SysoftSandra crashes systerm. Now will not boot.

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

John

I just installed SysoftSandra which I ran without closing apps. I got BSOD
with part of the text showing but unable to read due to distortion. Now my
system will not boot hanging with black screen and no indication of
anything. I see the green and a red light but that is all. I can not get to
BIOS or Safe mode unless there is a way that I don't know about. How would I
go about debugging this and where do I start? I am able to open optical
drive doors as they respond but red light never goes out and I never see
anything on the display. Could my graphics card or main board be blown?
Trying to boot from XP CD gets nowhere and I am at a loss as to what to do
from here.
Anyone with any ideas?

TIA
John
 
I just installed SysoftSandra which I ran without closing apps. I got BSOD
with part of the text showing but unable to read due to distortion. Now my
system will not boot hanging with black screen and no indication of
anything. I see the green and a red light but that is all. I can not get
to BIOS or Safe mode unless there is a way that I don't know about. How
would I go about debugging this and where do I start? I am able to open
optical drive doors as they respond but red light never goes out and I
never see anything on the display. Could my graphics card or main board be
blown? Trying to boot from XP CD gets nowhere and I am at a loss as to
what to do from here.
Anyone with any ideas?

TIA
John
Click to expand...

I don't know if there is anything you can do short of actually resetting
the c-mos to defaults by removing the battery or shorting jumpers,
depending on your system.

When the hell are people going to learn not to use these universal
applications that claim to be all things to all machines. If you can get
things reset to normal as suggested, get the piece of crap application off
your machine. If have seen more grief caused by these utilities than good.

If you can reset bios to defaults, things should be ok unless Sandra
actually caused damage to the bios.
Good luck.

--
____________________________________________________________
Kubuntu, try it and Windows will be a thing of the past.
(Ubuntu is a humanist ideology from Sub-Saharan Africa)

H. Seldon

I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence.
There's a knob called "Brightness" but it doesn't work.
 
John said:
I just installed SysoftSandra which I ran without closing apps. I got BSOD
with part of the text showing but unable to read due to distortion. Now my
system will not boot hanging with black screen and no indication of
anything. I see the green and a red light but that is all. I can not get to
BIOS or Safe mode unless there is a way that I don't know about. How would
I go about debugging this and where do I start? I am able to open optical
drive doors as they respond but red light never goes out and I never see
anything on the display. Could my graphics card or main board be blown?
Trying to boot from XP CD gets nowhere and I am at a loss as to what to do
from here.
Anyone with any ideas?

TIA
John
Click to expand...

Well, you can try clearing cmos by removing battery, shorting jumper,
waiting fifteen minutes, putting battery and jumper back, then entering BIOS
setup screen to load default (not optimized default) settings.

However, it sounds to me like you might have had a power supply failure.

Other possible problems are RAM, mainboard or graphics board, in that
specific order.

But I suspect the power supply. -Dave
 
John said:
I just installed SysoftSandra which I ran without closing apps. I got BSOD
with part of the text showing but unable to read due to distortion. Now my
system will not boot hanging with black screen and no indication of

anything. I see the green and a red light but that is all.
Click to expand...


Led's on the mainboard?



I can not get to
BIOS or Safe mode unless there is a way that I don't know about. How would I
go about debugging this and where do I start?
Click to expand...

clear the cmos using the jumper

I am able to open optical
drive doors as they respond but red light never goes out and I never see
anything on the display. Could my graphics card or main board be blown?
Click to expand...

I'm thinking video as you mentioned garbled text at the BSOD, reseat the
card in the slot.
OB video? try a PCI card
Trying to boot from XP CD gets nowhere and I am at a loss as to what to do
from here.
Anyone with any ideas?

TIA
John
Click to expand...
what reason did you have to download sandra in the first place?
I don't think that sandra would damage hardware through the installation of
the software. what test/info-app were you running?
 
Install, no, benchmark probably not unless shared memory with video. It
sounds like a video card issue here. Doubt it, but even a CPU problem
could have scrambled the screen. I recommend Si Sandra for benchmarks
and other system info.
 
H. Seldon said:
I don't know if there is anything you can do short of actually
resetting the c-mos to defaults by removing the battery or shorting
jumpers, depending on your system.

When the hell are people going to learn not to use these universal
applications that claim to be all things to all machines. If you can
get things reset to normal as suggested, get the piece of crap
application off your machine. If have seen more grief caused by
these utilities than good.

If you can reset bios to defaults, things should be ok unless Sandra
actually caused damage to the bios.
Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply. It is hard to tell what is a good utility. I have
used this is the past on Win98 and found it to be useful. SS has been around
for quite awhile and many recommend it so forgive me if I am a bit weak on
these matters. I applied the automobile mechanic method by taking it apart
and putting it back together again and now all seems well.

Regards
John Wakefield
 
Install, no, benchmark probably not unless shared memory with video. It
sounds like a video card issue here. Doubt it, but even a CPU problem
could have scrambled the screen. I recommend Si Sandra for benchmarks and
other system info.
Click to expand...

