computer won't boot into windows

[Chris Wales]

Sorry if this is a repost, but I can't see original.

I'm running Windows XP Pro on Abit TH7 with 1700Ghz Pentium 4.
For a long time I've been having random reboots (one or twice a day) which
seemed to be connected with overheating, ie. problem reduced when a fan is
directed at processor. Recently, problem has become more frequent.
However, I was called out urgently yesterday and left PC on by mistake. When
I returned, it had crashed and tried to restart but had got stuck on the
black screen just before the desktop is loaded, ie. the screen after the
moving bar logo. I tried rebooting but it got stuck there again. The cursor
works but screen is black and keyboard won't work. I tried rebooting in
safe mode but same happens. gets stuck just before desktop loaded.

It also won't let me boot from CD Rom - just sits there at the point where
you have to press a key to boot from CD Rom.

Do you think overheating has caused processor damage? Would anything else
be damaged, ie. hard drive, cd rom etc.? Anyone got any suggestions or is
it time to buy new?

Thanks for any help in advance.

[Alex Nichol]

Chris Wales wrote:

>
>It also won't let me boot from CD Rom - just sits there at the point where
>you have to press a key to boot from CD Rom.
>
>Do you think overheating has caused processor damage? Would anything else
>be damaged, ie. hard drive, cd rom etc.? Anyone got any suggestions or is
>it time to buy new?

It sounds like CPU damage. That may also have had side effects on the
motherboard, but is unlikely to have gone further than that. Or it
*may* have resulted in taking the Power supply out, with the CPU still
usable (Are there any signs of life from drives when you switch on? )

--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows - File Systems)
Bournemouth, U.K.

[Chris Wales]

> It sounds like CPU damage. That may also have had side effects on the
> motherboard, but is unlikely to have gone further than that. Or it
> *may* have resulted in taking the Power supply out, with the CPU still
> usable (Are there any signs of life from drives when you switch on? )
>
> --
> Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows - File Systems)
> Bournemouth, U.K.


All the drive LEDs flash when booting as normal, it's just that it won't go
any further than the black screen. Even the arrow cursor works on the black
screen but that's as far as it gets whether I boot in normal mode or safe
mode. I have tried to reinstall but even though the BIOS is set to boot
CD-ROM, it spins for a while and then just dies. Tried downloading floppy
boot disk and changing the BIOS to boot from floppy and it just ignores the
floppy even though the LED flashes and goes straight into the options
screen. I really do think it must be processor damage but I'm amazed it
gets as far into windows as it does.

Thanks for your help.

Chris