BOOT Ya Soddin Thing


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It can be a heart-wrenching experience.  You push that power button,  and all hell breaks loose. Beeps, error messages,   red X's, BSOD's (Blue Screen of Death) are everywhere.   Or,     even worse, nothing at all. Deadly silence.  What's going on?

The first rule is to stay calm.  Panicking,  yelling,  cursing and throwing things won't help - though it might make you feel better for a second.   But to troubleshoot and resolve the problem,   a clear head is imperative.  Be systematic and approach the problem logically.  The troubleshooting steps below will take a methodical approach to help you figure out why your PC is not booting correctly or not booting at all.   Some of the steps might sound silly to you, but please don't ignore those steps! Every single problem and solution in this article has happened to somebody at some point.  Most of them it takes only a few seconds to check, take the time to do so.

Nothing happens at all

Start with the power.   Is the power cable plugged in correctly into a UPS, surge protector, power strip, or wall outlet?  Is the wall outlet where the power comes from controlled by a wall switch that was turned off accidentally?  Is the power strip turned on?  Is the light on the UPS or power strip on, indicating that it has power?  Is the power cable plugged into the back of the computer correctly?  The socket on the back of the computer where the power cable goes in is part of the power supply in your PC.  Some power supplies have a separate on/off switch,  usually labeled 0/1.   Is that switch turned on?  Check the voltage - most power supplies have a switch to change between 115 and 230V - and make sure it is set correctly.



The power comes on but the monitor stays black

Is the power cable for the monitor plugged in correctly?  Is the monitor turned on?  Is the cable from the video card to the monitor plugged in correctly?  Is the video card seated properly?  Take the cover off of the case,  remove the video card and insert it again properly,  then try again.

If everything is connected and powered up correctly,   push the power button again and pay close attention:   do any lights on the front of the PC blink or light up?  Does the fan in the power supply start whirring?  This could indicate a hardware problem.  Try to think what happened right before the problem started.  Did you add a new piece of hardware?  If so,  it might be faulty or not installed right.  Remove it, then try again.  If everything is fine without the hardware,   try to reinstall and configure the hardware again.  If that does not help,   try exchanging it and see if that corrects the problem.  If the error persists,   narrow it down systematically.   Remove everything but the CPU, memory, keyboard, and video card, then boot again.  Does the error still occur?   If not, then add one piece of hardware and try again.   Repeat until one new component causes the error and you now know who the culprit is.   If yes, then reseat your CPU, memory and video card and try again.  If the error still happens, try replacing the CPU, video card and memory one by one to see if one of them is the troublemaker.  If that does not help, you could have a bad motherboard.  Check the motherboard carefully for any signs of damage.  Also check for shorts, a metallic object could have found its way onto the motherboard, or the motherboard is not installed correctly and touches the case somewhere.

Another possible cause could be incorrect CPU settings.  If you replaced the CPU with a different one, be sure to choose the correct settings for multiplier and bus speed, either via jumpers on the motherboard or a menu in the BIOS.  Consult the manual for the correct setup.  If you can't even get into the BIOS to change the settings, use the jumper on the motherboard to clear the BIOS and load the default settings, it should allow you to boot.



The computer beeps several times

If you hear several beeps from the PC speaker, it means that the computer failed its power-on self test (POST) because a problem was detected.  The POST is a procedure that tests several components such as power, BIOS, CPU, memory, and video. Only if all those tests pass, the computer will then allow the operating system to load.  But if one or more of these tests fail, beeps indicate a problem and the boot process is halted.  These errors are a little more difficult to troubleshoot.

To diagnose the problem, listen to the beeps carefully and write down the sequence.  Is it one long beep?   Is it several short beeps?  How many?  Once you have the beep sequence documented, you need to find out what it means.  What BIOS do you have?  When you first turn on the PC, look at the top of the first screen to find out.  Common BIOS types are Award, Phoenix, and AMI.

