As far as Debbie and her friend who haven't posted anything further than
their frantic plea, they can probably either

1) Remeber the firmware screen key they looked at a few thousand times when
they booted to tell you how to get into the bios setup
2) Have access to an additional computer.

Many people in a no boot situation are inconvenienced when they can't use
another computer because some of the instruction they might want or need is
on the web. That's an understood given. But if they don't remember what
key to press or who makes their bios, than Everest, Belarc, SiSoft Sandra,
or "msinfo 32" in the run box will give it to them.

If the "poor girl" is confused my man, she could post. I haven't seen a
scintilla from her. That happens about 10% of the time. Often someone
makes a panicked plea for help and then throws their box in the car and runs
to a place to get it "fixed." The "poor girl" didn't have the courtesy to
post more information than she posted and she got useful information to try.
If she has a hardware problem, she's not going to be the one fixing it and
none of the information is going to cause a setback for a hardware problem I
gave. I saw 35 explanation points and a plea for help, and my links were on
point and similar links and posts have helped a lot of people. Whether a
self appointed critic like you sits back or stands on your head, one thing
is certain--you're good at taking pot shots, but have nothing to offer in
the way of substantive and constructive suggestions for a problem situation.

I've asked a few pertinent questions for clarification on these groups a few
thousand times, and that takes the person posting to give more information.
I've also seen a lot of worthless posts that will primly, arrogantly and
imperiously ask one small question instead of posting what will have a high
percentage yield in getting back to Windows.

There are few people that don't appreciate that hardware problems of all
stripes can cause what may be going on here with the nebulous description,
but a high percent of time a repair/in place upgrade will remedy the
problem.

"Also we have an egotistical "I want you to" reply from Chad, with advice
ranging from a simple 'try hitting this key' to a complete
Repair/Reinstall."

There was nothing egoticstical; there was no "I want you to" whatever the
hell that means, and there was not advice that said "try hitting this key
anywhere.

"I'll sit back a bit on this one." I think you've perfected the art of
sitting back. You're doing it well.

You seem to have perfected sitting back a whole lot; offering nothing of
value that the poster could have used, and self-appointing yourself a
posting critique for this group.

It is easy to sit back which is why you do it, and take pot shots at efforts
to help, sling names like egotistical and offer not one thing of value that
would help anyone solve a problem.

If being the self appointed critique floats your boat, go for it.

Chad Harris




"johnf" wrote in message
...
Exactly. It was the Belarc advice that prompted me to reply.
We have a situation here of an apparently inacessible PC, at least as far as
Debbie & her friend are concerned.

Also we have an egotistical "I want you to" reply from Chad, with advice
ranging from a simple 'try hitting this key' to a complete Repair/Reinstall.

It's quite apparent from what he said that he doesn't fully understand what
Debbie's trying to say, so the obvious thing would be is just to ask a
couple of pertinent questions to get some clarification, instead of
surmising, going through all the fixes he thinks he knows and probably now
has completely confused the poor girl.

I'll sit back a bit on this one until I see Debbie's response & also how Mr.
("Lay it on me/The fat lady ain't done sung/fer sure") Harris sorts it out.

--

johnf

"Chad Harris" wrote in message
...
What do you do when *you can't get into Safe Mode John*? Lay it on me.
Because if that box will turn on, she might be able to change her bios
order to boot from a CD."Debbie can't even get into Safemode!" *So
what she can't get into Safe Mode?* The fat lady ain't done sung
because of that piece of info--or has she for you when that
happens?What do you do when *you can't get into Safe Mode John*? Lay
it on me. Until I know "fer sure", I can't assume that the box won't
turn on, nor that the advice I gave her isn't viable.

People can't get into safe mode but can recover a high percent of the
time. See:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Ht...ie=UTF-8&hl=en

I think the point is whether she can boot from the CD or she has a dead
box--whether there is a software problem that can be repaired or a
hardware problem where she and her friend will have to summon help. I
don't know for certain, because I'm not in Debbieland right now. That's
*why we have these groups John*. Until we know whether she can
turn the box on and see a firmware or POST screen and enter the bios,
then boot from the CD--the fact that she sees a blank screen that's
blue or dark gray or black doesn't rule that out. I've seen plenty of
"blank screens" where you pushed the button, got into bios setup,
changed the boot order, and booted from a CD of some type and repaired
the OS. I've been reading posts like hers for years, and much of the time
restoration was possible via a repair or parallel install and even
rarely and I mean rarely via Last Known Good, and a sketchy post like
that may mean a wide gamut of things from hardware failure to the
possibility that if she hard button starts, she can boot from the CD. I
don't know if nothing will come up when she tries to manually
restart her friend's computer or not. I'm not Carnack the Magician,
and I can only prompt people for more information they should have
given me in the first place. I see scores of posts on these groups where
the version of Office or
flavor of the OS is needed and never given not to mention other
relevant pieces of history?

BTW, what does "can't get into Safe Mode" mean to you? I'd be really
interested. It certainly doesn't mean that she's never going to see
Windows on that machine does it my man? Take a look at some recent
posts I've helped with on the XP General group?

Is there a point I'm missing in can't get up to Safe Mode? How about
an inplace upgrade booting from the CD? We don't really know if her
box is a door stop at this point or she still has some booting
ability, and after posting 35 or so exclamation points since 5:34AM
Debbie hasn't favored us with more helpful information.

The worst that could happen is that she tries every which way to
Christmas to tap to the bios setup and can't and then gets a "hands
on" help. But until then, my man, we don't know.

Would you assume everytime a doctor sees an isoelectric EKG on a
street or in a hospital room or a living room that the person is just
dead and non-resuscible, or that there might be moves that can get
things back to normal--or that it might even be fine fib masking as a
straight line? If a person is lying fairly still does that mean
they're dead--leave them alone?

I don't know whether that box will turn on and you don't either--and I
can't press the button for her.

I don't know whether she has an XP CD or her friend does or her
friend's friend does? I can only work with the hand that's dealt me. If
she does get some action out of the box, maybe I'll here from her. Some
people post and then decide to throw the box in their car and
take it some where. I can only work with what I see.

She and some other people also have a decent blue print for what to try
when they can't get into Safe Mode, and I have something I can paste to
help the next person, when in a few hours or days from now someone else
can't get into safe mode but can boot from the CD.

Best,

Chad Harris


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.
In this case, given the lack of clarity in the original question, an
attempt to get back into the bios or to boot from the CD make sense.
But the suggestion to download and run belarc to determine the bios is
a bit of a problem, as the poster isn't getting into Windows to be able
to run the program. Some people will key in on that bit of advice and
assume that you haven't read the question at all and are just posting
general repair advice that's not targeted at the particular problem at
hand.