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Hard drive or motherboard problem?

Running Windows XP
Hey, i'm new here and need some help with my computer.:)
I setted my computer to start up automatically when I turn on the power switch in BIOS and now when I turn my switch on it wont start. It will only start when I turn the switch on and press the power button. That's not the problem though, just what happens since the real problem started. The real problem is when I turn on my computer nothing happens except the fans turns on and I hear my 2 CD drives spinning the CDS around (which they will open up when I press the open button; they work.) I know that my power supply is working properly but not sure weather its my motherboard or harddrive. The moniter wont show anything and I don't hear anything from my speakers. I tried the harddrive on this computer and it will show the windows loading screen (not sign in screen) but right after it loads a blue screen appears with alot of text for a about a few split seconds and restarts. When I run the computer without the hard drive or with a blank harddrive nothing happens. Is there a possible way to fix this? I appreciate your time for reading this thread.

Re: Hard drive or motherboard problem?

I AM VERY SORRY ABOUT A MISTAKE. When I turn on my computer it just prompts me which mode I want to choose. When I choose safe mode it shows the things its loading up then it shows the blue screen with text. In normal mode it does NOT show the windows loading screen but goes straight to the blue screen.

Re: Hard drive or motherboard problem?

Well, this shouldn't be too hard to solve (or at least figure out what the problem is), provided that you have another computer at your disposal. First, you should know how to swap a hard drive, because this is what you'll have to do.

1. Stick the hard drive in another machine, and see if you can boot the machine with the old hard drive (the one that's in your current computer right now).
2. If it boots perfectly, and with no error messages whatsoever, this means that you most likely have a serious hardware problem other than the hard drive (such as the motherboard).
3. If it still boots with errors, either the hard drive itself is shot or the data on it is corrupted. Basically, put 2 hard drives in the secondary computer, boot off the original hard drive, and back up any important data. Next, run a Scandisk on the hard drive that was in your current computer, and see if it comes up with any hardware or software related problems.

If the hard disk is alright, but the data is corrupted, you will need to reformat your hard drive. If the hard drive itself is bad, you will need to buy a new one. 100GB hard drives are relatively cheap, so don't get a lousy one (Seagate is a good company).

Hope this helps

Re: Hard drive or motherboard problem?

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeprogrammer

Thanks for the reply, well the hard drive is actually a seagate :D But no hard drive works on the computer :( Theres just a blank black screen on the screen but thats just means that the moniter isn't recieving signal. I think that both the motherboard and the hard drive is broken but my keyboard caps, numlock, and mem. light flashes when I turn on the power button on my power supply or my electric switch to my room that gives power to my computer. Also when I plug in the ethernet cable to the computer the light where it's connected to.

Re: Hard drive or motherboard problem?

Now, when I turn on my computer theres no loading screen (still the same) but turns off 3-5 seconds after. No beeps or siren. Just fans working and CD drives working.