# Absolute Disaster



## somewhatsavvy

I pulled my CPU forward, heard a click. 

Now, it won't reboot in any mode, and System Recovery won't work (stays on blue screen forever) 

Options? Suggestions?


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## massahwahl

You pulled the CPU or the heatsink and heard a click?


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## somewhatsavvy

Uhm, I pulled on my CPU to get it out of the little cubby-thing we keep it in... 

I thought maybe it was the power cord that got loose, but the lights were still on and stuff.....


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## massahwahl

Maybe were confused on terms here. Im gathering that you pulled on the entire case of your computer? Or do you mean you had the case open and pulled on the physical CPU?


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## somewhatsavvy

oh no no I pulled on the entire case of my computer

someone like me opening up a computer to the guts? are you kidding??


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## massahwahl

Ok well lets start with the simple stuff. Did you ensure everything is plugged back in correctly? Make sure no cords are laying behind your tower unplugged?


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## somewhatsavvy

Of course I checked that. Everything is normal until it gets to the part where Vista is supposed to jump on. Then nothing happens. 

When I get the COMPAQ screen, there's a system recovery on f12 and I press it. 

A blue screen comes up and stays there for all of eternity. 

Is this salvagable? Should I take it to where I bought it? (Best Buy)


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## AUTOBOOT2000

HOW MANY BEEPS ARE YOU GETTING! TELL ME NOW!!! and what exactly does the error say??


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## massahwahl

lol, NEVER take something to best buy nor buy anything from them.

It sounds like you may have accidentally unplugged your hard drive or otherwise messed up your hard drive.

If you let the system go and not press f12 for recovery do you get any sort of error messages? We would be looking for something that says bootdisc not found or something similar.

When you pulled the tower and heard the sound did it sound like it came from inside the case?


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## massahwahl

AUTOBOOT2000 said:


> What does the error say? Do you hear any beeps? Boot into safe mode.



It doesnt sound like he can get into safe mode or windows period. We gotta find out what the error says he's getting.


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## somewhatsavvy

This is what I'm doing and this is what I'm getting

-Turning on computer manually by front On button.
-COMPAQ come up with three options : Boot Menu, Setup, System Recovery
-If I wait for the little flashing blinker and type boot, I get a long list of possible ways to boot up. None of them work sucessfully. 

I am either confronted with 1) a black screen on which nothing loads. 
or a 2) blue screen on which nothing loads.


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## massahwahl

When you first turn on the cimputer can you press f8 or another f button to enter into the bios? Were talking as soon as you press the on button.

If not, what options do you get if you type setup?


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## somewhatsavvy

I did f8 and nothing happened. I typed setup and was brought to the Windows Boot Manager, which is the same thing as when I type boot.

I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic (found at the bottom of that page) and that leaves me with a very long wait and finally the blue screen that goes nowhere.


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## massahwahl

I'd say theres about 90% chance your hard drive is either unplugged inside or its fryed.

When you go into those boot menus do you see anywhere where it mentiones your hard drive in terms of a brand name or model number that would tell us that the computer sees it?

How comfortable are you opening up the case and having a look see inside?


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## somewhatsavvy

OKay, I'm in the Bios i think. 

It's like a teal, grey, blue screen and i have main, advanced, power, boot, exit on the top...

what next?


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## massahwahl

go over and look where it says boot or advanced. Were looking for an indication that your hard drive is showing up. 

Look for an option that says 'boot order' and see if your hard drive is listed in the list. You should see your cd drives in this list as well.


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## somewhatsavvy

UHm, it says 

First Drive: WDC WD2500JS-6

And if i go into that it says 

CApacity 250 GB
Cylinder 65535
Head 16
Precomp 0
Landing Zone 65534
Sector 255

SMART SUPPORT

NCQ Supported
Transfer Mode UDMA 5
SATA speed 3.0 Gb\s


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## somewhatsavvy

My boot priority listing says 

Floppy Group
CD Rom Group
HDD Group   (What's HDD???)
Network Boot Group

in that order.


