Windows XP won't boot up

[VerizonDSL_Tech]

OMG OMG OMG, I think I damaged my motherboard/CPU by overclocking to 3.23GHz from 3.0GHz. OMG OMG OMG, what have I done! I formatted my hard drive like 3 or 4 times in the past 24 hours. I can't boot into Windows. It gets to the Windows XP loading screen, but then all I get is a black screen. The only way to fix this is by formatting. System Restore doesn't work and Norton Ghost doesn't work. Made a couple Ghost boot disks but they just freeze.
Brand new motherboard and CPU too! I don't care, I'm going to try to get an exchange... I haven't even had them a week! AAAAAAAH! *Runs around like a madman, screaming, pulling out hair, runs into wall, faints*
Any suggestions?

Specs:
P4 3.0E Prescott
Asus P4S800
512MB DDR SDRam
256MB DDR GeForce FX 5600XT
120GB + 80GB Hard drives
52x24x52 CD-RW
16x DVD-Rom
Floppy drive :santa:

PS. My overclocking days are over... I've retired from overclocking. I've started this overclocking business like... oooh... I don't know, 24 hours ago?

[mtb856]

Did you put the BIOS back to it's default settings? By formatting, what do you mean? Like "I formatted my drive with FAT32 or NTFS" or am I missing something here?

What were you doing before the system stopped working?

I wouldn't count on System Restore to work( it's never worked correctly for me), but I'm surprised that Norton Ghost didn't work.... I'm guessing that means it's not related to your problem. I'll try to think up some other stuff that it might be.

BTW, just slow down and sleep it off. I've "killed" my computer 3 times in the last few months and it's always been some small thing that I forgot to do or some small part that was acting weird. Worrying late at night just made me feel sick..... just take a step back, sleep in late, and then look at the replies to your thread.

Sorry about your bad introduction into overclocking....and I hope you can get your computer running again in short order.

-Meatball

[malinois1]

Does your Mobo have a PCI lock? If not it may be corrupting your harddrive. Put everything back to stack speeds in bios and load the OS back and see what happens.

[enduro]

Just to ask. What hs do you have? My experience with Windows not booting up, is usually when I have a unstable memory or cpu overclock, and save and exit repeatly in Windows. After a while, I just had too many Windows errors, and it wouldn't boot at all. I just used Ranish Partition Manager. Formatted my drive and then did a clean install of Windows and that seemed to work. Although you've done that several times. I'm wondering if it had to do with your el cheapo psu giving the prescott enough power, and something happened when it drew to much power. That's just a thought, not a fact. Sorry that your first 24 hrs had to be so rough, but I wouldn't give up on overclocking entirely. Just make sure you read up on what you're doing before you do it. I had a cheap power supply for a while, and buying a new one has solved several instabilities.

Edit: that's a good point. I just assumed that because he said he was done with overclocking that his rig was stock again. Make sure to return everything back to normal like ^ said.

[Dcasole]

I'm wondering if it had to do with your el cheapo psu giving the prescott enough power,

Did you change it out or are you still using the 250W one?
If you did not I would bet money that you smoked it

Clear Cmos ( remove the battery ) and the go back into the bios and set it to " default" settings
If it still does not boot change out the PSU if you have not allready

Like MTB says , get a good nights sleep and go back to it . We have all " KILLED"' our systems at one time or another

Good Luck and keep us posted
Dave

[VerizonDSL_Tech]

Thanks a lot for your suggestions. I should have also mentioned that I did reset my BIOS to default and my CPU is back to 3.0GHz.
mtb856, by formatting, yes, I mean formatting the HD to NTFS (tried a full format and a quick format).
I'm still using the 250W power supply, which was working flawlessly until I overclocked my CPU. I'm going to get another one (I spent $60 CND on that one!)
You've all killed your computers... well as for me, I don't think there's a computer component I haven't burned yet. Including the monitor... burned that twice. Burned a motherboard and 2 power supplies. I think I'm cursed.
But yeah, I did sleep it off, at work at moment, uh... helping people fix their computers (talk about irony).
In answer to your questions, mtb856, what I was doing before it stopped working was just working on the computer regularly. It does this this recently where a program just stops responding, and even though I end the task, it stays there and I have to reboot. That's when I know I'm screwed and that's the last time I can access Windows until a reboot.
enduro, what do you mean what 'hs' do I have? Not sure what 'hs' is.