Award:

1-2-2

Indicates a video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any additional information

Any other beeps

Most likely a RAM problem

Phoenix:

1-2-2

I

ndicates a video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any additional information

1-2-2-3

BIOS ROM Checksum

1-3-1-1

Test DRAM Refresh

1-3-1-3

Test Keyboard Controller

1-3-4-1

RAM Failure

1-3-4-3

RAM Failure

2-1-2-3

Check ROM Copyright Notice

2-2-3-1

Test for unexpected interrupts

1-3-4-3

RAM Failure


AMI:

1 beep

Refresh failure

2 beeps

Parity error

3 beeps

Base 64K memory failure

4 beeps

Timer not operational

5 beeps

Processor error

6 beeps

8042 - gate A20 failure

7 beeps

Processor exception interrupt error

8 beeps

Display memory read/write failure

9 beeps

ROM checksum error

10 beeps

CMOS shutdown register read/write error

11 beeps

Cache memory bad


If you get beep errors, you should try to think what happened right before they started.  Did you add a new piece of hardware?  If so, it might be faulty or not installed right.  Remove it, then try again.  If everything is fine without the hardware, try to reinstall and configure the hardware again.   If that does not help, try exchanging it and see if that corrects the problem.  If the error persists, narrow it down systematically.  Remove everything but the CPU, memory, keyboard, and video card, then boot again.  Does the error still occur? If not, then add one piece of hardware and try again.   Repeat until one new component causes the error and you now know who the culprit is.  If yes, then reseat your CPU, memory and video card and try again.  If the error still happens, try replacing the CPU, video card and memory one by one to see if one of them is the troublemaker.   If that does not help, you could have a bad motherboard.   Check the motherboard carefully for any signs of damage.   Also check for shorts, a metallic object could have found its way onto the motherboard, or the motherboard is not installed correctly and touches the case somewhere.



The system hangs after the POST

You turned the system on, it went through the POST process, but then it stops, does not continue to boot, and you see no error messages.   This could be caused by several things.   Is the hard drive that you are trying to boot from, partitioned, formatted, and have an active partition?  Use a boot floppy to boot to a DOS prompt, then use the FDISK command to check the partition information on the drive(s).



"Missing Operating System"

You turned the system on, it went through the POST process, but then it stops with an error message "Missing Operating System".  This means that the drive it is trying to boot from has no operating system installed on it.  To make the drive bootable, boot with a floppy disk to a DOS prompt, then type sys C:.  This will copy COMMAND.COM to the C: drive to make it bootable.   This method also helps if COMMAND.COM has been erased or corrupted.

Another possibility is that the operating system is installed, but the master boot record is damaged or has been altered by a virus.  Boot with a Windows startup disk, then run fdisk /mbr.  It will restore a clean master boot record.  Caution: If your system is a dual-boot setup using Linux' LILO boot loader, or NT's boot menu, or a third-party multi-boot utility such as Boot Magic or System Commander, or if you have to use some type of drive overlay software such as EZ-BIOS to compensate for the BIOS' inability to recognize large hard drives, this command will erase this custom setup and you have to recreate it!



"Invalid System Disk"

You turn on the PC, it goes through the POST, then you get the error "Invalid Disk. Replace the disk and and then hit any key."  First,   check your floppy drive.  Is there a floppy disk in the drive?   Remove it and hit a key on your keyboard and see if it boots now.  If the floppy drive is empty and you still get this error, it means that the drive you're trying to boot from, does not have system files on it.



Hard drive is not detected during POST

Check your hard drive first and make sure that the hard drive is properly connected.  Is the power cable plugged securely into the correct plug?  Is the data/ribbon cable connected correctly?  Make sure that the red line on the ribbon cable is in line with the Pin 1 markings on the IDE controller on the hard drive and on the hard drive connector.   Make sure that the hard drive is jumpered correctly.   If you have SCSI drives, make sure they are terminated properly and that you assigned the ID numbers correctly and uniquely.  Also, check the BIOS and see how it is set up to deal with hard drives.  Did you enter the settings for the drive manually?   Try setting the BIOS to auto-detect and let it find and identify the drive(s) automatically.



Windows does not load automatically

Your PC powers up correctly, it passes the POST, all drives are detected correctly, but Windows does not load.  Instead you only see a DOS prompt.   The reason for this could be that the Windows directory cannot be found or accessed.  Boot to a DOS prompt with a Windows startup disk.  When you're at a DOS prompt, make sure you're at the C:\ prompt.  Then type attrib -s -h -r msdos.sys and hit Enter to remove the system, hidden, and read-only attributes for this file.  Now type edit msdos.sys and hit Enter.   In the resulting window, look for the section titled [Paths] and see if it has the lines WinDir=C:\Windows and WinBootDir=C:\Windows and make sure that the path after the '=' sign corresponds with wherever Windows is installed.[Paths] If those lines are not present for some twisted reason, add them manually as follows:

[Paths]
WinDir=C:\Windows
WinBootDir=C:\Windows

After making the necessary corrections, save the file and exit the editor.  Now reset the correct attributes for the file by typing attrib +s +h +r msdos.sys and hit Enter.   Now reboot and see if it now boots correctly into Windows.