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## massahwahl

Hmmm, your hard drive is showing up then. Thats good for now.

Can you open the case and check to see that all wires are plugged in and nothing looks out of the ordinary?


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## massahwahl

somewhatsavvy said:


> My boot priority listing says
> 
> Floppy Group
> CD Rom Group
> HDD Group   (What's HDD???)
> Network Boot Group
> 
> in that order.



HDD is you hard drive (Hard Disc Drive)


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## somewhatsavvy

I wouldn't know the first thing about opening the case... nor what is "ordinary" or not....

And shouldn't my HDD be first priority on the boot list though? I don't even HAVE a floppy drive


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## TrainTrackHack

So you actually pulled the box forward, and it made a click? Was the computer on? If so, that click could've been the "click of death" - desktop HDDs don't like being moved around a lot and the HD may be dead.


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## massahwahl

hackapelite said:


> So you actually pulled the box forward, and it made a click? Was the computer on? If so, that click could've been the "click of death" - desktop HDDs don't like being moved around a lot and the HD may be dead.



His HDD still shows in the bios though. If he fried it wouldnt that make it nill in the bios?


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## somewhatsavvy

hackapelite said:


> "click of death"



That is the most ominous thing I have heard all night....


And btw I am a girl, not that it makes a difference other than pronouns


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## Vizy

He should hear his Hard drive spinning right? I think if he pulled the power plug out of the hdd on aciddent, it would make a click. I think the hdd can still be read from the bios though. The power plug might of fell out.


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## Vizy

He = She on my previous post.


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## somewhatsavvy

Vizy93 said:


> He should hear his Hard drive spinning right? I think if he pulled the power plug out of the hdd on aciddent, it would make a click. I think the hdd can still be read from the bios though. The power plug might of fell out.



right now i hear normal comp sounds.... i dunno what exactly that is, the fan is going i think, cuz the comp is at like 40 dgrees celcuis bios apparently tells me???


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## TrainTrackHack

> His HDD still shows in the bios though. If he fried it wouldnt that make it nill in the bios?


I wouldn't think so... when the read/write heads hit the platters (as a result of movement, for example), the disc (the platters) will be damaged; however, the circuits won't be affected by this. As long as the circuit board/chips are fine, the drive will still be recognized; I once actually took off the circuit board of an old WD Caviar, and the drive was recognized in BIOS.

It may be different with modern drives, but I would think it'll keep showing up until the circuit board is damaged.


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## somewhatsavvy

oh crap, the battery on this laptop is just about dead.... 

any last minute advice, anyone? it's like 1;30 in the morning.... i gotta get to bed.... 

what should i do with the comp overnight? leave it on, off?


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## brian

Ok, well to me, i agree that it seems like the drive is dead. Some last resort things you can try that should not effect anything. One would be to reset the bios. If you enter the bios where it shows you the temp and what not, there should be a setting to restore to defalut settings. If there isint, and you dont mind opening the case, then unplug everythign and look on the motherboard for a silver button battery. (about 3/4 inch) then just remove it and wait 30 sec and replace it and plug everything back in.

I dought that would work but it may be worth a shot.

Also if you happen to have a windows vista disk, then i would try to go into the recovery console and try to do a fixboot or fixmbr (did they change this in vista... i know they changed the commands around.)

Else it could be your drive.


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## massahwahl

Sorry I had to get some sleep last night, any luck with the comp today?

Sounds like your going to need to replace the Hare Drive. This might sound a little scary, but we all can easily walk you through the process, truth be told, its pretty easy really.


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## gamerman4

Ok im going to pool all of the info I have gathered from the thread to make sure I am on the same page.
1. You pulled the computer tower from it's cabinet, heard a clicking noise. (I assume 1 click)
2. When windows tries to load there is a permanent black screen.
3. Your BIOS detects the hard drive correctly.
4. When you try the memory diagnostic, it gives you a permanent blank blue screen.

