Vista Machine won't boot at all

  • Thread starter Thread starter BarbNJ
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BarbNJ

My Vista desktop took forever to shut down last night and today it will not
start at all. The hard drive spins briefly and then gives up. I have a
recovery disk the CD drive lights but it will not start from there. I would
like to get it up briefly to be sure I have no new photos to back up. I have
Wubi Ubuntu installed and if I could get the thing started at all, I would
be able to use it to make sure I can recover anything that I desperately
need. I tried to start it with PC Linux OS which is capable of running from
the CD drive, but no joy there either.

I would love to give you more specifics but I can't since I can't view the
info, I can't. It is an E-machine, one of their T series with 180 gig hard
drive. It's got lots of RAM. I was running Vista but it was an upgrade from
XP.

Any suggestions? (Sensible ones please. No rants about Linux or too many
photos of the grandkids).
Thanks
 
Hobo said:
From what you've described, it sounds like this is not a Vista problem,
but a hardware problem. The fact that you can't start anything from the CD
drive and the hard drive stops spinning when you try to boot points to a
hardware failure. Do you get a boot (BIOS) screen when you try to start
up?
Click to expand...
No, I don't get anything.
Barb
 
Hobo said:
From what you've described, it sounds like this is not a Vista problem,
but a hardware problem. The fact that you can't start anything from the CD
drive and the hard drive stops spinning when you try to boot points to a
hardware failure. Do you get a boot (BIOS) screen when you try to start
up?
Click to expand...

I get a loud extra long beep.
That's it.
 
Barb
I get a loud extra long beep.
That's it.
Click to expand...

That means you have a major hardware failure as Steve posted above. What you can
possibly (no guarantee) try is to take out the Hard Drive and install it in another
computer as a Slave and see if you can take off your data or files that are
needed.( Might work )
Also you can try and Download from somebody else's computer the Linux Knoppix or
Ubuntu and try and boot with the those live Distros

But most probably you will need to take it to a professional shop and not to a big
store computer store
 
Ok, look, one long beep is pretty serious. It's either bad
ram or a bad motherboard - can also sometimes be the power supply.

If you're comfortable playing with the insides you can replace
the ram and see if the problem goes away. Or remove it and see if the
code changes from "error" to "no ram" which will be well more than
one beep :-)
 
As an example a Dell E-Machine with a continuous single long beep signifies a bad
MOBO. Since the OP did not say which make he has it is hard to say which hardware is
at fault since different makers of OEM E-machines have different codes
 
Steve McGarrett said:
Take it to a repair shop (NOT Geek Squad!). You have a major hardware
failure.
Click to expand...

Before you take it to a repair shop. Open the case and reseat your memory
and your video card if it is not onboard. Check all connections power cables
and sata/ide. Then try and restart. Make sure you ground yourself before
touching anything in the case. Especially important if cold and dry where
you happen to be.
 
BarbNJ said:
My Vista desktop took forever to shut down last night and today it will
not start at all. The hard drive spins briefly and then gives up. I have
a recovery disk the CD drive lights but it will not start from there. I
would like to get it up briefly to be sure I have no new photos to back
up. I have Wubi Ubuntu installed and if I could get the thing started at
all, I would be able to use it to make sure I can recover anything that
I desperately need. I tried to start it with PC Linux OS which is
capable of running from the CD drive, but no joy there either.

I would love to give you more specifics but I can't since I can't view
the info, I can't. It is an E-machine, one of their T series with 180
gig hard drive. It's got lots of RAM. I was running Vista but it was an
upgrade from XP.

Any suggestions? (
Click to expand...


Locate and repair your hardware failure. This has nothing to do with
any OS. (If you have data you must retrieve, slave the hard drive into
a different, working, computer to do so.)


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
So why don't you have a backup of your data? Sounds like your computer is
dying but your hard drive may be good.

So if your hard drive died you would be OK with losing all your data?

It's not IF your drive will die, it's WHEN.

Make backups people.
 
My hard drive didn't die. It was the video card which I replaced all by my
lonesome. I had backups but since I'm a casual user, I don't back up
frequently. The only things I would care about are pictures(important) and
documents(not really).
I'm a little spoiled by the fact that computers I bought in 1996 and 1999
still run just fine without a single component ever being replaced. This
certainly took me by surprise. I will back up a little more frequently.
Barb
 
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