[enduro]

HS means heatsink. I was referring to the cpu heatsink that you have. I was just wondering, because Prescotts are referred to as preshotts also, so you need a fairly nice hs to cool it down.

[mtb856]

In answer to your questions, mtb856, what I was doing before it stopped working was just working on the computer regularly. It does this this recently where a program just stops responding, and even though I end the task, it stays there and I have to reboot.

Yeah, I get those every few weeks or so..... although the new Firefox has been doing it a lot more, usually all I have to do is reboot and then it's fine.

I'm still using the 250W power supply, which was working flawlessly until I overclocked my CPU. I'm going to get another one (I spent $60 CND on that one!)

There have been 3 people in the last week with 550W PSU's that burned them out by overclocking their Prescotts. It's recommended that you have at least 24A on the +12V rail of your PSU and some of the new ones pump out 34A so that the Prescotts get enough power.

If you're planning on oc'ing your Prescott to 3.8 gigs or so.... you're going to need a PSU like the OCZ Powerstream 520W(33A on the 12+ rail) to be able to handle it. I have the Antec TrueControl 550W and it's nice (24A on the 12+ rail) but the OCZ is only 20 bucks more and it's much nicer.

I don't know if you have that much money to spend, but it's easier to buy the nice stuff first rather than go through 4 40 dollar PSU's and possibly damage other parts when they fail.

Good Luck :)

-Meatball

[VerizonDSL_Tech]

Well I'm not certain what kind of heatsink this is, but it's quite a nice one. Came with the motherboard. I know those aren't usually the best, but this is a pretty decent one. I know the problem isn't heat related because my CPU temp is usually between 40c & 50c. The fan spins at a rate of 5000 RPM.
Next I will try resetting the mobo's CMOS, then updating the BIOS, and I'm going to order me a decent PSU from TigerDirect. They have some pretty decent prices.

[jszent]

Yeah, I get those every few weeks or so..... although the new Firefox has been doing it a lot more, usually all I have to do is reboot and then it's fine.



There have been 3 people in the last week with 550W PSU's that burned them out by overclocking their Prescotts. It's recommended that you have at least 24A on the +12V rail of your PSU and some of the new ones pump out 34A so that the Prescotts get enough power.

If you're planning on oc'ing your Prescott to 3.8 gigs or so.... you're going to need a PSU like the OCZ Powerstream 520W(33A on the 12+ rail) to be able to handle it. I have the Antec TrueControl 550W and it's nice (24A on the 12+ rail) but the OCZ is only 20 bucks more and it's much nicer.
Yep one right here..smoked it.........

I don't know if you have that much money to spend, but it's easier to buy the nice stuff first rather than go through 4 40 dollar PSU's and possibly damage other parts when they fail.

Good Luck :)

-Meatball

[VerizonDSL_Tech]

Just placed a beauty PSU on order (500W, 34A on the +12 rail) from TigerDirect.ca:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=905184&CatId=1079

*sniff*... I feel tears swell up in my eyes just looking at it :attn:

Also I tried Norton Ghost again and it worked beautifully. It's the first time I've used it and I'm amazed that it restored my system in only 2 minutes (even though I had only backed up 4 GB of data).

[VerizonDSL_Tech]

Oh my goodness... I think I found out what the problem was all along; why Windows wouldn't boot up and why I had to format my hard drive every 4 hours! I don't think it had anything to do with overclocking. I put my thinking cap on and started to think, what the hell did I do to this amazing computer to cause it to function like a machine that has a Windows product installed on it...? I thought... the last thing I did was install Norton Ghost... That's it! Hm... I wonder if I reformat the computer and NOT put that ghost on, see what happens. Sure enough, I haven't formatted my computer for an entire day, yaaaaaay! :attn:
And to think that the whole time, the FIRST thing I was installing on Windows was Norton Ghost, so that I could use it to back up my data, when all along that's what was causing me to lost my friggin' data! :temper:
So yeah, beware of this program then... anyone know of a similar program? I found it quite useful, except for the fact that it did exactly the opposite of what its purpose was, and that was to destroy my data. Thanks Norton, 'preciate it. We'll see if I don't pirate every Norton product out there... *whoops, thinking out loud again*.

[mtb856]

Hey, that's great that you figured out what your problem was :)

I'm glad that it wasn't overclocking that did it to you.... so are you going to restart overclocking now that you have a better PSU? You'll probably have to upgrade your cooling to overclock it very much at all.....overclocking is a constant "I need a better version of this to overclock higher" and pretty soon you've lost track of how much money you've spent :D