I don't think her hard drive is completely bombed, the Windows Boot Manager is because of Vista so if she sees that then at least something is being read off of the drive.

Do you have a Vista Installation Disk?
If you do, you can run a chkdsk. I can walk you through that.


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## massahwahl

Jostling the hard drive would have only messed up the boot manager? Wouldnt the whole disc be fried not just one part of it?


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## gamerman4

ukulele_ninja said:


> Jostling the hard drive would have only messed up the boot manager? Wouldnt the whole disc be fried not just one part of it?



My point is, If the hard drive would have completely failed she wouldn't have even seen the Windows Boot Manager because it is read from the hard drive.


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## massahwahl

gamerman4 said:


> My point is, If the hard drive would have completely failed she wouldn't have even seen the Windows Boot Manager because it is read from the hard drive.



She's not seeing the windows boot manager though, she's seeing the bios boot order menu.

Its hard to diagnose the issue without seeing it.


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## gamerman4

she said she was brought to the Windows Boot Manager, and ran a memory diagnostic. The Vista Windows Boot Manager has the option for a memory diagnostic so im pretty sure she is seeing the actual Windows Boot Manager unless the HP also has the same option.

I assume she is seeing this window:


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## massahwahl

That's true, hopefully she will have her boot disc


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## Dystopia

Actaully, I have had a simalr problem way back when i had a laptop, I could boot the drive, i think it detected it, but nothing else worked. Hard drvie is very well possible to be dead. But I never saw the bot manager though...
And also my HDD was broken on that laptop so i bought a new one.


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## somewhatsavvy

Hi everyone, 

Thanks for your continued efforts.... 

My uncle ( a techie by trade ) came over this morning with an XP installation disc and he said there was nothing he could do. 

The picture that gamerman4 posted, I can see that screen. 

My computer never came with a Vista installation disc, only an Upgrade thing that I never used. 

Overall, I am between a rock and a hard place. I guess my options are 
1) Buy a new hard drive, get someone (my uncle) to install it. 
2) Bring the whole comp to a comp repair place. 
3) Buy a brand new computer. 

If I buy a hard drive and something else is broken, that's a waste of money. 

I'm relatively tight on cash, and naturally this all has to coincide with when I need my computer the most, for school work. 

Any more suggestions, anyone? I heard about something called the Ultimate Boot  Disc. What is it?? Will it work??


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## newguy5

somewhatsavvy said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> Thanks for your continued efforts....
> 
> My uncle ( a techie by trade ) came over this morning with an XP installation disc and he said there was nothing he could do.
> 
> The picture that gamerman4 posted, I can see that screen.
> 
> My computer never came with a Vista installation disc, only an Upgrade thing that I never used.
> 
> Overall, I am between a rock and a hard place. I guess my options are
> 1) Buy a new hard drive, get someone (my uncle) to install it.
> 2) Bring the whole comp to a comp repair place.
> 3) Buy a brand new computer.
> 
> If I buy a hard drive and something else is broken, that's a waste of money.
> 
> I'm relatively tight on cash, and naturally this all has to coincide with when I need my computer the most, for school work.
> 
> Any more suggestions, anyone? I heard about something called the Ultimate Boot  Disc. What is it?? Will it work??



okay firstly this is a very entertaining thread.  kudos to you for being in such good humor whilst having this problem.

secondly, if your hard drive really is screwed up, you would want to put your installation disk in the cd rom and boot from it, bypassing the computer even trying to boot into your hard drive.  if you can boot into your cd just fine then the hard drive is likely the problem.

opening the computer up and looking would be advantageous for your situation.  if you look on the left side of the computer in the back there will be 2 screws holding in the side panel to the computer.  undo them and slide the side panel off.  on the opposite side panel there will be a big square board--this is your motherboard.  it will all look something like this, most likely with a lot more dust than you care to see:






basically the things with all the cords going in them--you want to make sure they connect well in those pieces and into the big board.  if the connections are good, that's all you need to do.  don't feel like it is too daunting a task.  you won't screw anything up as long as the computer is off and you are not so scared that you drool into the electronics of the case simultaneously.

good luck   let us know how it goes.


