My PC will not Start Up

[Zack]

Hey guys. I left my computer on last night, and this morning, I noticed it said, "Starting up" in the blue Windows screen.
I decided to wait and let it start, but nothing was happening after 5 minutes. I held down the power button and shut off my PC. Then, I turned it back on, everything seemed fine, the I got the black screen with different ways to start up Windows from a powerfailure, nothing new, Safe mode, Safe mode with Networking, Normal, etc.
I clicked normal, then it went right back through the booting process and landed me right back on the black screen.
Help?

(I'm on my mom's PC)

 

[Troth]

Not really an answer, but did you try allowing the computer to boot into Safe Mode? And if so, does that work ok?

 

[=(eGO)=™ PagaN A|R]

Where exactly does it get the black screen during the process? It almost seems like the video drivers are corrupt but there's not much info to go on here.

 

[1hrSleep]

Zack, go with the option to start up using the last known good configuration.

Recently I had some borked virtual drives keeping me from booting up. Last known good configuration reverted me back to the point before the image drives borked up.

 

[Zack]

I tried all of the options availabe to no avail :/
@Troth: I tried, it brings me back to the black screen
@PagaN: After it shows me the Nvidia booting image, then it shows me all of my drivers and such, then it shows me the black screen with the options.
@1hrSleep: Tried, didn't work
Any other ideas guys?

 

[Zack]

[UPDATED INFO!]

I re-tryed Last Known Good Configuration, then it loaded up, I saw my mouse, then I got the blue screen of death :/

 

[chrisbliss18]

Do you happen to have a Windows disk that matches the version of Windows on the system?
If so, I have some tricks that just might revive the machine.

 

[Zack]

I think so.

 

[Flippy the Squirrel]

When you got the blue screen of death, did you happen to jot down the error message it provided? That's generally going to tell you what's wrong. It sounds like either a hardware failure or a massive driver conflict. See if you can get to the BSOD again, then write do the error, usually on the second or third line, and post that info.

This is sort of a sample, but notice that it identifies the faulting file (SPCMDCON.SYS) and the error message (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA).

 

[Zack]

Now Im not even getting a blue screen...

 

[Flippy the Squirrel]

If you have data you need to recover, and you're not even getting the BSOD (or any response at all), you have a couple of options.

1. Try like hell to get an error message. If you can get the BSOD to come back, then so much the better. That'll give a lot more information to work with.

2. Attempt a logged boot and post the last ten or twelve lines here. That MIGHT help. (You'd have to boot into the recovery console to do that, which can be a bit tricky, but I can try to help if you want to try that.)

3. Parallel install of Windows for the purpose of recovering files. Basically, you start the installation of windows on your computer, and when asked to specify the directory in which to install Windows, call it Windows.000 or something similar. That way, you can boot into an uncorrupted OS and recover any files you need.

4. Format and reload your machine. This is best if you already have a backup, obviously.

Hopefully, it's not a hardware failure, 'cause then none of these options will work.

 

[Zack]

Let's say I have no backup, and I want to reformat in time for the CSS 9PM EST. It's 6:41PM right now.
Can you please tell me how to reformat it, and also, how to make sure I keep my TF2, etc.

 

[Zack]

Guys I'm starting to believe it's a hardware error by the look of it, so any other ideas?

 

[chrisbliss18]

Zack, I have no way of knowing whether you can do a reinstall and get CS:S back up in running in enough time. If you want to try it, go ahead, but I doubt that you will be able to make it.

The tips I was referring to earlier are as follows (do them in order):

• *Load into Windows' Recovery Console. Follow these instructions to do that.
  *After Recovery Console loads, type in the following command:
  
  chkdsk /r
  
  *When that command has finished running, run the following command:
  
  sfc /scannow

Make sure that you type in those commands exactly as I have them. I recommend printing this off so you don't get a typo.

Essentially, these two commands will scan your drive for any bad data, attempt to fix any problems it finds, scans the surface of the disk to find bad spots on the physical disk, attempts to move data away from bad spots and mark them as bad, and then scan all critical Windows files and attempt to repair or replace them.

Hopefully, if you are able to run these commands, it will fix your problem.

 

[Zack]

I can only get into BIOS setup or whatever.

 

[.inferno.]

If you want to format your pc, just boot with your windows cd and start the reinstallation process. Btw, is your computer just rebooting at the windows loading screeen? That happened to me and it turned out my hd had crashed

 

[Zack]

I put in my XP reinstall disk, start up my PC, press buttons, and it still wont start from the disk.
It reboots after I select an option for it to boot from i.e. Safe Mode.