well, I'm having problems again

mUj0 · Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 7:58 am Post subject: well, I'm having problems again

NO CD: BOOT FROM DISK, INSERT SYSTEM DISK.

I"m not sure what happened. I installed a game earlier today (Warhammer 40,000). Backed up my registry. THen i played it for awhile. Then i got tired of it and layed Call of duty 2, attempted to anyways. I insert the cd and my computer locks up on desktop. REboot and i get the above error message. I take out the disk, same thing . I go into BIOS and auto detect HD"s and they're still there. I did do some dusting earlier today, but i checked the cabling and everything is ok. so i turn boot from cd off, and it still gets the error. I cant get into safe mode at all.

Im currently attempting to get into recovery console....but its not letting me boot from my windows disk, or even a floppy. I tried starting setup with a floppy, and it worked till i got to disk 5, i got this error: "cdrom.sys file is corrupted, setup failed." I know this is a dumb idea..but could my DVD ROM failed and perhaps be causing all this mayhem? That doesnt explain the fact that windows wont boot though.

ALright, i'm going to try a few more things, but i have to get ready for work, looks like i know wha ti'll be doing tonite......

PS> I had this similiar problem before about four months ago...is one of my hard drives bad? they're seagates..80 GB SATA x2. Its got me wondering because this is the 3rd time i'll probly have to do a full reinstall of my OS.

ANy help would be appreciated

System Specs:

WIndows XP PRo sp2
2 x 80 GB seagate SATA HD's
ATI Saphire x850xt 256 mb GPU
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
2 x 512 mb COrsair XMS ram
Lite on DVD-RW/R CD-RW/R
saitek keyboard
logitech G7 mouse
Viewsonic 19" CRT

edit: OK, so i went into boot menu after POST....It let me boot into windows ok. SO i do an error check on my C Drive, ok. I restart it so it can perform the error check, BAM, same error, boot from CD. :???? bad boot sector?

I"m currently scanning for spyware/adware/viruses. I'm thinking I may have a boot sector virus...or the boot sector is just bad....but i'm confused , if the boot sector is bad...how can i manually boot into windows (using boot menu at post).
_________________

Colossians 2:20 "You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the evil powers of this world. So why do you keep on following rules of the world"

Verbannt · Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 9:28 am Post subject:

The bad boot sector sounds familiar, something like that happened to my sister's Dell about 6 months ago. I believe Dell said the hard drive was shot and they had to send it in to get a new one, but they really didn't say too much more. I just googled "bad boot sector" and there seems to be quite a few things out there, it looks like a lot of patches for it so I don't think your problem is all too uncommon.
_________________

mUj0 · Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 9:44 am Post subject:

yes, I"ve been doing some searching also (i'm on my wifes computer). I"m almost tempted to contact seagate and start the RMA process... these drives are only 8 months old. and this is the third time something similiar to this has happened. before it was a bad sector on the hard drive, i never found out which one, but i'm sure it was the boot sector.

OH well, i've got to go to work, i'll be home by 8:45 pm eastern. Feel free anyone to leave any comments or helpful hints *cough cough* simpleman*

Thanks in advance everyone.
_________________

Colossians 2:20 "You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the evil powers of this world. So why do you keep on following rules of the world"

cobra · Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 3:36 pm Post subject:

your PC seems to really hate you. lol

_________________
PROUD TO BE A MEMBER OF =US-V= & VILLE $UPPORTER

mUj0 · Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 7:15 pm Post subject:

OK, i got into the recovery console. I used the fixmbr command. NOTHING. DISK BOOT FAILURE, insert system disk and press enter. STill getting the error.
_________________

Colossians 2:20 "You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the evil powers of this world. So why do you keep on following rules of the world"

rANCOR hUNTER · Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 8:04 pm Post subject:

Yea it sounds like a bad HDD to me, but what do I know? I just had to reinstall Windows today when I messed up setting up a dual boot for XP and Ubuntu.
_________________

mUj0 · Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:58 pm Post subject:

OK. So i disconnect everything and reconnect. Windows starts up fine. I fixed the MBR. But now i'm getting crashes after five to 10 minutes. crashes on desktop while idling, gaming, whatever.

I've run error checks on both hard drives, and they're both coming up ok. COuld this be a motherboard problem? considering i've run into problems before...third time in eight months.
_________________

Colossians 2:20 "You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the evil powers of this world. So why do you keep on following rules of the world"

mUj0 · Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 4:49 am Post subject:

OK. So I run diagnostic tools from Seagate. I have 2 critical errors, one on each drive. I've run Windows diskcheck twice, it cant fix the errors. I've done everything I thought possible to do w/out returning the drives. Would a clean install of Windows fix those errors? or should I just RMA those two drives considering this is the fourth time I"ve had errors on them in eight months

edit: I left my pc on all day, and it didnt crash. This is good so now i can backup anything i may have missed in the first rush of backup. I will do a fresh install of windows, and hopefully those errors will go away. Thanks for the help

edit2: PC still crashing. COntacting seagate on RMA.

_________________

Colossians 2:20 "You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the evil powers of this world. So why do you keep on following rules of the world"