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## TrainTrackHack

> Overall, I am between a rock and a hard place. I guess my options are
> *1) Buy a new hard drive, get someone (my uncle) to install it.*
> 2) Bring the whole comp to a comp repair place.
> 3) Buy a brand new computer.


...is the cpeapest option. Repair places charge for labour, and usually they charge a lot for it, and you never know what they actually do... and brand new rig just because of a dead HD sounds quite ridiculous. HDs are cheap nowadays, that should be no problem.


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## Dystopia

Get a new HDD. It will most likely solve your problem. Bringing it to some computer store fixer-upper-place will just cost ya a lot of money


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## brian

somewhatsavvy said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> Thanks for your continued efforts....
> 
> My uncle ( a techie by trade ) came over this morning with an XP installation disc and he said there was nothing he could do.
> 
> The picture that gamerman4 posted, I can see that screen.
> 
> *My computer never came with a Vista installation disc, only an Upgrade thing that I never used. *
> 
> Overall, I am between a rock and a hard place. I guess my options are
> 1) Buy a new hard drive, get someone (my uncle) to install it.
> 2) Bring the whole comp to a comp repair place.
> 3) Buy a brand new computer.
> 
> If I buy a hard drive and something else is broken, that's a waste of money.
> 
> I'm relatively tight on cash, and naturally this all has to coincide with when I need my computer the most, for school work.
> 
> Any more suggestions, anyone? I heard about something called the Ultimate Boot  Disc. What is it?? Will it work??



YES!!! you can use this. (assuming i am thinking of the same disk) anyway put this in your cd drive and start up the computer. Start hitting f12. that should bring you to a boot screen. if it doesent try f11 or f10. Then chose cd drive. boot it up. Once you are at the keyboard selection and language hit next. Then you will be at a install now page. Instead go to the bottom left and hit repair your computer. It will search for instilations and hopefully find it. Hit next and then you will be given 5 different selections. I would first try command prompt When that comes up type
"bootrec /fixboot"
without quotes of cource. If it asks your if your sure just say yes.
next after it finishes type
"bootrec /fixmbr"
once again say yes if it askes you. then type
"exit"
and then hit restart.
If that does not work, go back and boot into the cd but instead of hiting command prompt ty startup repair.


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## Dean11

if the hard drive had anything wrong with it it would be coming up as "system boot failure"... it sounds like windows is corrupt so running a chkdsk in the recovery console like people previously suggested might fix it or a windows repair with the install disk.


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## somewhatsavvy

Thanks for those suggestions guys... I'll get back to you with how that works or didn't...


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## somewhatsavvy

Elimin8or said:


> Get a new HDD. It will most likely solve your problem. Bringing it to some computer store fixer-upper-place will just cost ya a lot of money



I brought this up to my uncle. He said that  new HDD would be essentially useless because there would be no OS on it, meaning I wouldn't really be better of than I am right now. Is that true? When you buy a HDD, how do you install an OS? Can you do that with BIOS? I don't know anything, I'm just throwing suggestions out there!


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## Cleric7x9

you need to run a chkdsk on your computer

get a hold of a windows XP installation CD

when the blue screen comes up, select R to repair from a command prompt

if it asks you for your Admin password, put it in, leave it blank if you dont have one, and press enter

type chkdsk /r and press Enter

let it do its thing


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## brian

Cleric7x9 said:


> you need to run a chkdsk on your computer
> 
> get a hold of a windows XP installation CD
> 
> when the blue screen comes up, select R to repair from a command prompt
> 
> if it asks you for your Admin password, put it in, leave it blank if you dont have one, and press enter
> 
> type chkdsk /r and press Enter
> 
> let it do its thing


it is a vista instilation. So that would work with what i posted but just do chkdsk /r instead of the bootrec



brian said:


