Vista boot problem and startup repair fails

[FranzH]

Hi, my pc has just refused to boot into windows, and the repair tool on the vista cd has also decided to play up.
Currently i am typing this on my psp, so please dont expect a quick reply from me.
I am sure that the rest of my disk is ok but what happens is that i get to the log in and it crashes, same goes for safe mode.

franz

[Moose]

Just re-install it, if the Vista CD doesn't work.

[FranzH]

I dont want to have to reinstall everything i have it set up nicely

Well my PC is on now, and before i turn it off, i want to create a disk or something that the computer can use to boot into windows incase it happens again. Is this possible? Like if the boot sector or whatever becoems corrupted then i can just pop in the disk and it will use that to either repair the boot sector or use it as a boot sector.
Im currently googling that idea but does anyone know if there is such a disk?

[FranzH]

Ok well I have tried everything and i can boot it sometimes, and i cant boot it other times. I have come to the conclusion that there is something wrong with the hard disk.

Reasons:

System Repair on the Vista CD from boot doesnt work at all.
Using bootrec/fixboot and bootrec/fixmbr does not work (Boot from vista CD > Command Prompt)
Hitting F8 and getting to Last known good configuration does not allways work.
Sometimes, leaving it alone for a while works.

Thoughts?

(Hopefuly im going to sell this PC on ebay so i want to know the problem before i sell it so i can say wether it is my HDD or the actual PC.)

[Deturbanator]

have you tired the cable leading to your hdd, maybe it is loose??

i dunno this is a very hard problem to determine over the internet.

[FranzH]

Ok so i thought i would update this and write a ton more detail on the problem in hand.

So about the boot problem, I think this is the result of another problem that i have - My PC shuts of randomly. So at the moment I have the boot problem down to improper shut down.

But this other problem of my PC shutting down randomly is more annoying.

There is no set pattern for when it shuts down, Just recently it shut down when i was playing a game, and when i was scanning my PC. Sometimes just randomly when it's doing nothing but upon looking at the problem i think it maybe when the pc is under cpu intensive things (i wouldnt have thought scanning would be too intensive).

My specs:
2.8GHz Pentium D
2 x 1GB of RAM
ATi x1300
Windows Vista Home Premium

Could someone give me a few things to try to find out the root of the problem?
I intend to sell my PC on ebay soon so i don't want to sell it faulty and not warn people (at the moment i think it is just the hard drive but something make me think its not just that)

I have ran various Spyware programs, AVG, tried to do Housecall but it crahsed doing that.

This is my PC, i was hoping to sell it on ebay for £700 (No Hard drive, but i think i may have to let it go for £500-600 if i cant get rid of this problem
http://www.packardbell.co.uk/product...00101-691.html

The temperature seems fine, it has a few fans inside, thought i don't think the TV infront of it helps.

If you need anymore info please ask

[explosions]

http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...ppn=PB74300101

[FranzH]

ever thought of a BIOS update, thanks!

Also i think one of my fans have stopped working (I changed some bios settings to beep when a fan isnt working and aparently its the system fan.)Ill have to find out which one that is and replace it to see if that works, maybe the computer turns off to protect itself just before it overheats or thinks it might because the fan isnt working? I have another big fan working but i guess it wants all the fans working?

[aznpinoy217]

You know maybe you need a bigger power supply...just thinking. How much do you have right now?

[FranzH]

Honestly I have no idea because i didnt build it. I cant see anything on the PB website and i cant open it until my laptop charger bets back from apple so that i have a spare computer to use.

[FranzH]

Another thought, I have 3 fans i think on my pc and i'm pretty sure they all run (although the bios tells me system fan isn't working, and a program tells me Fan2 and Fan3 arn't spinning) is it possible that Vista isn't recognizing the other two fans and thus shuts down to prevent damage when it requires a lot of processing power?

The crash it just a proper power off thing, the screen goes black, fans stop spinning, only the on/stand by light is on. And you can only boot up again without it crashing after you have unplugged it or turned it fully off for a while.

[eldiablov]

do yourself a favour and go back to xp.

[FranzH]

Nah, already bought vista and i dont have an xp cd or key.

I just need to know if my above post is a possibility.

[Moose]

I think you could be right. Try booting with no fans plugged in, then reboot with them plugged in.

[FranzH]

Ok i will try that, ill also try taking out the other RAM i installed, check the connections to everything.

Hopefully i can get this fixed.

[FranzH]

Ok so i've taken a look inside and i think i know what is wrong.

I have 3 fans on my PC, one of them attaches to the plug named CPU_FAN and the other two to a plug called SYS_FAN, because there are 2 fans going into one plug it had to use a extension thingy, however this only had the black and red wires to give power to the fan, and was missing the 3rd wire that, i guess, gives the computer info about the fan. So ive come to the conclusion that vista is involved more in the status of our fans then xp used to be because the random crashing never used to happen before.
Off to Maplins i go to get a new extender thingy. (Pic below is of original)
Just to make sure, will 2 fans with 3 wires each be able to go into one fan plug and give the computer info about the fans?

[Deturbanator]

Originally Posted by FranzH

Nah, already bought vista and i dont have an xp cd or key.

I just need to know if my above post is a possibility.

u can if u ask me
-= Double Post =-

Originally Posted by FranzH

Ok so i've taken a look inside and i think i know what is wrong.

I have 3 fans on my PC, one of them attaches to the plug named CPU_FAN and the other two to a plug called SYS_FAN, because there are 2 fans going into one plug it had to use a extension thingy, however this only had the black and red wires to give power to the fan, and was missing the 3rd wire that, i guess, gives the computer info about the fan. So ive come to the conclusion that vista is involved more in the status of our fans then xp used to be because the random crashing never used to happen before.
Off to Maplins i go to get a new extender thingy. (Pic below is of original)
Just to make sure, will 2 fans with 3 wires each be able to go into one fan plug and give the computer info about the fans?

im pretty sure it just checks if the fans are working by the power sent through the cables. The mobo detects if power is going through and if it is then it determines its working. i just cant imagine the fan having some kind of chip integrated into it for sending signals

[FranzH]

I thought that the third wire sent how fast the fan was spinning, no?

Edit: It does, i just plugged in two fan instead of all 3, thus both can use all 3 wires, and now i can get fan speeds for both fans.
-= Double Post =-
Sorted. Most of my problems are now fixed i think.

That wire stopped vista having a hissy fit when it got/thought it was getting hot. Managed to fix some ati driver errors which were linked to .net framework issues.

Only problem i have now is the computer crashing on boot after either a restart, improper shut down or crash. So how would i go about diagnosing what causes the comptuer to crash at boot?
Only program that comes to mind is the one that shuts down everything before the computer.