[RESOLVED] Computer will not boot

Hi All, ,,,,,,,,,, My Daughter's Windows 7 computer with Home Premium installed has a boot problem. This is a Compaq about one and a half years old. Turning the computer on results in the Compaq screen withe the following information: F10=Setup----F11=System Recovery----Esc=Boot Menu--- F9=Diagnostics. Clicking any of these keys does nothing. The Compaq screen is as far as the boot goes.

My daughter would prefer not to reinstall Windows and lose everything she has installed. Since I can't get to any working space, I'm stymied I should mention that CDs are recognized. Any suggestions to help her through me will be appreciated.

I think you need to run the hard drive maker's diagnostic utility on that hard drive. Download this and burn it to CD, it has all the hard drive diagnostic utilities plus many more besides. You don't need to boot into Windows to run them, just boot up with the CD in the drive, select the utility that you want and it will run:

Ultimate Boot CD

If you aren't sure of the make of drive that is installed use the Seagate Seatools as it will work with any make of drive. You may find these instructions helpful for burning the UBCD .iso file to disc:

How can I write (burn) ISO files to CD or DVD?

SupeSparks, Thanks you for your reply. I do not know the mfg. of the hard drive so I tried to install Seagate Seatools but as I neared the end the install the wizard kept me in a loop of Next to Back asking for a folder name. I provided a location and folder name but could not get out of the loop. The program was never installed.

I had an Ultimate Boot CD but it kept showing warning messages for whichever disk supplier I tried. Since I'm trying not to mess up my daughter's computer more than it is, I backed off and will try to get the Seagate program somehow.

If you have any other suggestions, I would like to hear them. Thanks again,

Are you booting up with the cd in the cd drive? You shouldn't be running this via windows.

If you've burned the .iso file the right way, you should have a bootable cd. Make sure your computer is set to boot from the cd/dvd drive, with your newly made disk in the drive. Restart your system. You do not need to install anything. The hard drive diagnostic software is on the disk.

Photolady, ..... I burned the Seagate Seatools program to a CD and used it in the problem computer. The program booted up and I used the Short Test and the Long Test. Each passed. Any other suggestions that I could try?

Puzzling. Pressing any of the keys mentioned in your first post does absolutely nothing, but yet you were apparently able to use at least a few keys to select the two different hard drive tests?

Was a liquid of some type spilled along the top row of keys on keyboard and either has them gummed up somehow (no electrical contact) or possibly shorted some of them out?

If this is the case, no amount of fiddling around with any software is going to fix the problem. Someone is either going to have to try and disassemble the keyboard and clean it up, or replace it. . . . All the while looking for, and hoping that, the liquid didn't somehow get down through the keyboard and short out something else down on the motherboard. :(

SpywareDr .......... You may have misunderstood my reference to keys. What i said was that clicking on the F10, F11, Esc, and F9 keys had no effect. I did install another keyboard and got similar results, nothing. Thank you for your interest. Meanwhile I'm trying to find some way to get inside this computer. .

Try running Memtest86 and Windows Memory Diagnostic utilities from the UBCD disc.

SuperSparks, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I ran Memtest86 for two hours and Windows Memory Diagnostics for one hour with no errors. I have a feeling based on something I saw in trying various boot disks, that the C: drive is lacking content, Unfortunately I haven't been able to reproduce that condition So let me approach a solution from another direction.

The hard disk is broken down into four partitions with the Windows 7 operating system on the C: partition. Can I wipe (format) this drive and them reinstall Windows 7 here? Can there be a conflict between 32 bit and 64 bit? I'm not sure which my Daughter's has and wonder about this condition on the data on the other partitions. Thank you again for your continued support.

Yes, you can certainly try reinstalling Win7, it sounds like a good plan at this juncture.

There will not be any conflict bnetween 32-bit and 64-bit. If you have a choice of which to re-install, and the PC has 4GB of memory or more, then install 64-bit, there are no downsides to doing so.

With Win7, you should get an option to repair the current install if possible. If going 64bit is your decision, go past that to the new install option; the drive will be formatted by Windows at that point.

shrdlu --
Did you try booting from your Win7 disk?

Hi All, ............... I reinstalled Window 7and that apparently solved the booting problem. Now, however, the start process shows two Windows 7 and only one is useful in presenting the contents of the other partitions. In the past---on another system---I was able to remove one the operating systems (Dual Boot?) and I can't remember the steps that I took. If I can remove the unwanted Win7 from the start process, I'll call this problem resolved.

Messing with the boot files has been made very complex since WinXP :( The best thing to do is to download and use this excellent freeware utility:

Easy BCD

SuperSparks, ............. Is your latest post (14) in reply to my latest reply (13)? I have installed Easy BCD but hesitate to use it until you clarify. Thanks again.

Yes it is in reply to Post #13.

Hi All, ............. After reinstalling Windows 7 on one of the partitions, I now can get past that Compaq screen and my daughter is happy with the results. She now can get to the contents in the other partitions.

To me the results are not exactly the way I want the computer set up but this is a different problem which I wont go into here. To All who took the time to offer suggestions, my daughter and I thank you very much.

You're very welcome, I'm glad you got it sorted out in the end :)