Computer fails to boot up after power outage.

Richard59 January 7, 2011 at 19:03:40

Do you have an XP Install CD? If so boot up to it and try to enter R for Recovery console. It should then detect and ask you to log in with admin password. At the commandprompt enter the following commands in turn answer Y at the prompts fixboot enter >answer Y fixmbr enter answer Y When finished remove the CD and reboot. If this does not fix the problem then your next port of call is a repair install. Boot to the install CD. Go past the first R prompt and make as if to install windows. Setup will detect your existing operating system and ask if you wish to REPAIR it. Press R for repair. Goin' Fishin' (Some day)

guest January 7, 2011 at 21:32:38

Thanks for your help. I tried your first suggestion and I got as far as the Recovery console. I'd pressed r and it came up with a screen saying it couldn't detect any hard drives so setup had been aborted. Any idea where I go from here? guest

Richard59 January 8, 2011 at 00:27:51

I think that means your hard drive is SATA and XP setup cannot recognize it without additional drivers. When you boot up the CD it should give an initial prompt to press F6 to load drivers. This is where you need to do that. Does your system have a floppy drive? Do you have a motherboard drivers disk that contains SATA controller drivers? Goin' Fishin' (Some day)

guest January 8, 2011 at 22:59:38

Yes, you're right, it is SATA. That's a real relief. I was thinking the power outage had caused a surge that burnt out some essential component. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. At this stage I'm still trying to track down the required floppy disk. guest

guest January 8, 2011 at 23:38:08

Ok, not going too badly so far. I'm in the recovery console and I got to the fixmbr stage, but haven't said yes yet. I'm getting a message saying: This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record. ...paraphrasing... the world will end if you screw this up, do you really want to continue? Should I be concerned? Is it ok to continue? guest

Richard59 January 8, 2011 at 23:42:05

I have seen that message on my system when using the command and have always answered Y without dire consequences. Goin' Fishin' (Some day)

guest January 9, 2011 at 00:09:38

Ok. Done it. Your instructions above say "When finished remove the CD and reboot." Is there a way to exit this thing or do I just go for the restart button? guest

guest January 9, 2011 at 00:27:47

Never mind. I got it. Didn't help though. Still having the same issues. I'll try a repair reinstall now. guest

guest January 9, 2011 at 06:54:30

Completed the repair reinstall, but with tons of errors. Didn't help that I never did manage to find my floppy disk for the drivers. I had to create my own by going to the website for my motherboard and taking an educated guess at the drivers I needed. Restarted and managed to log in. Too many things aren't working though. I can't access either the internet or the network, and I really want to prioritise this so I can create an external backup. If I can get this done then I'm willing to cut my losses and do a format reinstall. How can I get these up and running? Alternatively, can you suggest any other methods for transferring my files to an external hard drive? I have access to computers that have access to it. Is it possible to attach the hard drive to them to achieve this, and without any ill effects? guest

guest January 31, 2011 at 06:46:04

Never did find out exactly how this happened, but nothing could get my computer working again. Since I managed to get it working sufficiently to login I was able to do a backup via USB transfers (only had a 256Mb one available, which was painful). Once that was done I cut my losses and did a format reinstall, and everything's good now. guest

Similar problem with a big twist. After power outage the computer has vertical dashed lines on the screens and the Windows startup screen is blurred. It goes through a couple of wait lines then hangs, then goes to a blank screen with the vertical dashed lines and then after a minute or so the screen goes off. HD light does a periodic flash but nothing happens. I'm running Windows XP Pro. Here's the really strange part - For backup I use a couple of identical cloned disks. When I boot from either one of the cloned disks (normal disk drive disconnected) they both do exactly the same thing. I've done the fixmbr to no avail. Finally did the Windows "R" and it install Windows again. This did allow for everything to start up, but the first startup screen still has the lines in it. IF I continue with this route on my original disk I'll have LOTS of work to get it all working properly again - what with networking and everything else. What could the Windows installation have done to make it boot up again? Lee

To stop a power outage in the future, you could get a UPS. BoxUPS do some good cheap ones. www.boxups.co.uk Hope that helps!

Troubleshooting this problem is quite easy and for that you need the operating system disk. If you have it, then it’s cool. Let’s start it right now and fix the problem and good to be following the steps. http://www.techyv.com/questions/my-...