My computer locks up and won't boot. What do I do?

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My computer boots up, beep twice then it said a boot file in my C:\Window\system can't be found or it has been corrupted, and it asked me to use the Window XP disc to repair the file. I used the CD which I got from my computer manufactor to restore and repair the system, after that it started up. I turned it off on that day and the next day when I started it up again, it gave me the same message.
I'm really frustrated now. I don't know what wrong with it. Do you have any idea???

help my house got hit by lightning and it gets to serup and load bios then it goes back to the load and setup screen again how can i get it to load the os

Hi, Leo,

I have a booting issue that doesn't quite fit any discussed above. My computer boots, and boots just fine, but only if I am standing by on a restart to press the F8 key, and then select "Start Windows Normally". If the computer is left to restart on its own, it simply hangs before the splash screen. This is a hassle for a Media PC that needs to be restarted daily.

I am hesitant to use the Recovery Console or other tools, as I have worked hard on my HTPC, and Microsoftware has a reputation for "Taking Over" and "undoing work". I am not sure it would help in my case, anyway.

I'm impressed with many of the answers you have provided. Although I am a "Lurker" until today, I have made use of a number of your insights, and even extended many. I hope you can help.

I am having a similar problem. I was moving items on my desk and the power got unplugged. I plugged it back in and when I try to boot up my IBM NetVista on XP Pro I only get this message on a black screen "Press F1 for Setup Press F12 for Startup Device Menu" When I do, nothing happens!! Please help,
Ed

When I turn On my pc, It acts like it is booting. No screen comes up and no sounds are made, but tha hard drive starting up, and tha prosscer fan running. The keyboard does not turn on eather. After I turn of tha pc five times, I get tha pc to boot up right. I dont know what is cuasing this. If i get tha pc to boot, it runs fine. What could cause this?
Posted by: Daniel at February 3, 2009 6:18 PM

Yes I have a custom built pc with an athlon processor running windows xp pro. with service pack 2. I can start up with the xp installation cd and everything starts up like in the format stage, it loads all the files and then after that, it's telling me that it cant find any hard drives on my computer. Windows can't continue, so I'm even unable to format. I have 3 green lights in the back instead of 4. The 4th light is red. I replaced the ide cable and changed the hard drive and still the same thing. I try'd my old hard drive in another computer and it loads all files and it would format. btw, when it boots I get a cmos error too. Does anybody have a understanding of what might be going on here? Thanks Sincerly, Junior.

I have a Toshiba Satelite u205 laptop for about 3 years. It has been fine until 1 day when I try to log on, it logs me off. There is no cd, built in recovery. Tried to reformat hard drive,no good. I log on,system logs me off.
Any suggestions?

I have a problem with a Dell Precision 370. When it is turned on the only thing that happens is that the CPU fan winds up to high speed and nothing else happens. I have checked the cpu and memory and both are fine. I have disconnected the hard drives and DVD player so that it is down to basics.
Any help would be appreciated,
regards Greg

My computer wouldn't boot, there were no beeps at all. I took to a professional, they said the reseated the RAM and it worked (I had tried that too). That worked for a day, then same thing. I got it to run again, i took everything apart, even the CPU, cleaned it, put it all back together, and voila i am back up. Would a motherboard or CPU issue be sporadic like this? I have a sony VGC-RB38g.

my computer locks up when play Movie Player, and Netflix player, I have windows Vista, 1GB Ram, even when took out of box it locked up on me first day had to hard boot it.
My instinct thinks either Vista uses up most the RAM, computer runs out of RAM for the Video Players, or my Video Card.

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