Member Avatar for Garth Rocket

My PC has ceased to function and will not boot.

Config:MSI m/b, Intel 2.3Ghz CPU, 512Mb RAM,

The machine is about 5 years old and it had been working fine, and I had left it on hibernate. We had a couple of power cuts lasting no more than 1 second each.

Later (about 45 mins) I found the PC trying to re-start. It would detect the HD, and RAM, load the screen to enter safe mode, normal start-up, start with/without network support etc.

The XP splash screen would come up with the loading bar but it would then crash and restart the sequence.

I powered off , isolated it from the mains and this morning tried to re-boot.

It now only comes up with the MSI energy saver logo, there are random columns on screen - graphics card playing up (?) but nothing else - no beebs - nothing.

I suspect the HD which was replaced 18 months ago, has gone tits-up or there is a serious fault with the motherboard.

Any other ideas?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

Dani AI

Generated

A concise diagnostic flow that complements , and without repeating earlier steps. Start with non‑destructive checks to preserve data and separate hardware faults from Windows corruption.

Visually inspect the board (power off, unplug, wait): look for bulging or leaking capacitors, scorch marks, or a burnt smell. Verify front-panel speaker is connected (no beeps can be a missing speaker as well as a non‑POSTing system). Swap or reseat video cable/monitor and try onboard video or a spare GPU to confirm the column artifacts are video hardware related. Test RAM by booting with one stick at a time and run a bootable memory test (MemTest86) if POST gets that far.

Isolate power and storage next: disconnect all non‑essential drives and PCI cards and attempt POST with minimum components. If motherboard/PSU is suspect, a known‑good PSU swap is a fast non‑destructive check. Before running any repair that writes to disk, use a Linux live CD/USB or a rescue boot disk to copy important files off the drive. If Windows files are suspected (hibernation file or filesystem damage), the XP Recovery Console or a rescue environment can be used to run disk checks and remove a corrupt hibernation file:

# from XP Recovery Console or equivalent rescue shell
chkdsk /r
del C:\hiberfil.sys
fixboot
fixmbr

Safety note: always unplug mains and ground yourself before working inside the case. If visible capacitor damage or PSU failure is confirmed, replacing the PSU and/or motherboard is the usual remedy for a 5‑year old system; data recovery should be done first if the drive is accessible.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

was it plugged into a serge protector ! ,does it have a dialup modem in use ,if yes remove it as it could have got the power serge,or the motherboard may have taken the hit .
try hitting f8 on bootup to see if it will give options for safe it go to safe mode ,go to my computer and right click on the hard drive icon /properties and tools ,and error check to set it to do a chkdsk / fix errors on reboot .

Member Avatar for jbennet

yeah sounds like a corrupted hibernate file - use safe mode

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