Computer Crashed?

Rocky388 · 11-29-2005, 09:33 PM

I'm not sure if i should be posting this in this forum..but hopefully someone can help me out.

I wired in front panel buttons (Power, restart, an IDE LED, and a Power LED). I took these front panel buttons and LEDs from an old computer. Needless to say, it didn't work out the way i planned. I had to re-wire it to work with my computer. During this process, i restarted, shutdown, cut power to my computer quite a few times.

Thinking back i realised i should have at least unplugged the harddrive during all this.

Now when i start the computer, it goes all the way to the windows XP loading screen, then halfway through it restarts, and this is an endless process. I'm beginning to think the harddrive has crashed. Can anyone help me confirm this?

I'd rather not re-format the computer, unless i absolutly have to, as i have songs on the computer i'd like to save.

Thanks in advanced,
Rocky

seanshine · 11-29-2005, 09:37 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Rocky388

I'm not sure if i should be posting this in this forum..but hopefully someone can help me out.

I wired in front panel buttons (Power, restart, an IDE LED, and a Power LED). I took these front panel buttons and LEDs from an old computer. Needless to say, it didn't work out the way i planned. I had to re-wire it to work with my computer. During this process, i restarted, shutdown, cut power to my computer quite a few times.

Thinking back i realised i should have at least unplugged the harddrive during all this.

Now when i start the computer, it goes all the way to the windows XP loading screen, then halfway through it restarts, and this is an endless process. I'm beginning to think the harddrive has crashed. Can anyone help me confirm this?

I'd rather not re-format the computer, unless i absolutly have to, as i have songs on the computer i'd like to save.

Thanks in advanced,
Rocky

Try this-when you boot up (after the post screen and before you see the xp logo) press f8 (or was it f6? lol) and you'll see a windows start menu,scroll down to the one that says "last known good configuration" and then hit enter.
good luck,and post if you have more problems.

Rocky388 · 11-29-2005, 09:42 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by seanshine

Try this-when you boot up (after the post screen and before you see the xp logo) press f8 (or was it f6? lol) and you'll see a windows start menu,scroll down to the one that says "last known good configuration" and then hit enter.
good luck,and post if you have more problems.

I've tried that and trying to boot into safe mode, and the same sruff happens. It'll go to the Windows xp loading screen, then the computer will just re-start.

Right now i tried putting in my windows XP cd and doing a recovery install. When i get to the command prompt and try to get a directory of the drive, it says:
"Directory of C:\
An error occurred during directory enumeration"

...This sucks...1 hour ago i was using the computer and everything was fine. Thanks for the reply though.

I really wouldn't mind formatting, it's just about a week ago i put all my songs on, sorted and organized them, re-named them (some of them were mixed up) ...and i'd really rather not have to do that again.

seanshine · 11-29-2005, 09:52 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Rocky388

I really wouldn't mind formatting, it's just about a week ago i put all my songs on, sorted and organized them, re-named them (some of them were mixed up) ...and i'd really rather not have to do that again.

I hear ya...two more things to try.
1.Put this hd in the machine you're on now as a slave,and see if you can copy the directories that have your music in it.
2.You may still be able to save the install with the fixmbr command,although I gotta warn ya,you might lose all the info on the drive.
3.When you do get it all done and over with,make sure to download some disk diagnostic software from your hd manufacturer and make sure the hd is still good.

stuseed · 11-29-2005, 09:54 PM

Never seen that one before,

Set the drive as a slave and pop it another machine, if that system can read it you can probably save your data.

I,ve done that a few times with drives on their death beds and managed to recover most of the important stuff.

stuseed · 11-29-2005, 09:56 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by seanshine

I hear ya...two more things to try.
1.Put this hd in the machine you're on now as a slave,and see if you can copy the directories that have your music in it.
2.You may still be able to save the install with the fixmbr command,although I gotta warn ya,you might lose all the info on the drive.
3.When you do get it all done and over with,make sure to download some disk diagnostic software from your hd manufacturer and make sure the hd is still good.

Reckon I aint a quick enough typist

seanshine · 11-29-2005, 10:00 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by stuseed

Reckon I aint a quick enough typist

You oughtta see me bangin' on the keyboard with two fingers,moving like molasses.

Skipjacks · 11-29-2005, 10:02 PM

It sounds to me like something is shorting out the reset jumper if it's going into a full restart. I'd think if the hard drive had probelms it would just freeze up while starting, not reset itself.

