OT: PC boot up

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R

Richard

Guest
When I start my pc (win xp home edition) I get a message saying disk boot
failure. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled xp and it still does the
same.
What is strange though is that if I press the reset button on the front it
boots up fine and xp runs ok.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Richard



 
This may sound a bit obvious .... but have you checked the bios to make
sure the first boot device is your harddrive?... It may be trying to boot
from CD... if there's no cd in the drive and no secondary boot device is
specified then it will fail to boot.

Mike.


"Richard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> When I start my pc (win xp home edition) I get a message saying disk boot
> failure. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled xp and it still does the
> same.
> What is strange though is that if I press the reset button on the front it
> boots up fine and xp runs ok.
> Any ideas?
> Thanks
> Richard
>
>
>


 
Thanks for your reply. Ive checked the bios and first boot device is the
hard drive and second boot is cd (no floppy drive installed).

Richard



"Mike" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> This may sound a bit obvious .... but have you checked the bios to make
> sure the first boot device is your harddrive?... It may be trying to boot
> from CD... if there's no cd in the drive and no secondary boot device is
> specified then it will fail to boot.
>
> Mike.
>
>
> "Richard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> When I start my pc (win xp home edition) I get a message saying disk boot
>> failure. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled xp and it still does the
>> same.
>> What is strange though is that if I press the reset button on the front
>> it boots up fine and xp runs ok.
>> Any ideas?
>> Thanks
>> Richard
>>
>>
>>
>
>


 
Richard wrote:
> Thanks for your reply. Ive checked the bios and first boot device is the
> hard drive and second boot is cd (no floppy drive installed).
I've had problems with a drive which ran too slow cold, but after it
warmed up ran fine (for years)

Steve
 
Richard wrote:
> When I start my pc (win xp home edition) I get a message saying disk boot
> failure. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled xp and it still does the
> same.
> What is strange though is that if I press the reset button on the front it
> boots up fine and xp runs ok.
> Any ideas?
> Thanks
> Richard

Other possibility - do you have a USB hard drive / USB memory stick on
any of your USB ports? My grandfather has exactly the same problem
if I boots his machine up with a USB memory stick inserted when he
turns the machine on. Long shot I know, but thought it worth a mention.

Matt
 
Hi,
There is nothing connected to any usb port.
There is a similar prob here but you have to pay to see the solution:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_20838027.html

Richard



"Matthew Maddock" <[email protected]> wrote in
message news:D[email protected]...
> Richard wrote:
>> When I start my pc (win xp home edition) I get a message saying disk boot
>> failure. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled xp and it still does the
>> same.
>> What is strange though is that if I press the reset button on the front
>> it boots up fine and xp runs ok.
>> Any ideas?
>> Thanks
>> Richard
>
> Other possibility - do you have a USB hard drive / USB memory stick on
> any of your USB ports? My grandfather has exactly the same problem
> if I boots his machine up with a USB memory stick inserted when he
> turns the machine on. Long shot I know, but thought it worth a mention.
>
> Matt


 
Richard wrote:

> Hi,
> There is nothing connected to any usb port.
> There is a similar prob here but you have to pay to see the solution:
> http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_20838027.html
>
> Richard
>
>
>
> "Matthew Maddock" <[email protected]> wrote in
> message news:D[email protected]...
>
>>Richard wrote:
>>
>>>When I start my pc (win xp home edition) I get a message saying disk boot
>>>failure. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled xp and it still does the
>>>same.
>>>What is strange though is that if I press the reset button on the front
>>>it boots up fine and xp runs ok.
>>>Any ideas?
>>>Thanks
>>>Richard
>>
>>Other possibility - do you have a USB hard drive / USB memory stick on
>>any of your USB ports? My grandfather has exactly the same problem
>>if I boots his machine up with a USB memory stick inserted when he
>>turns the machine on. Long shot I know, but thought it worth a mention.
>>
>>Matt

How is the hard drive partitioned?
 
Richard wrote:
> Hi,
> There is nothing connected to any usb port.
> There is a similar prob here but you have to pay to see the solution:
> http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_20838027.html
>

Ahhh, I have an (very old!) account on there.

...

Hmmm, just a load of guesswork answers, nothing conclusive and nothing
that hasn't been suggested here.

Anyway, Sounds like it could be that your hard drive isn't spinning up
from cold properly. Might be time for a new one soon, at least they
are pretty cheap to replace now. Have you got a spare you can try out
to make sure?

