Kitz Forum
Computers & Hardware => PC Hardware => Topic started by: whitlog on October 28, 2008, 10:22:15 PM
-
ok my Pc is only a few months old and I have had no probs until now.
Last week when I booted it up now and then it would have a message on the first boot screen saying that my cpu had some changes to it
now this week it has just frozen a few times so i have had to reboot, it has also when booting up just stoppped before the windows vista sign appers and also tonight when booting up it asked to insert the bootble disk
any ideas what could be wrong?
thanks for any help
-
Hi,
Sorry to hear that you are having a few bootup problems.
The key part of your post is
my Pc is only a few months old
Before trying any attempts at curing the problem with advice from forums, get it back to where you bought it from along with your receipt. Let them sort it whilst it is under guarantee.
Any attempt by yourself that 'back fires' will result in the guarantee being voided, the possibility of any programs and folders being lost and you ending up with a very expensive door stopper.
Please understand that I am not saying the advice on here is not the best (it IS the best) but you should never attempt to repair a machine of any description that is still under guarantee.
dave
-
ye true,I guess the thought of getting them to look at it, send it to them etc put me of
but I have emailed the company to try get this resolved, thanks
-
If you end-up returning it to them, make sure you have backed-up any files you want to keep to an "external" source first.
Backing up the files now could be a good idea, you could then try a manufactures restore if you have their disc to see if that also solves the problem.
> any ideas what could be wrong?
It sounds a little like the MBR (Master Boot Recovery) files has possibly been damaged.
You could try a repair.
Insert the Vista disc and re-boot the PC booting to the CD/DVD drive, then select the "Repair" option, it only takes about two (yes 2) minutes to repair, if that is the problem.
-
Ye good point, I will back up any things i want to keep, saying that i dont have too much to back up as it only being a few months old.
The replied to my problem and said they though it looked like the bios profile had changed. They gave me instructions as to what to change it back to and so far so good :)
-
"If it's not to late"
When you first go into the BIOS, I would advise you to carefully make a note of "ALL" the individual settings before changing anything.
Admittedly this move won't be as drastic as a BIOS upgrade which could end-up killing the PC totally if not done properly.
But at least if it still does not sort the problem then again you can easily revert back to the older settings.
-
ye good shout
I made a note of things and also made sure I saved the settings as a profile so I could go back to them if it went bad
so far no probs but time will tell yet
-
1): Which version of Vista are you using?
2): Can you post the system specs? CPU, MoBo, GPU?
3): Has it been overclocked?
4): Have you made any modifications to the base system? Any additions/deviations?
Any report that says the BIOS has been changed/modified makes me *very* curious. There would have to be some changes in order for the BIOS to report this, so even if you've added/removed some hardware, can you please let us know?
-
after still more probs the tech team who have been emailing me think its a boot up prob after i emailed them a message in the bios with the sata 3 so just waiting for them to see what they decide to do next
-
well before they closed he sent me a email saying after the info i gave them he thinks my hard drive is dying, he gave me 2 options, 1. send it to them and they sort it or 2. send the hard drive to me and i fit it, I have never fit a HD but have fitted ram etc, its not that that bothers me buts 2 other things!. would I have to mess with the bios and 2. would it affect the warranty if i did it so that's what I asked him and will get a reply tomorrow hopefully
-
well before they closed he sent me a email saying after the info i gave them he thinks my hard drive is dying, he gave me 2 options, 1. send it to them and they sort it or 2. send the hard drive to me and i fit it, I have never fit a HD but have fitted ram etc, its not that that bothers me buts 2 other things!. would I have to mess with the bios and 2. would it affect the warranty if i did it so that's what I asked him and will get a reply tomorrow hopefully
Fitting a hard drive is very easy. As simple as mounting it with screws into the chassis, and connecting an IDE/SATA cable and a power cable.
The BIOS will pick up the new drive easy enough, and it will boot up accordingly.
However, is the new drive a primary/master or secondary/slave drive? As in, does the Ooperating System sit on it?
Warranty? If they're sending you out a new drive, it doesn't affect the warranty.
-
after i emailed them a message in the bios with the sata 3
First of all, SATA drives do not need to be configured as Master or Slave.
Secondly, did you try my suggestion above with regards to repairing the MBR ?
Finally, if they send you the HDD, then it will probably be blank and you will have to re-install windows.
Not forgetting you will also lose any manufactures backup/recover software on the drive.
So the best think to do is to "Clone" your old drive, then re-install the clone file onto the new HDD.
If you can still access your old drive, then just insert the new drive into the PC and clone it over.
Personally I would take it back to the shop and let them do it.
-
Personally I would take it back to the shop and let them do it.
Same here, let them do it for you :)
-
Sorry for the late reply
I have not tried the fix yet but I am getting the Windows CD brought to where I live now to try it, I had arranged for them to send me the disk as I Thought it would be quicker.
But this morning I noticed a new message when I was half asleep which started Warning and something about the cpu but as I said I was half a sleep and missed it as I pressed F1 to carry on the boot up
-
Sorry for the late reply
I have not tried the fix yet but I am getting the Windows CD brought to where I live now to try it, I had arranged for them to send me the disk as I Thought it would be quicker.
But this morning I noticed a new message when I was half asleep which started Warning and something about the cpu but as I said I was half a sleep and missed it as I pressed F1 to carry on the boot up
Worries me when you say they are sending you a CD, you should always have the CDs for all the software installed when they supplied the PC just so problems like this can be sorted when out of warranty.
Like others have said take it back and make them fix it and give you a full set of CD's.
