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Thread: Computer Guru's...............

  1. #1
    Kachina26
    Please help. I was given an e-machines t1125 model, (insert jokes here). It has a 1.3GHz celeron, 256sdram 40gig hd. The guy that gave it to me gave up on it, I want it for an extra computer. It had gotten a virus of some sort, I forgot which one but it was one of the big ones a few months ago. Anyway, I know enough to get myself into trouble and that's about all. When the machine is switched on it goes past the "e-machines" white screen and then to a blinking curser. If I hit the delete key I can go into the Bios and change the boot order and whatever else is available in there. I made a startup disk from a good machine with the same OS (winxp home). The machine boots and I get to an a prompt line, but I don't know what to do with it. I also got the machine to boot off of the cdrom sort of. It gets to a screen that says press any key to boot from cd, but nothing happens when I press the anykey.
    Thoughts, ideas (insert joke here) really?

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    109
    Kachina, see if the machine will boot in safe mode.
    Make sure the hard drive is the boot device in the bios.
    Restart the machine and as soon as it starts up, begin tapping the F8 key. It should give you some choices on how you want to boot. If it does, choose safe-mode and see what it does
    By doing this you'll bybass some of the possible hardware or virus/spyware problems.
    Good luck.

  3. #3
    Kachina26
    No dice on the safe mode

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    109
    Im gonna take a guess and say its hardware if it wont boot from an original XP cd. Maybe a bad stick of memory, or worse something on the motherboard. If it was a hard drive I think youd still get it to boot from cd.

  5. #5
    Kachina26
    I did go through and unplug and plug back in all connectors and the memory stick just for grins.

  6. #6
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    109
    I should also add computers are not the way I make a living. I know enough to keep my friends and my stuff up and running.
    Ive also been drinking
    Have a good Thanksgiving too

  7. #7
    100mbs
    Kachina26,
    When you get in the BIOS go the section that lists all of your hard drives and cdroms. Do you see your Hard Drive listed as the Primary on IDE1?
    Then if that looks good go the section that shows the BOOT Order. This will probably have Floppy, CDROM, then the Hard Drive listed in this order. If it isnt in the order put it in this order.
    The Boot Disk that you made does it have the "FORMAT.* and FDISK.*" files on it? if not go to the machine that you made the boot disk from and do a searc for fdisk*.* and format*.*. You will find 2 files for each but with different extensions. Copy all 4 files to the floppy.
    If the PC doesnt boot with the CD-ROM with XP on it after pressing "Any Key" then you will need to try to boot from the floppy and format the C: drive.
    Boot with Floppy when you get to the A:\ prompt type in format c:
    It will ask are you sure you want to do this, just say yes and continue. It will take a little while for this to complete.
    ****ONLY DO THE FORMAT IF THERE IS NOTHING ON THE DISK THAT YOU NEED. FORMAT ERASES EVERYTHING ON THE DISK.
    Try one or all of the steps and see what happens.
    Try that and see what happens

  8. #8
    Mrs.Racer277
    I agree 100mps,
    Boot to the startup disk, then try "c:" command.
    If it gives a c:\ prompt, do a "dir" command.
    Are there any files that show up?
    If not, it has already been formatted, now load the new OS.
    I still am not sure why it doesn't boot from the CDRom.
    Maybe the CDRom (hardware) had been changed-I've seen motherboards that won't boot from a CDRom that wasn't installed with it.
    Just a thought.
    Oh, this is R277, not a computer tech, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn last night.

  9. #9
    Dr. Eagle

  10. #10
    Kachina26
    I agree 100mps,
    Boot to the startup disk, then try "c:" command.
    If it gives a c:\ prompt, do a "dir" command.
    Are there any files that show up?
    If not, it has already been formatted, now load the new OS.
    I still am not sure why it doesn't boot from the CDRom.
    Maybe the CDRom (hardware) had been changed-I've seen motherboards that won't boot from a CDRom that wasn't installed with it.
    Just a thought.
    Oh, this is R277, not a computer tech, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn last night.
    It does have a different CDrom than what came with the machine and I believe he was having problems with that also.
    I will try what 100 said.

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