Computer doesn't even boot!

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Guest

I'm using a Compaq Presario 5000 that originally had Windows 98 on it, and I upgraded to XP after making sure that the computer met all of the minimum requirements. It ran fine for a while, but now it doesn't even boot!

I turn the computer on, and it takes me immediately to the "COMPAQ" splash screen (it doesn't normally do that, usually it checks the hard drive and THEN shows the screen) and just...STAYS that way. I've tried everything: held down the F8 key while restarting, recirculated the power, etc. As a last resort, I inserted the XP installation disk to wipe everything out and reinstall the system, and it did absolutely NOTHING after restarting it again with the disk in there!

Around the time the problems began to occur, I had NOT installed any new software. I regularly clean my computer and use Norton to check for viruses. I make sure to download the latest updates from Windows as soon as they come out. Whenever I perform a system check, everything comes out green.

I have no idea what's going on. But here's the weird thing: on the random occasion it will miraculously work and everything is all nice and dandy, and I'm forced to leave the computer running in fear that I won't be able to start it up next time, but the darn thing will end up restarting by itself anyway and I'm screwed again. So...I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware malfunction because otherwise it wouldn't work at all.

Does anyone have ANY idea what's going on? Or at least...is there something else I could try to get my computer to actually respond to my XP disk? I just realized now that you have to tell your computer to boot from the disk in order to read it, but as you can tell, I can't really do that.

Help!!
 
Kadey said:
I'm using a Compaq Presario 5000 that originally had Windows 98 on
it, and I upgraded to XP after making sure that the computer met all
of the minimum requirements. It ran fine for a while, but now it
doesn't even boot!

I turn the computer on, and it takes me immediately to the "COMPAQ"
splash screen (it doesn't normally do that, usually it checks the
hard drive and THEN shows the screen) and just...STAYS that way. I've
tried everything: held down the F8 key while restarting, recirculated
the power, etc. As a last resort, I inserted the XP installation disk
to wipe everything out and reinstall the system, and it did
absolutely NOTHING after restarting it again with the disk in there!

Around the time the problems began to occur, I had NOT installed any
new software. I regularly clean my computer and use Norton to check
for viruses. I make sure to download the latest updates from Windows
as soon as they come out. Whenever I perform a system check,
everything comes out green.

I have no idea what's going on. But here's the weird thing: on the
random occasion it will miraculously work and everything is all nice
and dandy, and I'm forced to leave the computer running in fear that
I won't be able to start it up next time, but the darn thing will end
up restarting by itself anyway and I'm screwed again. So...I'm pretty
sure it's not a hardware malfunction because otherwise it wouldn't
work at all.

Does anyone have ANY idea what's going on? Or at least...is there
something else I could try to get my computer to actually respond to
my XP disk? I just realized now that you have to tell your computer
to boot from the disk in order to read it, but as you can tell, I
can't really do that.

Help!!

Why can't you do that? Press F10 to enter the BIOS (if HP/Compaq still uses
F10) immediately you switch the system on.
 
Why can't you do that? Press F10 to enter the BIOS (if HP/Compaq still uses
Yes, I've tried F10 also when I restart. Absolutely NOTHING. My computer isn't responding to anything I do to it...except for Ctrl Alt Del, but THAT'S not doing anything to help my cause.
 
Kadey said:
Yes, I've tried F10 also when I restart. Absolutely NOTHING. My
computer isn't responding to anything I do to it...except for Ctrl
Alt Del, but THAT'S not doing anything to help my cause.

I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but your keyboard doesn't have an
F Lock key, does it? If so, you will need to enable it before the function
keys will, er, function.

I strongly suggest you contact HP as their systems are completely
proprietary (the HP/Compaq BIOS is like nothing on earth!) and I cannot do
anything to assist you further (much as I would love to)

Yuletide greetings,

Rhianna
 
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