Tech Team Gurus!
I was in the midst of another thread, My PC is going wacky when I ran into more trouble. My PC won't boot. I'd gone to bed with Kaspersky running. When I awoke, the screen was stopped where it says that the PC was shut down for some reason, and to choose which mode you'd like to start in... I have't been able to get past that screen. I couldn't get it to boot. I did get a message that said that the BIOS is not fully ACPI compliant and which gave a site, http://hardware.update.com. Using a friend's PC, I saved an update onto a cd-r. I could not boot into safe mode. I couldn't boot up in any mode. When I chose a mode and hit enter, it would start to boot, then loop back to the beginning. I saw where I could try to boot from a floppy or cd. I was wishing that I had something. Can I download a boot cd from somewhere?
I found this site: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
What do you think of it?
Thank you for being there for others! It's way cool!
Kathy

Hi Kathy... Nice to see you around here again?

I wanted to see if TomK had you run combofix yet. He did, and so you should have installed the recovery console?

First of all, when the boot menu comes up asking if you want to boot into normal mode, or safe mode, etc.. Arrow down to "Disable automatic restart on system failure," and press ENTER. Choose your Windows operating system from the list, and press ENTER again. See if the system boots to a blue screen that gives you more information about the problem you are having. Please tell us any pertinent information that is on that page such as a STOP error and any files or descriptions of the problem. Please do not bother typing in all the generic "instructions" that Microsoft has so conveniently provided for you.

Next, lets boot into that recovery console. You should see that option briefly when you turn your computer on. When you get to recovery console, choose the installation you want to mount (usually #1), and if prompted for a password, press ENTER, unless you know that there is an administrator password set. In which case, type it in.

At the recovery console, run the command, chkdsk /r and press ENTER. Please be patient while the command completes. It will take a while. During stages 4 and 5 pay attention to any messages about "windows replacing bad clusters..." Let me know what you see.

This post has been edited by appleoddity: Jul 3 2009, 07:41 AM

Hello, appleoddity!!
It's good to talk with you again, though I wish it were in a just-for-fun forum instead of a 'Help! I'm in trouble again!' forum. I tried to boot into recovery mode. There was a white bar at the bottom of the screen which said, "Please wait...". How long should I wait? Is over 30 minutes normal? I have the feeling I'm in really, really big trouble. I have to give back this PC, but will be picking up two more from my mother and I'll try to get one of them going. If I can't, then I'll have to run back and forth between my neighbor's house or the library and mine.

So far, I can tell you that the blue screen said that the BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant.
Here's the technical information:
*** STOP: 0x000000A5 (0x00000011, 0x00000007, 0xF7B660C0, 0x0000000D)

I'll be unhooking this PC at around 5 (one hour from this post). I hope to be back on-line tonight.
Kathy

Hi Kathy.. That's weird.

I did some research.. It could be a simple fix, but you should also be able to easily get into recovery console.

Here's information from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831691

Under "resolution," step #5 tells you what to type at the recovery console. (del hiberfil.sys)

However, you have to get to the recovery console to do this.

Do you have a windows XP disc you can boot from and try to enter recovery console that way?

Hello, appleoddity!
No, I don't have a windows XP disc. I was hoping that you could show me where I could download a boot disk. I found this site: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
What do you think of it? Do you know of a trusted site?
Kathy

Well, I did look at that site... I didn't spend a whole lot of time researching what exactly they are offering.

I do have this link, which is on the bootdisk.com site: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994

This will allow you to download and create 6 bootable floppy disks that do the same thing as the windows XP setup disc. Well, at least they will get you into recovery console I'm pretty sure.

If you want to make the floppy discs, download the XP Home SP2 set. At this point, it shouldn't matter, because you are only trying to get to recovery console. If you were trying to install Windows XP you would probably want to make sure you had the right discs to match your version of windows.

This post has been edited by appleoddity: Jul 3 2009, 02:55 PM

Hello, appleoddity!
Is it okay to download this to cd-r?
Kathy

Kathy.. If you don't have a floppy drive, this is not the method for you.

The link I gave is for making a bootable floppy, not a bootable CD.

Kathy, since you don't have an XP CD, download and create a bootable CD from the .iso file

XP Recovery Console

You don't burn the iso file itself to CD., you create a CD from the iso file using your CD burning software. There is a good freeware burner called DeepBurner which will do this. Another called ISO Recorder is also very easy to use.

Boot the CD and at the first opportunity, enter R to start the Recovery Console.
Next, choose which XP installation you want to login to. Normally this will be 1.
Lastly you will be asked for the Administrator password. Just press the Enter key as the Administrator does not have a password (unless you gave it one, then you would enter it).

From the command prompt, enter: chkdsk c: /r

Allow it to complete undisturbed.

Can't believe I forgot about that one Rich... Thanks...

I'm not sure where Kathy went, but she already has Recovery Console installed on that computer.

This post has been edited by Tomk: Jul 9 2009, 05:27 PM

Hello, Tomk, appleoddity & Rich!!
I wish I could have gotten on-line to see that, Rich! I got two towers from my mother and couldn't get on-line with either. I managed to get my hands on an XP CD but couldn't get anywhere with it. I fooled around with everything for a few days, then brought my PC in to my computer guy last week. He hasn't gotten back to me, yet. I am now on a PC which was handed over to me by a nice girl, Maggie, who was overwhelmed by pop-ups. I'm going to post a thread on this
PC for her after I give my guy a call and I'll check back in here. I want to post threads on my mother's towers (one at a time!). If they can be fixed, I'll have a back-up PC.
Kath
Hello! My computer guy just told me that it was damaged memory, perhaps from a power outage. I have everything hooked up to a surge protector, though, should I do something more? A better rated surge protector, perhaps?

This post has been edited by Kathy: Jul 14 2009, 01:35 PM

No need to use another Surge Protector. If it still works then it did not detect a voltage spike as in doing so it would have most likely died an honorable death protecting the hardware plugged into it.

Memory (RAM) sometimes goes bad for no apparent reason. If fixing it resolves the problem then you should be fine.

Good luck.

Hi, Rich!
Good, I didn't want to buy something else! I should have my PC back tomorrow night. This one I'm using is a little funky. I have it posted in HijackThis™ Logs and Infections Removal ( Infected computer ). After I get my PC back, I want to start a thread for one of the towers my mother gave me; the one which has a detectable IP address. The other doesn't. It would be very good to have a back-up when mine fails to connect. This is the second time I was stranded in the middle of a thread because I couldn't access the the net and get to WTT! Is this the correct forum for that issue (cannot connect to the internet)?
Kathy

Hi Kathy, for the connect to internet problem, use the Networking forum.