Windows always displays the boot menu

Your PC powers up correctly, it passes the POST, all drives are detected correctly, but Windows does not load automatically.  Instead you see a boot menu giving you different boot options.  To correct this in Windows 98, go to Start/Run, type msconfig and click OK.  In the resulting window, click on the General tab, click the Advanced button and deselect Enable Startup Menu.

Alternatively, you can also change this manually from a command prompt.   Boot to a DOS prompt with a Windows startup disk.  When you're at a DOS prompt, make sure you're at the C:\ prompt.  Then type attrib -s -h -r msdos.sys and hit Enter to remove the system, hidden, and read-only attributes for this file.  Now type edit msdos.sys and hit Enter.  In the resulting window, look for the section titled [Options].  This section might contain the line BootMenu=1. Change the '1' to a '0', save the file and exit the editor.  Now reset the correct attributes for the file by typing attrib +s +h +r msdos.sys and hit Enter.  Now reboot and see if it now boots automatically into Windows.

Yet another way of changing these options are via TweakUI.   Under the Boot tab in TweakUI you will find an option to active or deactivate the boot menu, as well as changing the boot menu delay.



"Cannot find WIN.COM, unable to continue loading Windows"

Your PC powers up correctly, it passes the POST, all drives are detected correctly, but Windows does not load automatically.  Instead you see an error message "Cannot find WIN.COM, unable to continue loading Windows".  Check to see if WIN.COM is still present on the hard drive.  It should be located in the C:\Windows folder.   If it was accidentally renamed and you can identify the file, name it back to WIN.COM and reboot.  If the file was deleted and you are not able to restore it, reinstall Windows over itself.  It will recreate all the system files including WIN.COM while retaining all the settings from your existing Windows installation.



"Cannot find a file that may be needed to run Windows"

Your PC powers up correctly, it passes the POST, all drives are detected correctly, but Windows does not load automatically. Instead you see the following error message:

Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a Windows application.  The Windows registry or SYSTEM.INI file refers to this device file, but the device file no longer exists.

If you deleted this file on purpose, try uninstalling the associated application using its uninstall or setup program.  If you still want to use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling that application to replace the missing file. (filename)



Press a key to continue

This happens when a Windows system file is renamed or deleted by accident.  Most importantly,  when you see this screen,  stop and write down the name of the file in question.  Then push a key and see if Windows will continue to load after all, often it will.  To correct the problem, you need to extract a copy of the missing file from the Windows Cab files.  If you have Windows 98, this can be done pretty easily if you can still get into Windows with a command called System File Checker, or short SFC.  If you cannot get into Windows anymore or don't have Windows 98, you need to use the Extract command from the DOS prompt.



Registry Errors

Your PC powers up correctly, it passes the POST, all drives are detected correctly, but Windows does not load automatically.

Instead you see an error message about a problem with your registry.  This can happen either when the registry was corrupted by a bad software installation, or if one of the registry files was accidentally deleted.  Windows 98 makes it pretty easy to restore a good copy of the registry.  If it encounters an error, it will usually just inform you of the error and then restart, restore a previous version of the registry and you're back in business.

If you run into problems with this method, restart your computer and hold down the Control (Ctrl) key during the boot process until you see the boot menu.  Choose option #5 to boot to the Command Prompt Only.   At the DOS prompt, type in scanreg /restore.  You will be presented with a list of previous registry backups.  Select the one that you believe to be error-free and restore it.   When this process it is done, you'll be prompted to restart and Windows should boot correctly now.



Summary

As you can see, most boot problems can be corrected relatively easy.  Stay calm, approach the problem systematically, work your way through this check list, and chances are that you will be back in business earlier than you expected.

However to save you time and money and stop yourself pulling your hair out, Print out this article and keep it in a safe place for future reference.



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