Help!

[Doris_Pinks]

No for me thankfully but for a friend!
She turns on her computer and gets the screen:-

Intel Desktop Board
Copyright etc.
Intel Corp
SCV84510A.86A.WO17.P09.030.4251748
(few more words!)
Then
Press F2 to run setup
Hit F12 if you want to boot from the network.

And thats it, whatever she presses nothing happens, (has tried F2 & F12) if she unplugs it at the mains (cos the power down button doesn't work) and turns it back on, she just gets the same screen.
Any ideas???

Thanks
DP

[Doris_Pinks]

[Cuke]

Something has gone seriously wrong... F2 should take her into the Bios setup which is often a way of fixing things but if she can't even get there and nothing other than turning it off at the mains works then I'd worry she is going to need at least a new motherboard as a starter.

Does she get an unusual 'beeps' when she turns it on?

I'm assuming the 'few more words' aren't anything useful like 'there has been an error with....'?

If the computer has a floppy disk drive and the light on that goes on before it gets to the point where it's stuck then it may be worth trying to get a boot disk of some kind to see if you can get anywhere with that. But if it's crashing/hanging at that early stage and doesnt let you into the Bios or do anything then I'm not sure there's much you can do....

[Barnowl]

Cuke, do you think it's worth trying holding down the F8 while booting or does that only come into play at a later stage?

[Cuke]

I'd say anything is worth trying at that point... I think the F8 thing kicks in later though, when it's about to load Windows. At this point it seems to have got stuck processing the BIOS... :(

If you're technically minded you could try replacing the BIOS battery if its possible on your motherboard but I'm clutching at straws now and doubt it's that if I'm honest...

Of course I could be wrong... I'm not a hardware expert by any means...

[Riffster]

Doris,

If your friend has a MicroSoft (tm) keyboard,  she may have to press the "F Lock" key to enable the F2 & F12 keys to be recognised by the BIOS.

[Cuke]

Thinking about keyboards... This may be a silly question, but she has checked her keyboard is actually connected I assume?

[Doris_Pinks]

Thank you or all your replies, been trying to get hold of her to read all this back to her!
Funny I was also thinking today I wonder if she has got everything plugged in, and no not a silly question at all cuke! :)
Will keep trying to contact her and let you know the results, any other ideas, please keep replying.
Thanks

DP

[Baccy Man]

Checking the keyboard is plugged in & trying another keyboard just in case hers has failed are both sensible things to do.
That would leave 3 other possibilities:

1.> A bad stick of memory. It is extremely rare for memory to fail but if it did it is likely to cause the problem you have described.

2.> A fault on the motherbard if a working keyboard is attached & pressing F2 doesn't do anything the keyboard port has died using a usb keyboard instead would normally resolve that (although some boards don't support them). Once the keyboard is working the computer may start working again if not then you need to access the bios & check the hard drive is detected properly. If it can't detect the hard drive then the ide controller has died & the motherboard is scrap. Depending how old the computer is the CPU & memory may need to be replaced along with the motherboard as they may not be compatible with the new boards.

3.> If the hard drive is showing up in bios but the computer still won't boot then it is likely to be a corrupt NTFS file system. It tends to be the branded computers HP, dell, Gateway etc.. that stick at this early stage custom built PC's will usually get to the next screen then tell you there is no valid system disk. To resolve it on a branded computer you will have a recovery disc that came with the computer which you can use to sort it out on a custom built pc you would have the windows cd which you can use to get to the recovery console & resolve the problem from there.
Unfortunately it won't be a permanent fix as it is a sign the hard drive is failing & you really should consider replacing it. I have a computer with this fault due in this weekend which i repaired about a month ago it lasted just 3 weeks before the fault reoccurred this time the owner is taking my advice & having the hard drive replaced, last time they chose not to as it appeared to be working perfectly after I repaired it so they didn't believe the drive needed replacing. The fact  that they now bring their own & the company computers from Birmingham to Mid Wales so I can repair them rather than taking them to a local company in Birmingham & the fact the first thing they did when they called on Tuesday was to apologise for not believing me about the drive last time suggests they usually have more confidence in me than they did on that occassion. The fact that i have repaired all except one of the computers that they had previously taken to several different companies in Birmingham all of which had been declared unrepairable may have something to do with it as well. The one I didn't repair required a dedicated piece of hardware no longer manufactured so there wasn't much i could do with it.

[telboy]

We all rush in where the poor help request is lost.
Ask: What hardware/software do you have?

Proceed from there!

[Doris_Pinks]

OK the verdict from the computer fixer is a corrupt disk.
Tis being fixed as I type.
Now not being a computer literate person that means nothing to me, but the chap said it only took him about an hour to fix and has hopefully managed to save all her info.
So thank you for all your replies, hopefully problem sorted now! ;D

[Cuke]

I really hope he meant 'replaced' rather than fixed... Once a hard drive has started to go wrong it's a slippery slope till it dies a death.... I'd suggest your friend checks if she had to pay for a new drive and data transfer or just for him to 'fix' her old drive and if it's the latter to back up important files just incase....