HELP? Can Not Start windows , harware or configuration problem ~

[Brian Weick]

I have a question for all you PC teckies out here ~
My friend has a PC desktop , running windows XP and everything has been working fine- then last night , he gets this error -

"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.

Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.

Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."


He can't even run the PC in safe mode, restore- any of the other options that come up on the screen?


He is just getting into the PC world and the WWW - so I am thinking he may have done something without realizing possibly, but I don't know. What could be the problem here- I was thinking his read arm on the hard drive landed on the disk and crashed the system? usually the LED indicators for the hard drive are yellow when operating ,he told me they were red in color sporadically when starting and then go back to yellow, it also changes the power button on the PC from the usual blue to yellow which tells me that it went into hibernation mode- I can't seem to narrow this one down and usually I am pretty good at solving certain PC issues.

Any help would be greatly appreciated- he's very frustrated, been there , done that- no fun-
thank you
Brian

[Joe Pelonio]

If he can find it, he should be able to boot from the original system disc or restore disc. Then the system will tell him if the hard drive is not available.

I have had this happen where somehow the drive was corrupted but not dead, and was able to reformat and reinstall windows. Unfortunately all data is lost and hopefully he would have backups, and original discs for all program software.

[Brian Weick]

Joe,
the red dot comes up on the led indicator for the hard drive and yellow- usually goes yellow back and forth - there are 2 led indicators.
any suggestions~

[Chuck Wintle]

Brian,

Can your friend boot from the Windows XP cd? Can he go through to the repair console? To me it sounds like the hard drive has failed. But as you say he may have done something inadvertently and messed things up.

If it was me I would run a diagnostic on the hard drive and if if it came up clean then wipe the drive and reinstall windows.

[Brian Weick]

over the phone I directed him to do just that- insert the windows XP disk and press R after all the set up files have gone through- not even responding to that- it's as if it doesn't recognize the disk- all this is telling me between the Red dot on the hard drive indicator and not booting from the CD drive is that we have a crash on our hands- unfortunately. this was my old SONY Pentium III 1000 - great machine and it is 9 years old - with a TV card /DVD burner - 2 bays - I just sold it to him 2 weeks ago for 200 and I feel bad that this happened to him- but ka-ka happens - then again he had no virus protection at all- nothing ~ and he was going all over the place on the net- and he called me and told me that he was having some funny things happening to his computer. I told him from the beginning to get some ant virus/spam - the hole nine yards-. So I went with him and got "Spy doctor" the full suite and it found 149 infections and several "Trojans" labeled severe- now it removed them - but I was told that these viruses or "Trojans" can even cause hard drive failure- is this true?
Brian

[patrick anderson]

This may be a fix for you as I've had it happen before. It was a corrupt ini file

If you have a spare hard drive with a windows installation on it, fit it to the computer and use connect the one that's not booting on the next cable connector.

Fire it up and see if it boots from the disk and if does you can then have windows repair the ini files on the other one.

[Dave Sinkus]

Isn't there a "hit F8 before..." routine that gets you into the BIOS settings for the PC? You want to make sure it is checked to boot from CD.....the boot sequence is usually hard drive then CD-ROM. It sounds like something changed the bios, virus, Trojan, etc.......A hard drive failure might have been noticable before the last shutdown. You may want to visit the Sony website for a copy of the BIOS for the MB and try to refresh it.

[Brian Weick]

How would I lead it to boot from CD- I am going over there shortly- any help would be greatly appreciated. usually when you hit any key during start up and the windows xp disk is in- it will boot from that - but it is not doing that -?

[Dave Sinkus]

or F2 as you power up. Apparently from a web site I was searching, those are the Sony keys to enter BIOS setup or diagnostics.

Typically you have a section in the BIOS/setup/configuration program for the motherboard on boot up sequence......once you have installed, in this case XP, you will have it check the hard drive first for a boot file, then CD.

Something may have screwed up the BIOS or changed/corrupted that file and it is not recognizing any of the peripherals. This is a good routine to check if the basics of the motherboard are working......if you can get into BIOS setup, at least that part is working.

HTH. I'll Google on that model, but as old as it is, one of the vacuum tubes may have failed

[Dave Sinkus]

During the initial boot of a computer the BIOS supplier will be displayed. If OEM logo splash screen is displayed, press ESC key to see the boot up information. Press the Pause/Break key if text displays too fast.

When it first starts to boot up, try hitting F3, or F2. If you get a logo screen, hit ESC, then F3. I say F2 because that was listed for a different Sony model.

From this web site:http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt...y-pc-bios.html

[Brian Weick]

vacue tubes--- what was i thinking- maybe ne of those went-LOL
thanks dave,-what am I looking for if and when I get to that screen dave.

[Dave Sinkus]

Do you have a model # for the Sony .. . . .1000 . . . . .?

[Brian Weick]

Where there- know where to we go from here?

[Brian Weick]

Pcv Rx 280ds-

[Brian Weick]

i am on the phone with him write now