[LumberWolf]

Happy thanksgiving! I woke up and my computer wouldnt boot up...got to the screen that lets you go to set up, but thats it... no virus, no liquid contact, etc. (written on my psp in case you wondered)

[jawfin]

I know exactly what the solution is, there's something wrong with your computer. I can only hope the detail of my solution matches that of the problem.

[Zabuza]

system recovery <3

[LumberWolf]

system recovery <3

hard to do when it doesnt turn on, i pressed the power button and it went to the screen where it lets you go to set-up. worked fine last night... in fact i didnt have a lag spike almost all day yesterday

[jawfin]

wow TMI

nah jk - how about telling us what you can see in the CMOS setup. Are there any computer beeps which were different than before? Can you hear your CPU and power supply fans? Are the hard-drives detected in the POST/CMOS? And, how handy are you with computers - hardware and software?

[MasterM]

happened to me but on a mac...im assuming your using windows...probably a problem with the motherboard (which is what it was for me)

edit: my bad it was the logic board not the motherboard...

[LumberWolf]

the set up is a utility that came standard, and displays all it normally did. It detects the hard-disk and it ran a scan (pass is all it said), i can hear the fans but they start off soft then go "harder" as time progresses with no new noises. note: doesnt go to Start Windows Normally screen... i am Ok software wise, hardware im not sure, never tried

[Chantelle]

Sounds like your PC is POST'ing (although you are being incredibly vaugue so it is difficult to tell) which I guess is a good thing, if your computer posts. then the majority of your system is likely to be fine.

What exactly does it do when you try to let it load windows as normal.

Does it come up with a message? does it try to load, does it blue screen out?

[jawfin]

Yea lol Chantelle, I had basically given up considering his overwhelming lack of information. e.g. "My car doesn't run, help me please."

[RVCA]

Try to boot into safe mood first to rule out any hardware issues. Press F8 while the machine is first booting up.

[LumberWolf]

well, im sorry for the overwhelming lack of info, but i am in fact tellin you what is going on... but im telling you all i know, really. no blue screen, just 1st screen that says HP then f10 setup, esc to change boot order, and f12 to boot from LAN, after that, nothing, no blue screen, just blank. look, its hard for me to put into words, and jaw, what was your sol'n anyway, if it doesn't work, ill be sol anyway... tried safe mode, com. beeped, thats it

[LumberWolf]

i gave up....... i reloaded the OS hope it works, if so, ima need to dl a few things but i should be on in no time... it WASN'T in fact POST-ing, so yeah, had most of my stuff backed up, shouldnt take long, ima say if it works

[jawfin]

A solution cannot be offered until the problem is understood. I probably have over 1000 solutions as that is the number of problems faced in my last 30 years of fixing computers. Just like a broken car, there isn't "a" universal solution.

I'd suggest these things. In the CMOS setup check that the hard drive really has been identified, that all the hardware settings reflect what you know you have (e.g. Floppy drives etc), check the boot order, ensure the correct hard drive boots first, remove any CDs from the CD tray. Does the computer make any other beeps besides the initial power on beep? You could try setting the CMOS setup back to factory default. Open the computer up and with a vacuum cleaner carefully remove all dust and what not.

It took this many posts just to tell you aren't booting into windows. So what exactly do you see after the POST (power on self test)? Say any writing that's on the screen. At any time do you see any logos of any companies?

[Chantelle]

Sorry I am having a great difficulty understanding you Yoshamitsu

I assume English isn't your first language, so it may be a language barrier.

It must be posting if you are getting options to choose which boot device etc. So are you saying you have managed to install the OS on it?

[jawfin]

i gave up....... i reloaded the OS hope it works, if so, ima need to dl a few things but i should be on in no time... it WASN'T in fact POST-ing, so yeah, had most of my stuff backed up, shouldnt take long, ima say if it works

All computers POST. It's the very very first thing you see when you turn it on - the only reason you wouldn't see it is if the computer or monitor wasn't receiving power - thus nullifying a "Power On Self Test".

If the hardware itself is faulty you would be unable to re-install. Much like putting gasoline into a car who's engine blew up won't fix it. We hadn't even being able to resolve if your issue was software or hardware.

[RVCA]

If it happens again or if you are unable to reinstall windows, it's most likely going to be caused by a bad sector on your hard drive.

[LumberWolf]

Okay, it worked. It was an extremely weird issue however.The CMOS (didnt know what this wasfor a while until i looked it up along with POST) was not showing up. It appeared to me that it was getting stuck at the CMOS I don't fully understand it, but it was very hard to be detailed with the limited typing space on a PSP, i do speak english as a FIRST language, btw, im just not that savy with computer terminology and i couldnt do a full out web search on my psp browser, for a while, as i had thanksgiving at my house and many people over as well. Anyway, i'm sorry for the confusion, but it's working now, i re-installed jka, i should be playing soon. Oh, and Jaw, your first post made it seem like you had an idea for a solution, there was some miscommunication there. It was definately a software problem, as i restarted the computer to make sure and it worked fine. It is up and running, thanks for the help, yes, it actually did help, it helped me narrow it down to what it was and wasnt. Chantelle, most of it was typos, not language barriers. Sorry for the hassle
-Yoshi

[jawfin]

Pretty odd problem then. Maybe the BIOS got hit, or the boot sector. If you had to format the harddrive I'd say BIOS, if not then I'd guess the boot sector/active/media type settings on the drive. Either way, not nice - and it's a "psuedo" firmware issue, its is software, but software behaving like firmware, if you get my drift >.<

[LumberWolf]

Pretty odd problem then. Maybe the BIOS got hit, or the boot sector. If you had to format the harddrive I'd say BIOS, if not then I'd guess the boot sector/active/media type settings on the drive. Either way, not nice - and it's a "psuedo" firmware issue, its is software, but software behaving like firmware, if you get my drift >.<

makes sense (as much as possible anyway), but its over now, there is one thing i cant understand though..... How did all my jk3 files survive the reload, they were in the right folders and everything

[jawfin]

That's because you installed the operating system over the top of your existing OS without a format (thus the issue may of been BIOS, those 2 sneaky files called msdos.sys and io.sys in the root folder - thus a simple "sys c:" command from a bootable device would of solved the issue). Custom skins and scripts aren't on the install disks of JKA and thus wouldn't of been overwritten, and as JKA works by those file just being present without the need to declare them in the registry or configuration files (like .ini files) your game loaded them as per normal.

[Chantelle]

Still no idea what happened..

IT could be your OS boot sector was messed up or windows was screwed and you replenished it ..

Either way just check your computer performs normally now, sometimes these install on the top can be a bit messy..

WHen your sorted you might want to consider a full back up and clean install

[LumberWolf]

kk, will do, thanks to the both of you!