Again I emphasize, you had better be *certain* that SiSoft is compatible
with your hardware. It *can* cause a lot of misery. Even the company
issues warnings concerning hardware compatibility. Most often things can
be remedied by a CMOS reset. Sometimes they cannot. Been there done
it and got the bad memories as proof. :-)


--
____________________________________________________________
Kubuntu, try it and Windows will be a thing of the past.
(Ubuntu is a humanist ideology from Sub-Saharan Africa)

H. Seldon

I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence.
There's a knob called "Brightness" but it doesn't work.
 
Thank you for your reply. It is hard to tell what is a good utility. I
have
used this is the past on Win98 and found it to be useful. SS has been
around for quite awhile and many recommend it so forgive me if I am a bit
weak on these matters. I applied the automobile mechanic method by taking
it apart and putting it back together again and now all seems well.

Regards
John Wakefield
Click to expand...

Good stuff. I'm really happy things worked out.

--
____________________________________________________________
Kubuntu, try it and Windows will be a thing of the past.
(Ubuntu is a humanist ideology from Sub-Saharan Africa)

H. Seldon

I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence.
There's a knob called "Brightness" but it doesn't work.
 
John said:
Thank you for your reply. It is hard to tell what is a good utility. I have
used this is the past on Win98 and found it to be useful. SS has been around
for quite awhile and many recommend it so forgive me if I am a bit weak on
these matters.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about it. Software couldn't cause the problem you described.
 
Don't worry about it. Software couldn't cause the problem you described.
Click to expand...

I will not institute a discussion or argument with you, as I note your
tendency to troll and start arguments at will.

I will say again, however, that a number of systems have come across my
bench that have been ragged by SiSoft in particular. Indeed I managed to
screw up one of my own systems using the same utility.

If it is absolutely necessary to use such utilities one would be better
served using something like Ontrack's SystemSuite 4.

--
____________________________________________________________
Kubuntu, try it and Windows will be a thing of the past.
(Ubuntu is a humanist ideology from Sub-Saharan Africa)

H. Seldon

I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence.
There's a knob called "Brightness" but it doesn't work.
 
H. Seldon said:
Again I emphasize, you had better be *certain* that SiSoft is compatible
with your hardware. It *can* cause a lot of misery. Even the company
issues warnings concerning hardware compatibility. Most often things can
be remedied by a CMOS reset. Sometimes they cannot. Been there done
it and got the bad memories as proof. :-)
Click to expand...
I fail to see how Sandra can cause hardware problems apart from possibly
trashing a CRT monitor by getting the refresh rate wildly wrong, its just a
benchmarking and reporting utility. I've used it on dozens of PC's and never
even had a lockup. But even if it does cause a lockup, it shouldn't be
anything a reboot or CMOS reset can't fix.

I do appreciate that if a component is already on its way out then stressing
it with a benchmaking program may cause it to fail, but then again it would
fail anyway at some point.

SteveH
 
H. Seldon said:
I will not institute a discussion or argument with you,
Click to expand...

Then why did you?
as I note your
tendency to troll and start arguments at will.
Click to expand...

Yes, my fingers do generally respond to my will.

You want to be the pot or the kettle this time around?
I will say again, however, that a number of systems have come across my
bench that have been ragged by SiSoft in particular. Indeed I managed to
screw up one of my own systems using the same utility.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you or the others that 'came across' may have done to
screw up the system but it doesn't matter and is irrelevant to his case.
Even if the software you apparently despise had wiped the entire hard drive
clean as a whistle it wouldn't prevent the post screen from coming up and
he was getting nothing.

And you think my telling him so was improper because...?
If it is absolutely necessary to use such utilities one would be better
served using something like Ontrack's SystemSuite 4.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but I imagine one can screw up a system no matter what if they try
hard enough. But then, that wasn't the case here.
 
Then why did you?


Yes, my fingers do generally respond to my will.

You want to be the pot or the kettle this time around?



I don't know what you or the others that 'came across' may have done to
screw up the system but it doesn't matter and is irrelevant to his case.
Even if the software you apparently despise had wiped the entire hard
drive clean as a whistle it wouldn't prevent the post screen from coming
up and he was getting nothing.

And you think my telling him so was improper because...?


Perhaps, but I imagine one can screw up a system no matter what if they
try hard enough. But then, that wasn't the case here.
Click to expand...

Touche, I stand corrected.

--
____________________________________________________________
Kubuntu, try it and Windows will be a thing of the past.
(Ubuntu is a humanist ideology from Sub-Saharan Africa)

H. Seldon

I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence.
There's a knob called "Brightness" but it doesn't work.
 
SteveH said:
I fail to see how Sandra can cause hardware problems...
Click to expand...

I don't see it either. Sounds like a personal problem with the
software or company. In my experience, it acts like any other
benchmarking software.
 
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