# [Resolved] Computer won't boot with hard drive, floppy, or cd-rom



## davelc (Jul 24, 2002)

A friend brought his computer over for me to fix, computer won't boot up with hard drive (although bios see's drive) with Win98 startup disk, or with norton systemworks 2000 cd. I have never had a computer I couldn't get to boot like this before. I set up bios to boot from cd-rom and on bootup it access the cd then just set's there. The same happens with the floppy it starts to access drive the stops and does nothing. If you have any ideas it would be much appreciatded. I'm thinking a virus, but what can I do if system won't boot? I have no problem taking computers apart and putting back together, I just don't know what to do.


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## rkselby98 (May 6, 2000)

Boot to the dos prompt.

Type in C:

Press enter

type in

dir

press enter

does it find the c dir or not. If not the hard drive needs to be formatted or check the connections and check the bios settings.


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## davelc (Jul 24, 2002)

The computer stops at a blank screen with blinking curser at top lefthand corner. There is no command prompt. It stops at the same place regardless of which media I try to boot from. I've changed boot order in bios for hard drive, floppy, and cd-rom and each time when I've rebooted it would look at the media I had selected to boot from, and start to access then stop at blinking curser. The operating system is windows me, the computer is a HP Pavilion 700mhz duron. The only thing I can think of trying is to find cmos jumper and try clearing bios and starting over. I'm not sure this will work, but I'm about out of ideas.


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

It's most consistent with a damaged motherboard, but resetting the cmos is a good idea -- as would removing and reseating both the ram and the cpu itself as a last resort.


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## griffinspc (Nov 16, 2001)

If your plan doesn't bear fruit you might try this site:
http://www.bootdisk.com/

And download TechWOrm V5.4 and AV WOrm

These 2 together will allow you to boot and scan (at least in 90% of cases) You will need to download to your HD, they're small, and unzip to a floppy for each.

Use the TechWOrm 1st and it will give directions to use the AV scanner.

There are txt files for each with good instructions on the floppy after unzipping.

Good luck.


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## davelc (Jul 24, 2002)

I wish to thanks everyone for their help in this matter, it's greatly appreciated! I cleared Bios and restarted computer and it worked fine. I had previously looked for halt on all errors in Bios but didn't find any such entry. My guess is some how my friend had changed something in the Bios which caused system to lock up on boot. I scanned computer with Norton Antivirus 2002 with current update and it said system was clear of any Virus. Also I appreciate the information (griffinspc ) gave me about bootup software (very usefull). Thanks Again to everyone. I'll make it a point to try to return the favor and do what I can to help others on this web site.


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## griffinspc (Nov 16, 2001)

Glad everything's working and thanks for the kind post. it makes our days.


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