"Chad Harris" wrote in message
...
D. Currie--

I think your suggestion about display and the monitor to Debbie is a very
good one well worth considering. The problem is we're not sure what's
happening on that box and we may never know.


With luck, they've found someone to help, as it's a problem that would be a
lot easier hands-on.


You wrote:

"The problem with a cut-and-paste post with the complexity of yours is
that
while some of it may be completely on target for a given situation, other
parts won't apply at all, and may confuse the person getting the message
or
convince them that you didn't read their message and can't possibly have a
useful answer, thus they'll ignore the good advice given."

That's why no cookie cutter cut and pastes are ever launched from me.


I was responding to your comment that you'd have something to paste to help
the next person. If that's not what you meant, that's the way I read it. I
have no idea if you cut and paste or not, I'm just responding to what you
wrote.


I don't think it's that complex a situation.


No, but it was an extremely complex answer for someone with few computer
skills. I was responding to the complexity of the answer, not on the
complexitiy of the problem. For someone who knows what they're doing,
changing the bios to boot from CD or running a repair install of WIndows is
not a big effort. For someone who's in new territory, just getting into the
bios and figuring out how to navigate it can be a daunting task.


When you can't boot to
Windows, and you're dealiing with an NTFS File System or a Win-FS file
system in the next Windows OS, you don't have a wide panopoly of options.
There are actually relatively few simple ones.


I can think of dozens of reasons why a computer might not get all the way
into Windows. Not all of them are software-related. A bad stick of ram, for
instance, can do some pretty interesting things.


Here though, I agree we just
don't know what the dark screen means. It may well be a monitor problem
or bios triggered problem.

In addition to cutting and pasting, I delete and write the posts and
tailor them to the situation. Mosf of them are on the fly, because I
either can't get to folders with stashed references or it's just faster
for me to nail the article by searching. I tend to want to respond to an
"I can't get to Windows--I'm gonna lose my data and settings help!!!!!--(I
may not have backed up adequately)" type post and I get about 100%
feedback on them and lately that hasn't been the case that they are
convinced I didn't read their message and can't possibly give a useful
answer and will ignore. That's not what the tone of the feedback has been
on the "can't boot to Windows."


You seem to be taking this all a little too seriously and perhaps
misunderstanding what I'm saying. I was merely pointing out that when a
person says they get a black screen "after the first screen" whatever that
might be, and they can't get into Windows any which way, and your response
includes instructions to download and install Belarc so they can figure out
what their bios is, they may think that you haven't fully read their post.

There's nothing wrong with telling someone about Belarc or suggesting that
it's useful for gathering information, but in this instance, it doesn't
apply.


I figure the reason I learned to write was not to shove cookie cutter "one
size fits all" solutions at people. However, I think everyone who tries
to help on the usenet/groups/forums stashes posts with links they can
borrow so they don't have to go throught the time consuming painstaking
search trying to find the system restore, system file checker, or
recovery console link or KB, when all of us are trying to help with the
demands and pressures of making a living.

Best,

Chad Harris
_________________________________________________


There's certainly nothing wrong with having stock answers available if the
situation applies.