> YES!!! you can use this. (assuming i am thinking of the same disk) anyway put this in your cd drive and start up the computer. Start hitting f12. that should bring you to a boot screen. if it doesent try f11 or f10. Then chose cd drive. boot it up. Once you are at the keyboard selection and language hit next. Then you will be at a install now page. Instead go to the bottom left and hit repair your computer. It will search for instilations and hopefully find it. Hit next and then you will be given 5 different selections. I would first try command prompt When that comes up type
> "bootrec /fixboot"
> without quotes of cource. If it asks your if your sure just say yes.
> next after it finishes type
> "bootrec /fixmbr"
> once again say yes if it askes you. then type
> "exit"
> and then hit restart.
> If that does not work, go back and boot into the cd but instead of hiting command prompt ty startup repair.


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## Cleric7x9

brian said:


> it is a vista instilation. So that would work with what i posted but just do chkdsk /r instead of the bootrec



sorry, i didnt read the whole thread


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## brian

Cleric7x9 said:


> sorry, i didnt read the whole thread



haha yeah truest me i wouldent have eather


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## 2048Megabytes

From what I read it looks like there is something wrong with the boot file loading Windows.  (It ticks me off nowadays that most computers don't even have a Windows recovery disc.)

Anyway, I think this is the solution.  She should have her hard drive pulled out of her system, have someone get all the valuable data off of it.   Be sure you get the device drivers off the hard drive.  

Next get the hard drive reinstalled.  Format the the hard drive to wipe it clean then do a fresh reinstall of Windows.  Reinstall the device drivers and everything should hopefully work if there is nothing wrong with the hard drive.


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## Cleric7x9

2048Megabytes said:


> From what I read it looks like there is something wrong with the boot file loading Windows.  (It ticks me off nowadays that most computers don't even have a Windows recovery disc.)
> 
> Anyway, I think this is the solution.  She should have her hard drive pulled out of her system, have someone get all the valuable data off of it.   Be sure you get the device drivers off the hard drive.
> 
> Next get the hard drive reinstalled.  Format the the hard drive to wipe it clean then do a fresh reinstall of Windows.  Reinstall the device drivers and everything should hopefully work if there is nothing wrong with the hard drive.



except that she loses all her programs, and that is WAY more work than needs to be done...


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## somewhatsavvy

brian said:


> YES!!! you can use this. (VISTA UPGRADE CD)(assuming i am thinking of the same disk) anyway put this in your cd drive and start up the computer. Start hitting f12. that should bring you to a boot screen. if it doesent try f11 or f10. Then chose cd drive. boot it up. Once you are at the keyboard selection and language hit next. Then you will be at a install now page. Instead go to the bottom left and hit repair your computer. It will search for instilations and hopefully find it. Hit next and then you will be given 5 different selections. I would first try command prompt When that comes up type
> "bootrec /fixboot"
> without quotes of cource. If it asks your if your sure just say yes.
> next after it finishes type
> "bootrec /fixmbr"
> once again say yes if it askes you. then type
> "exit"
> and then hit restart.
> If that does not work, go back and boot into the cd but instead of hiting command prompt ty startup repair.



UPDATE
Hi everyone.....
So I'm guilty of initially dismissing this post, seeing as I was under the impression thatnothing was opening from CD. After lettinmg my comp settle for a couple of days, whilst family situations in relation to its use escalated to the point of anger, betrayal, and accusations of deliberate tampering towards myself, I got so desperate that I figured, hell, why not?

I finally got it to boot from the disk and hit the Repair Your Computer link like brian suggested. It began a Startup Repair. This was at 9PM last night, and it's now a little past 7AM the next day. I am wondering how long I should leave it there. When I attempt to hit cancel, a tiny window comes up informing me that the current repair operation cannot be canceled. The tower doesn't seem to be working more than the minimal (i.e. I don't hear the loading sound of when the comp is "thinking"). 

Is it possible for the process to be frozen even through the computer and the System Repair window are responsive? The little blue bar is still crossing the screen at its precedented rate.... and has been for 10 hours now. Should I leave it on while i do to school?