Matt
 
Further to my origonal question..... I hace tried another hard drive and it
does the same.
Also Ive now noticed that when its first turned on after being off for a
while it takes several goes to start but once its warmed up it will start
first time.
Could something be wrong with the motherboard in that something needs to
warm up first?
Richard


"johnty" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Richard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> Hi,
>> There is nothing connected to any usb port.
>> There is a similar prob here but you have to pay to see the solution:
>> http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_20838027.html
>>
>> Richard
>
> No you dont....just scroll down the page
>


 
Richard <[email protected]> uttered summat worrerz funny about:
> Further to my origonal question..... I hace tried another hard drive
> and it does the same.
> Also Ive now noticed that when its first turned on after being off
> for a while it takes several goes to start but once its warmed up it
> will start first time.
> Could something be wrong with the motherboard in that something needs
> to warm up first?
> Richard

My machine does this randomly too, then insists I "press F1 to continue"
before loading windows, that really P's me off too

Lee D


 
On or around Sat, 1 Jul 2006 22:57:26 +0100, "Lee_D"
<[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:

>Richard <[email protected]> uttered summat worrerz funny about:
>> Further to my origonal question..... I hace tried another hard drive
>> and it does the same.
>> Also Ive now noticed that when its first turned on after being off
>> for a while it takes several goes to start but once its warmed up it
>> will start first time.
>> Could something be wrong with the motherboard in that something needs
>> to warm up first?
>> Richard
>
>My machine does this randomly too, then insists I "press F1 to continue"
>before loading windows, that really P's me off too

"Keyboard error - press F1 to continue"

that one is usually CMOS battery giving up the ghost.
--
Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
Satisfying: Satisfy your inner child by eating ten tubes of Smarties
from the Little Book of Complete B***ocks by Alistair Beaton.
 
Lee_D wrote:
> Richard <[email protected]> uttered summat worrerz funny about:
>> Further to my origonal question..... I hace tried another hard drive
>> and it does the same.
>> Also Ive now noticed that when its first turned on after being off
>> for a while it takes several goes to start but once its warmed up it
>> will start first time.
>> Could something be wrong with the motherboard in that something needs
>> to warm up first?
>> Richard
>
> My machine does this randomly too, then insists I "press F1 to continue"
> before loading windows, that really P's me off too
>
> Lee D
>
>
My Toshiba laptop had been doing this for some years, it's not the
battery (been changed, made no difference) - the Toshiba agent suggested
a new main board. I just live with the problem instead as it does not
happen too often.

What you do depends on the price of the board - laptops are too pricey IMHO.

Karen

--
"I'd far rather be happy than right any day."
- Slartibartfast
 
On Sat, 01 Jul 2006 20:25:54 GMT, Richard wrote:

> Also Ive now noticed that when its first turned on after being off for
> a while it takes several goes to start but once its warmed up it will
> start first time.

Which bit are we talking about? The HD spinning up or the motherboard
doing POST etc.

--
Cheers [email protected]
Dave. pam is missing e-mail



 

"Dave Liquorice" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sat, 01 Jul 2006 20:25:54 GMT, Richard wrote:
>
>> Also Ive now noticed that when its first turned on after being off for
>> a while it takes several goes to start but once its warmed up it will
>> start first time.
>
> Which bit are we talking about? The HD spinning up or the motherboard
> doing POST etc.
>
> --
> Cheers [email protected]
> Dave. pam is missing e-mail
>

I assume its the motherboard as Ive tried two differant make hard drives and
they both do the same.

Richard


 
Richard wrote:
> When I start my pc (win xp home edition) I get a message saying disk boot
> failure. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled xp and it still does the
> same.
> What is strange though is that if I press the reset button on the front it
> boots up fine and xp runs ok.
> Any ideas?
> Thanks
> Richard
>
>
>

As others have commented. Drives often take longer to spin up to
speed and complete their self checks as they get older. Often too
long for the usual PC startup diagnostics to have completed and be
ready to boot. In the long term, I'd surmise that your drive is
getting old and probably unreliable, in the short term i'd turn on
full memory check or another BIOS feature that will extend the pc's
startup. The drive may then be ready when it's time to boot.
Alernativel, don't turn it off (I haven't turned my machines off for
years).

