sequence to CD drive first, the CD activation light comes on,

however, nothing happens; we press Enter and end up at the blue screen again

asking for the XP SP2 CD to be placed in CD drive.

 

We have tried this with the full version XP SP2 CD and with Dell's

Reinstallation CD.

 

Thanks for any help available.

[Guest Malke]

Re: Comp won't boot

 

Barb and Ray wrote:

> Dell Dimension 8400 computer working fine one day, the next, it won't

> completely boot and freezes at blue screen asking for Windows XP Home

> Premium Sp2 CD to be placed in CD drive.

>

> We set boot sequence to CD drive first, the CD activation light comes on,

> however, nothing happens; we press Enter and end up at the blue screen

> again asking for the XP SP2 CD to be placed in CD drive.

>

> We have tried this with the full version XP SP2 CD and with Dell's

> Reinstallation CD.

 

It sounds like your hard drive died. Is the drive seen in the BIOS? Time to

do some hardware testing.

 

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

 

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts with

known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are

uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional

computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of

BigComputerStore/GeekSquad).

 

Malke

--

MS-MVP

Elephant Boy Computers

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com

Don't Panic!

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: Comp won't boot

 

"Barb and Ray" <tincantyps@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message

news:DUg0k.5313$mh5.4660@nlpi067.nbdc.sbc.com...

> Dell Dimension 8400 computer working fine one day, the next, it won't

> completely boot and freezes at blue screen asking for Windows XP Home

> Premium Sp2 CD to be placed in CD drive.

>

> We set boot sequence to CD drive first, the CD activation light comes on,

> however, nothing happens; we press Enter and end up at the blue screen

> again asking for the XP SP2 CD to be placed in CD drive.

>

> We have tried this with the full version XP SP2 CD and with Dell's

> Reinstallation CD.

>

> Thanks for any help available.

 

In addition to Malke's advice, I would suggest that you remove the hard disk

and be sure it's backed up, by attaching it to another XP system and copying

the data off. Be sure you get the mail and address files.

 

If the hard disk is failing, as suggested, it has limited time and you need

to get the data off as soon as you can.

 

HTH

-pk