Computer help needed.

[Sherman]

Okay, I'm just going to post this conversation of me and Conner, it's the fastest way and I really need help.

Sky says:

so when you start up the comp, right? it goes to the black screen where it shows sytem information etc

Sky says:

right after that

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

Yea

Sky says:

I get a black screen with a _ blinking on it

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

Ah

Sky says:

and usually I can press F76 and F7 fast and bring it up

Sky says:

but now it's not

Sky says:

it's always said

Sky says:

"Insert boot disk" or something

Sky says:

in a longer form

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

Ah...

Sky says:

and I would guess that's my window's install disk

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

Well, I don't know the solution, but I think it wants you to reinstall...

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

*GULP*

Sky says:

would that delete everything

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

Well, yea really...

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

Tried pressing any keys?

Sky says:

yeah

Sky says:

same message

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

Aww

Sky says:

see, what I did

Sky says:

I put in my gfx card

Sky says:

didn't pull up

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

Ah?

Sky says:

put the disk in

Sky says:

(probably not a good idea, I did it once and it actually worked)

Sky says:

it asked me if I wanted to do something

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

oh

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

ROFL

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

sorry

Sky says:

and I said no, in fear of deletion of somethign..

Sky says:

and I quit out of that

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

Can you remember what it said?

Sky says:

and after that it just shat out on me

Sky says:

no ):

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

Oh

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

*Sigh*

Sky says:

my p2 with 64mb of ram runs better than this pos.

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

xD

..>..Connor..<..Loves..>..Rachel..<. - A fucking lot! says:

So has this started happening since you put the gfx card in?

Sky says:

yeah

Sky says:

basically

The disk being windows installation disk, which probably wasn't the best idea. Is there a way to enter safe mode etc?

[Thomas.]

To my mother (who is an IT expert) it sounds like your hard disk is failing.

If you get none system disk or disk error then the hard disk has crashed. You could try a disk format but that will erase the entire disk. You will lose data.

[Urbanoutlaw]

I'm guessing you're on another machine right now.

Tried weeding through the above text, I presume your machine had a major failure & you need to reinstall Windows.

The only thing I can think of is that I hope you are running a boot drive (C:) & a data drive (D: or similar). Catch up in DS

Random topic.

[Sherman]

It's done this since I've had the computer - are you telling me it was faulty to begin with? And what button is safe mode?

[Urbanoutlaw]

I think "Safe Mode" is an option you can select w/ arrow keys & press ENTER. If it's done that from day one, it's probably a

hardware problem. Open the case (after you unplug the power) & smell for something burnt, look for lose connections etc.

I tried to contact someone that can help, am waiting to hear back

[Sherman]

Okay, I've got it. Apparently it was a loose connection to the HDD itself. I don't get the screen or the blinking _ anymore. Thank you TFY's mother for suggesting that. All is good, now I just need to work up enough balls to redo the gfx card and make sure the connect's are RIGHT.

[Gerard]

Sky says:

I get a black screen with a _ blinking on it

That means it can't find anything to boot from, such as a bootable CD or hard drive. Usually it blinks for such a short time you don't notice, then it loads the first device it finds in the boot order. Because it isn't booting, it just can't find your hard drive atm, or it isn't working.

Since you've just been fiddling around inside the computer today, you probably just knocked out the cable to the hard drive. Check that. If the hard drive doesn't work, or if it spins and nothing happens, it might actually be broken.

Go into BIOS (Del or F2 or whatever, before the blink) you should be able to see what drives are connected. Your hard drive will be in that list if it's working. If it isn't in the list and you're sure the cables are in, check whether the hard drive spins and vibrates when it's turned on. If it doesn't vibrate, power cable is loose. If it does vibrate, data cable (the wide flat one) is loose.

In a quicker way of doing that (that might not work) is if you press F8 loads of times before the blinking underscore, that gives you a list of which devices you want to boot from. If HDD is in that list, it might mean it is connected. If it isn't there, you know it isn't connected.