--
Regards, Danny

http://www.gaggia-espresso.com (a purely hobby site)
http://www.malabargold.co.uk (UK/EU ordering for Malabar Gold blend)

 

"Danny" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Richard wrote:
>> When I start my pc (win xp home edition) I get a message saying disk boot
>> failure. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled xp and it still does the
>> same.
>> What is strange though is that if I press the reset button on the front
>> it boots up fine and xp runs ok.
>> Any ideas?
>> Thanks
>> Richard
>>
>>
>>
>
> As others have commented. Drives often take longer to spin up to speed
> and complete their self checks as they get older. Often too long for the
> usual PC startup diagnostics to have completed and be ready to boot. In
> the long term, I'd surmise that your drive is getting old and probably
> unreliable, in the short term i'd turn on full memory check or another
> BIOS feature that will extend the pc's startup. The drive may then be
> ready when it's time to boot. Alernativel, don't turn it off (I haven't
> turned my machines off for years).
>
> --
> Regards, Danny

How do I extend the pc's start up time? I have tried two drives, a Maxtor
and a Samsung, both less than 6 months old and they both do the same thing.

Richard


>
> http://www.gaggia-espresso.com (a purely hobby site)
> http://www.malabargold.co.uk (UK/EU ordering for Malabar Gold blend)
>


 
Richard wrote:
> "Danny" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> Richard wrote:
>>> When I start my pc (win xp home edition) I get a message saying disk boot
>>> failure. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled xp and it still does the
>>> same.
>>> What is strange though is that if I press the reset button on the front
>>> it boots up fine and xp runs ok.
>>> Any ideas?
>>> Thanks
>>> Richard
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> As others have commented. Drives often take longer to spin up to speed
>> and complete their self checks as they get older. Often too long for the
>> usual PC startup diagnostics to have completed and be ready to boot. In
>> the long term, I'd surmise that your drive is getting old and probably
>> unreliable, in the short term i'd turn on full memory check or another
>> BIOS feature that will extend the pc's startup. The drive may then be
>> ready when it's time to boot. Alernativel, don't turn it off (I haven't
>> turned my machines off for years).
>>
>> --
>> Regards, Danny
>
> How do I extend the pc's start up time? I have tried two drives, a Maxtor
> and a Samsung, both less than 6 months old and they both do the same thing.

If two drives are doing the same thing, I'd say it was unlikely that it
is the problem. Possibly hardware related motherboard/ram. Got a
similar (although not identical) problem with my wife's PC, I bought a
new HDD thinking it would fix the problem but it didn't. but not really
had chance to look into it further - we just leave the PC on all the
time!! Been like that for about 6 months now!

Matt
 
Richard wrote:
> "Danny" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>>Richard wrote:
>>
>>>When I start my pc (win xp home edition) I get a message saying disk boot
>>>failure. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled xp and it still does the
>>>same.
>>>What is strange though is that if I press the reset button on the front
>>>it boots up fine and xp runs ok.
>>>Any ideas?
>>>Thanks
>>>Richard
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>As others have commented. Drives often take longer to spin up to speed
>>and complete their self checks as they get older. Often too long for the
>>usual PC startup diagnostics to have completed and be ready to boot. In
>>the long term, I'd surmise that your drive is getting old and probably
>>unreliable, in the short term i'd turn on full memory check or another
>>BIOS feature that will extend the pc's startup. The drive may then be
>>ready when it's time to boot. Alernativel, don't turn it off (I haven't
>>turned my machines off for years).
>>
>>--
>>Regards, Danny
>
>
> How do I extend the pc's start up time? I have tried two drives, a Maxtor
> and a Samsung, both less than 6 months old and they both do the same thing.
>
> Richard

If you get the same with 2 newish drives, I may be wrong. Check the
BIOS to make sure the boot sequence doesn't include other devices (as
already mentioned) - things like floppy/CD etc. Find this in the BIOS.

To lengthen the PC startup process, go into the BIOS and enable
something like full memory check (there is usually a quick/full
option). To enter the BIOS press the magical key (del or whatever is
prompted on the screen during initialisation, before windows starts to
load). To not change BIOS settings you are unsure about if you've
never played with BIOS before...

--
Regards, Danny

http://www.gaggia-espresso.com (a purely hobby site)
http://www.malabargold.co.uk (UK/EU ordering for Malabar Gold blend)

 
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