Hi DAL,

This morning, I turned on my PC, it was working fine. All of a sudden, it froze up. I'm talking no keyboard response, no mouse movement, I can't even CTRL+ALT+DEL and turn it off.

So I reset the PC, and it wouldn't get past the initial "Press DEL for Setup, Press F11" etc. It just stopped working altogether.

I tried putting in my Windows Installation CD, to boot it from CD, and that worked fine, for about twenty minutes. Again, everything froze. So I tried the same procedures but nothing this time, I've tried resetting, switching off at the mains, the installation disc, but absolutely nothing. I can't even press any of the F buttons.

I really hope there's something I can do to resolve this issue. I've got three years worth of pictures and memories on that computer and I'd hate for them all to be wiped off.

Cheers DAL.

doctoracula

You can always put that hard drive in another computer in order to access your data.

From your description this is not a hard drive problem.

Until you actually start to load Windows (or any OS) your hard drive is not in the starting equation.

I'd suggest running MemTest but you need to at least be able to get to the boot phase.

MemTest
--------------------------------------------------
Try running MemTest.

If the computer will not POST and get to a boot level try clearing your CMOS.

How you do this depends on your motherboard.

What is the make and model of the motherboard and or computer?

Thanks for the quick response Jephree.

Thanks also for the tip about moving the hard drive from PC to PC.. is it as simple as taking a plug out of the wall and putting it into another?

I'm sorry, I have no idea what a CMOS is, or what my motherboard model is.

Sorry to be a pain!

To move the drive you need to open the case and unplug the hard drive and then take it out of this computer then put it into a working computer.

The plugs are fairly basic. We can dig up guides if you want them.

The CMOS / BIOS is what runs on your motherboard to start the computer. Nothing to do with hard drives. There are jumpers on the board to clear this information thus giving the motherboard a fresh start as it were.

What is the make and model of the computer? Is it a Dell? HP? IBM? A Dell Dimension? A HP Pavilion? etc. There are also model numbers such as Dell Dimension 5100 or HP Pavilion 110US etc.