Suggestions, ideas, comments? All appreciated!


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## gamerman4

I have been in situation where chkdsk or other disk scanner utilities would freeze at a certain point in a drive. You likely have a bad sector that the utility is try to scan over. See if you can use the Vista Upgrade Disk to reinstall Vista. It's worth a shot. If it asks to reformat I would suggest no considering that it is an upgrade cd.


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## Kornowski

Download a program called Drive Fitness Test, Here.

Burn that to a CD using something like this. It's an ISO file, so you'll need a special program like the one I linked to.

Let DFT run, if at the end, it says something like; 'Disposition Code 0x00' your HDD is still in _working_ order. I'd do this before you fork out the cash for a new HDD.


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## Dystopia

Your uncle said that the HDD would be useless. Well, i forgot that you hve no OS, so you will not only need the new HDD, you will actaully need a new OS disk as well. Try


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## somewhatsavvy

Startup Repair Diagnosis and repair log
_____________________________
Number of repair attempts: 1

Session details
System Disk= \Device\Harddisk0
Windows directory=
AutoChk Run= 0
Number of root causes= 1

Test Performed:
____________
Name: Check for updates
Result: Completed successfully. Error code= 0x0
Time taken: 15ms

Test Performed:
____________
Name: Disk failure diagnosis
Result: Completed successfully. Error code= 0x0
Time taken:  94 ms
Test Performed:
____________
Name: Disk metadata test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code= 0x0
Time taken:  47 ms

Test Performed:
____________
Name: Target OS test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code= 0x0
Time taken:  15 ms

Root cause found:
______________
No OS files found on disk. 

Repair action: Partition table repair
Result: Failed. Error Code 0x490
Time taken: 1482 ms


What does this mean? I can guess that I apparently don't have vista on here any more???


I still have access to my files via the seach function and have ftransfered some via memory card.... 

I guess I have to buy a new vista package no matter what, right?


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## Dystopia

somewhatsavvy said:


> Startup Repair Diagnosis and repair log
> _____________________________
> Number of repair attempts: 1
> 
> Session details
> System Disk= \Device\Harddisk0
> Windows directory=
> AutoChk Run= 0
> Number of root causes= 1
> 
> Test Performed:
> ____________
> Name: Check for updates
> Result: Completed successfully. Error code= 0x0
> Time taken: 15ms
> 
> Test Performed:
> ____________
> Name: Disk failure diagnosis
> Result: Completed successfully. Error code= 0x0
> Time taken:  94 ms
> Test Performed:
> ____________
> Name: Disk metadata test
> Result: Completed successfully. Error code= 0x0
> Time taken:  47 ms
> 
> Test Performed:
> ____________
> Name: Target OS test
> Result: Completed successfully. Error code= 0x0
> Time taken:  15 ms
> 
> *Root cause found:
> ______________
> No OS files found on disk. *
> Repair action: Partition table repair
> Result: Failed. Error Code 0x490
> Time taken: 1482 ms
> 
> 
> What does this mean? I can guess that I apparently don't have vista on here any more???
> 
> 
> I still have access to my files via the seach function and have ftransfered some via memory card....
> 
> I guess I have to buy a new vista package no matter what, right?



yeah,that pretty much means that no matter what, you will need a new os. so purchase a new OS, have it installed(or do it yourself), and see If it works. If something goes wrong, chances are its your HDD, so you might have to buy a new one.


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## gamerman4

I have seen many articles showing how you can use the Vista upgrade Disk to install Vista without having a previous OS on it. I'm not sure about the legality but if she has a license, should it make a difference?


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## Kornowski

Kornowski said:


> Download a program called Drive Fitness Test, Here.
> 
> Burn that to a CD using something like this. It's an ISO file, so you'll need a special program like the one I linked to.
> 
> Let DFT run, if at the end, it says something like; 'Disposition Code 0x00' your HDD is still in _working_ order. I'd do this before you fork out the cash for a new HDD.



Did you try that?


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