My first thought when reading your problem was that the wires for the HDD light are somehow crossed with the power / reset button's wires and at somepoint during the bootup process the light is powered just long enough to trip the power switch.

At least that would be the first thing I'd check.

Try unplugging whatever wiring harness you created from the motherboard and put the original power switch back on, by itself. (Or any other power switch for that matter) See if it works that way or if you get the same problem.

Or just unplug everything but the power switch if that's easier.

Rocky388 · 11-29-2005, 10:06 PM

Thanks for the suggestions

Right now i went into Windows recovery (on the XP cd) and when it brought me to the command prompt i did a check disk (CHKDSK) and it said there were errors on the drive. So i did CHKDSK /p /r and thats halfway through right now. Hopefully this will do something for me..

if not i'll try out your suggestions tomorrow..i have school tomorrow and i'm starting to get fed up with this.

Thanks for the replies

Rocky388 · 11-29-2005, 10:09 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Skipjacks

It sounds to me like something is shorting out the reset jumper if it's going into a full restart. I'd think if the hard drive had probelms it would just freeze up while starting, not reset itself.

My first thought when reading your problem was that the wires for the HDD light are somehow crossed with the power / reset button's wires and at somepoint during the bootup process the light is powered just long enough to trip the power switch.

At least that would be the first thing I'd check.

Try unplugging whatever wiring harness you created from the motherboard and put the original power switch back on, by itself. (Or any other power switch for that matter) See if it works that way or if you get the same problem.

Or just unplug everything but the power switch if that's easier.

I thought my wiring harness somehow got messed up, so i did end up removing it completly from the system, and it's still giving me the same problem.

MatrixPC · 11-30-2005, 09:42 AM

The best way to fix windows problem is re-format the HD and a fresh install.
Just take the HD out and slave it to other system and backup your data before you continue messing with it.

Wiredwrx · 11-30-2005, 01:22 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Rocky388

I'm not sure if i should be posting this in this forum..but hopefully someone can help me out.

I wired in front panel buttons (Power, restart, an IDE LED, and a Power LED). I took these front panel buttons and LEDs from an old computer. Needless to say, it didn't work out the way i planned. I had to re-wire it to work with my computer. During this process, i restarted, shutdown, cut power to my computer quite a few times.

Thinking back i realised i should have at least unplugged the harddrive during all this.

Now when i start the computer, it goes all the way to the windows XP loading screen, then halfway through it restarts, and this is an endless process. I'm beginning to think the harddrive has crashed. Can anyone help me confirm this?

I'd rather not re-format the computer, unless i absolutly have to, as i have songs on the computer i'd like to save.

Thanks in advanced,
Rocky

Did it EVER work correctly, before messing with the buttons and LEDs and such.

This sounds like a typical Power Supply issue, but if it worked before with out any problems, and the system is the same, I would go with what others are telling you.

If it never worked, try taking the computer inside, and booting with an AC-DC PS.

Michael

bluehcc · 11-30-2005, 01:34 PM

this kind of problem is mostly harddrive problem.

EsKALad · 11-30-2005, 01:39 PM

it sure is. i pulled out my 60 gig laptop hdd from my lappy and was making a carputer with it. when i plugged everything up it tried to boot into it. i was going to do a fresh install anyway but the same thing happened when i did that. it kept trying to boot and restarting after it says windows xp with the status bar scrolling. its definitely a hdd issue. after i reformatted it it was flawless!

Rocky388 · 11-30-2005, 09:10 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by EsKALad

it sure is. i pulled out my 60 gig laptop hdd from my lappy and was making a carputer with it. when i plugged everything up it tried to boot into it. i was going to do a fresh install anyway but the same thing happened when i did that. it kept trying to boot and restarting after it says windows xp with the status bar scrolling. its definitely a hdd issue. after i reformatted it it was flawless!

Yup, it was definitly a hard drive issue. I ended up just letting using my XP cd and going into the windows recovery part. And like i mentioned before i did a check disk, with thoes 2 parameters, and after quite awhile (i just let it go all night) the problem is gone. My guess is that a couple of things were out of place being that i cut power to the drive so many times without proper shutdown. The CHKDSK must have just straightened the drive out.

The best part is, i still have all my songs

Thanks for all the help/replies