Hi,
I have an ADVENT T11, about 18 months old, with windows XP.

On a restart I got a message saying that there was a problem with files in C:\Windows\system, unfortunatly I did not note down the exact message.

On a futher restart I just get a blinking curdor and no message and the PC does not accept any input.

I can get to the BIOS but not to the recovery consol that comes delivered with the system that I should get to by hitting f10 and does not require any cd-rom in the drive.

I have changed the BIOS setting so that the CDRom is first and can not get the PC to boot from either of the cd drives. My next step is try the floopies that I can download from MSoft.

Does anyone have anyother suggestions or ideas? TIA for any advice.

Steve Rowe

You May Want To Try Hitting F8 While Booting And Go Into Safe Mode

Originally Posted by newfdtb

You May Want To Try Hitting F8 While Booting And Go Into Safe Mode

Thanks for the tip, but no luck. On start up I get the splash screen for the processor and then straight to the cursor and blank screen, takes about 5 seconds.
Could I have changed something in the BIOS in error that stops the PC from booting at all?
TIA

How About Setting Your Bios Setting Default

Have tried that as well! Thanks though

Hi there - is your hard drive showing up in the BIOS? (are all your drives showing up) Can you run an auto detect to force it to check?

With trying to boot from CD - do you get a "press any key to boot from CD" message at all?

You could also try booting from a floppy disk.

If you can't boot from any devices you might have a more serious hardware problem (then, say a dying/dead hard drive). Is your PC still under warranty? If not you could trouble-shoot the hardware .

How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks

If you cannot boot into Windows I would suggest first trying the Recovery Console:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;307654

To try to fix the boot:

Assuming that your XP is on C: then:

Type:

FIXMBR C:

then enter. After that completes type:

FIXBOOT C:

then enter. After that completes type:

BOOTCFG /rebuild

then enter. After that completes type:

EXIT

then reboot.

If in the process you are asked to run chkdsk say YES.

Also after the BOOTCFG /rebuild you will be prompted to:

C:\Windows
1. Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All):
2. Enter Load Identifier: (Custom description for an operating system loading from the Boot menu)
3. Enter Operating System Load Options: (that is: /fastdetect)

Reply:
1. Yes
2. XP
3. /fastdetect