Please Help: Boot Problem Windows XP

RealGoneKid

Hi there, My friend bought a Dell Desktop computer at the beginning of the year, not sure exactly what model but it is smaller than my Dell Dimension 5000, is grey/silver and has a core 2 quad processor.
He switched it off last night and when he came to turn it on this morning it will not boot past the Dell logo screen, also he cannot enter any of the menus on that page i.e f12 or f8, he has an external usb hdd that I advised him to disconnect before trying again, but this did not help.
Is there any thing you can suggest that might get his PC up and running again, if so I would be very thankful.
Thanks in advance.
RealGoneKid.

bean55

No error messages about a kernel missing ?



So the F8 / F12 key works and the menu comes up ?
But you can not highlight an option ? or after highlighting an option it does nothing?

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Nosmartz

make sure there arent any dicss in the dvd/cd drive...to get into the dell bios press f2 i believe

if all else fails..if its a new pc, i'd call them, should be under warranty

RealGoneKid

Thanks guys, had tried all the above suggestions, I just got word that he sorted the problem, He unplugged the PC and all devices, Plugged them back in and everything was A>O>K! I imagine there was an electrical surge of some description and by removing any remaining power from the hardware it got rid of the lock.
Thanks for your help, and as this is a relatively easy solution for what seems like an impossible problem, I hope this helps somebody else with similar issues.
RealGoneKid.

RealGoneKid

Yeah just to clarify, When he pressed any of the keys, F8 or F12 there was no effect, technically a frozen non responsive screen.
And no missing kernals, if he would have said this I have found that running disk check using a restore disk sometimes sorts this out, also if this is not possible in the host computer, I have had success be it with ide/ata drives by running disk check with the drive installed on another pc.
Just for Others.
RGK.

RealGoneKid

I use Verbatim DVD+R for PAL DVD (IFO/BUP) movies, With HQ XVID Compression, screen 1024X576 16:9
I use Verbatim DVD-R for any software, Game Backups etc
And am just trying Verbatim CD-r just to finish off the set, unsure yet if + or - is the way to go for CD's just yet.

I also use Imageburn, the program is free and has excellent compatability with Image files, ISO,IMG-DVD files, IFO,BUP-And also music and video files as well, the Program even corrects your mistakes and offers advice on action to take.

I use VLC as my main player it has high compatibility because it uses its own set of codecs to read video/audio files.

RGK.