My computer is fracked up again, though this time I've been able to at least recover my data with relative ease.
I really need help: my computer won't boot. It's a Dell Precision 650 (I think) dual-Xeon workstation, running Windows Vista Ultimate for about a week now. It's a few years old, but it's more powerful than anything new I've tried lately. I bought it used from my old boss last December. It never had problems while I was using it at work for two years, nor after I brought it home, until I started playing games on it (specifically GTA San Andreas and Star Wars Battlefront II). A little over two weeks ago, my hard drive became inaccessible and I didn't have the original Windows XP disk, so I had to scrap everything and buy a new OS and hard drive. Vista has been a dream until two days ago. At the point in the boot cycle where the BIOS is done and Windows is supposed to start, nothing happens. The screen is blank and a cursor smugly blinks away in the upper left corner. I've tried using the restore options on the Windows Vista disk, but to no avail (it says there's nothing wrong with my install of Vista, and restoring the system to a previous date doesn't fix anything either). I used an old Norton SystemWorks disk to run their equivalent of Disk Check, where it found some sort of "security descriptors" problem and fixed it, but the system still won't boot. I'm beginning to think this is a hardware issue unrelated to the hard drive, but I don't know how to find and solve the problem. Also, since this is a used computer, I don't know how to get access to Dell's BIOS drivers and related software in case there are updates and whatnot. If anyone has any ideas on things I can try or where I might find drivers and such, please let me know. I'm getting desperate here: I just want a stable computer! Oh, please don't throw some "Switch to Mac/Linux/abacus" balloney at me. Aside from the fact that I can't afford anything new, I actually like Windows and don't think the OS is the issue here. Thanks, John -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