-
I notice you have not 'named' the pc maker,it makes me think a reputable dealer would have either sent an engineer(if you have onsite warranty)or a least collected,fixed and returned your pc.
You should have been given windows installation disc's and IMO any other software installed should come with the required disc's.
When I bought my Dell pc in April of last year,the HD failed.I did the necessary checks as asked for by tech support,on completion of these checks,they sent an engineer and replaced my HD.(I did have onsite warranty though).
How old is your pc,it should at least come with 12 months warranty.
-
Sorry my fault I was in a rush this morning and did not explain myself fully
I meant I do have the cd's just that they where not in the house I now live in.
I got my Pc from Chillblast around july so I have the 12 month warranty and as some of you say and confirmed in the email from chillblast if i fit the new HD it does not effect my warranty.
I am now going to try the fix with the Vista Cd
and to anwser a question before my Pc system is
Windows Vista 64
Asus P5N-E SLI Motherboard
Intel Core Duo E8500 3.16GHz
4GB Ram
600GB Hard Drive
2X Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 512
I will run the Vista CD and tell you the results, Also at this point i dont really have anything to back up........not sure if thats a good or bad thing :)
-
Ok I rebooted my Pc and used the Vista CD, It did not repair anything as it said there was no probs and i also ran the memory test that you can do on the cd and it was fine as well
-
I am getting the Windows CD brought to where I live now to try it,
But this morning I noticed a new message when I was half asleep which started Warning and something about the cpu but as I said I was half a sleep and missed it as I pressed F1 to carry on the boot up
Sound like they are sending you a CD and not a HDD (which I thought was strange asking the customer to install a HDD)
Did you not try re-booting to see what the message said if it appeared next time. (when you were awake)
*************
edit
Please ignore comments above, I replied without reading page 2 (missed it)
-
Ye i did, it never showed again, but if and when it appears again I will note it down
-
As I mentioned it had started showing a new message when i boot my system up, it did it again this morning.
After the first boot up screen when it then shows a list of things in your system it stops there and says near the bottom
"Warning CPU has been changed please re-enter CPU settings in the CMOS setup and remember to save before quit
"Press F1 to continue , Del to enter setup"
then after i press F1 i get the usual "insert bootable Disk" a few times as i restart my Pc, then after a bit it boots up fully and seems sluggish and then will freeze at a random time, sometimes a hour in or maybe 3 hours after it started
So should i email them at let the company know or will the new Hard drive they are going to send me fix this? I cant see how it can since it talks about the PU and not the hard drive
-
That's a very strange warning message, but I suppose that you need to go into the BIOS setup and do what it says. I don't recall ever having to do that manually, but maybe all will be revealed when you get into the BIOS setup. I can't imagine that the hard disk has anything to do with it - actually it sounds more like a memory problem, even though you've done a memory test.
-
I am not sure that the error is memory related. More like a BIOS battery. Why would it forget the CPU settings, unless you've been changing jumpers on the MoBo and what not. Also, if it is a BIOS bug it may simply need to be flashed with the latest BIOS firmware. Perhaps you can try that and if it doesn't fix it then send it back and claim on the warranty.
-
I was about to comment on the BIOS battery, then got to the bottom of the page.
Yes, it could be worth changing the battery first, especially as they are not very expensive.
WARNING:
Flashing the BIOS if not done correctly could also damage the PC "permanently" and possibly also invalidate your warranty.
Get them to pick it up and get it sorted by their techies.
-
Personally I doubt it would be the BIOS battery on a newish PC, but you never know. As others have suggested, get it sorted out under the terms of your guarantee.
-
You are right Mick - def the BIOS battery. the boot error is because of the defaults being loaded each time the machine is switched off and it'll be defaulting to external boot or something like that.
get a new battery, reset BIOS defaults, check the boot order is correct and bob's ya uncle.
-
will do thanks :)
-
I don't know if this topic will be of any good but certainly worth taking a look at.
"Especially on how to repair a MBR (Master Boot Repair)"
(Even when the initial test says "Nothing Wrong")
http://forums.computeractive.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=145710
-
thanks will defo have a look :)
-
so i got the new HD and it seems to have sorted out all my probs , apart from my DVD-rom but thats another story (thread). thanks for the help with this :)
-
Glad to hear things are taking a turn for the better.
Did it come pre-installed with windows?
If your DVD ROM problem is related to this problem, then it's probably best to keep it all together on this same thread.
People can then see/read what you have already done.
-
When i first got the sytem they had installed windows on it, then when i got the new HD last friday I had to install windows on it, My DVD ROM just stoped working Sunday night and now everytime i try load a game it crashes my PC.
So I emailed chill blast telling them of my DVD ROM and Game issues and said i want to send the system back.
I got a reply saying they can get the system back to me but this would not be possible until a week from now as the workshop is all booked up at the moment. but he said they would probably just set the system up as if it was a new machine, and then stress test it again, do any of you know how thorough a stress test is?
-
To be honest the stress test is only as good as the engineer who carries it out.
But, bare in mind the last thing the company wants is for the PC to keep coming back with faults.
Have you taken a look in "Device Manager" to see if there are any problems as it may be a faulty driver problem.
It is perfectly safe to remove the DVD Rom from Device Manager, re-start the PC and it will look for and re-install the driver, (if that's what the problem is)
-
Ye I had a look in device manager and there was no probs, I also did as you suggested as someone else told me to try it as well and that was to uninstall then reboot and let the Pc find the DVD ROM and it changed nothing. I just hope they sort it all out when I send it, I don't mind not having to wait for a week if they are busy as long as it sorted