Boot Failure

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Baum
  • Start date Start date
J

John Baum

I am trying to help a friend with a Compaq Presario 5600i, Pentium III
500 mhz which was running under Windows 2000 professional but now
refuses to boot.

The boot failure problem was described as follows:

"Now when I turn it on, it tries booting various drives, and the
monitor shows nothing (but if I unplug the monitor, I see the onscreen
message that there is no signal). I figure that my OS is gone."

I have not seen or heard the machine. My first suggestion was to buy
and install an inexpensive 20 GB HDD and install the OS on it to see
if the machine boots with a functional HDD.

I'm uncomfortable about what to do next.

If the failure is the result of a virus or a trojan, is there a risk
associated with exploring the old disk installed as a slave? Is there
malicious software that will immediately attack the new drive, too?

If so, what is the appropriate technique for removing an unidentified
virus/trojan so that the data on the disk can be recovered?

Thanks,

John
 
I am trying to help a friend with a Compaq Presario
5600i, Pentium III 500 mhz which was running under
Windows 2000 professional but now refuses to boot.
Click to expand...
The boot failure problem was described as follows:
Click to expand...
"Now when I turn it on, it tries booting various drives,
Click to expand...

Not too clear exactly what he means by that.
and the monitor shows nothing (but if I unplug the
monitor, I see the onscreen message that there
is no signal). I figure that my OS is gone."
Click to expand...

It could be something as basic as the video card having failed.

There should be something visible on the monitor if the OS is gone.
I have not seen or heard the machine. My first suggestion
was to buy and install an inexpensive 20 GB HDD and install
the OS on it to see if the machine boots with a functional HDD.
Click to expand...

Its much more important to work out
why nothing is appearing on the monitor.
I'm uncomfortable about what to do next.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you are rather out of your depth.
If the failure is the result of a virus or a trojan, is there a risk
associated with exploring the old disk installed as a slave?
Click to expand...

Yes, but it wont be that if nothing is appearing on the monitor at all.
Is there malicious software that will immediately attack the new drive, too?
Click to expand...

Yes, but thats quite uncommon.
If so, what is the appropriate technique for removing an unidentified
virus/trojan so that the data on the disk can be recovered?
Click to expand...

Its unlikely to be that if nothing is appearing on the monitor at all.
 
I am trying to help a friend with a Compaq Presario 5600i, Pentium III
500 mhz which was running under Windows 2000 professional but now
refuses to boot.

The boot failure problem was described as follows:

"Now when I turn it on, it tries booting various drives, and the
monitor shows nothing (but if I unplug the monitor, I see the onscreen
message that there is no signal). I figure that my OS is gone."

I have not seen or heard the machine. My first suggestion was to buy
and install an inexpensive 20 GB HDD and install the OS on it to see
if the machine boots with a functional HDD.

I'm uncomfortable about what to do next.

If the failure is the result of a virus or a trojan, is there a risk
associated with exploring the old disk installed as a slave? Is there
malicious software that will immediately attack the new drive, too?

If so, what is the appropriate technique for removing an unidentified
virus/trojan so that the data on the disk can be recovered?

Thanks,

John
Click to expand...
Nothing on the monitor not even the command prompt? Try booting with
the startup disk and still nothing?

Presumably the monitor is going into standby? IS IT? (assuming the
LED on the front of the monitor tells you what it is doing) That can
suggest a hard drive connector loose, PS connection to the motherboard
loose (or plugged in improperly). or a host of other things like bad
battery in the bios, lightning strike wiping the bios settings, bad
power supply, etc..

Is there any other possible human cause? "Problem first occurred when
I . . ."

You do see all the BIOS messages and can enter the BIOS and see the
settings? (delete or a function key before windoze starts). Does it
show the correct time? Does it show the proper drives?

If the motherboard detects a problem with the monitor it beeps a power
on self test message that can tell you the monitor is bad/not
connected - you should only hear one beep from the speaker when the
BIOS executes _more than one and you look up the post code for that
malfunction.

A virus can do such things if the bios isn't protected (many
motherboards include virus protection to the bios and it is on my
default in that case). I wouldn't suspect a virus right off - but
that really depends on the competence of the operator and individual
situation (like children using the Internet, surfing with IE on porn
or warez sites etc.)

More symptoms might point to a cause - have any? First suspect is
hard drive configuration in the bios is incorrect.

No message like "starting windoze?" or maybe "boot record not found?"
 
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