BIOS or BOOT problem.

Hi,
I'm not sure if I should open a topic, but It's my first time here so,

I am facing this problem with my PC, I was using it just like any other day, but I decided to restart it just to make sure the softwares I installed/uninstalled throughout the week were working.
Now, my windows XP wont boot. I get that white blinking underscore on a black screen and nothing else shows up.
(For a few seconds blinking the underscore moves 1 line down, and then nothing happens)

I have tried setting BIOS to default values, replaced SATA cables, changed power cables (DC and AC cables), removed battery, removed any plugged device besides keyboard, and still no success.
However, I was able to connect my HD on my laptop, and I can see all of my files from here, ran a chkdisk, registry cleaner.

I did tried copying ntldr & boot.ini from my laptop (which boots normally) to my desktop's HD.

I am using an Asus P5KPL-AM, I've also tried flashing the bios using the one from Asus website, on my MB's page. But the flash utility says its not compatible. (my Bios is Rev.0402)

I'd also like to mention that I've tried booting my XP cd, but it doesn't even try to read it, the same thing happens.

I really need help with this one.

Thanks in advance,
Psy.

Welcome to WinDrivers.

How did you get the BIOS flashing utility to run if the computer won't boot?

Thank you!

and Asus P5KPL-AM, comes with a BIOS in-built flashing utility.

EZ flash utility if im not wrong. Its DOS based.

Take out any U.S.B. devices other than keyboard / mouse, especially any backup hard drives. Boot and get into the BIOS and find the boot section and ensure that it sees your hard drive and will boot only from it. It is possible that the computer is trying to boot from other sources. Good luck!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PsyOmega

a BIOS in-built flashing utility.

EZ flash utility if im not wrong. Its DOS based.

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BIOS alone, or DOS from a floppy disk? In other words, did the computer boot correctly from a bootable floppy disk then run a DOS utility, or did the flash run entirely from the BIOS and read just a file from the floppy disk?

Also, as Guts3d mentions, since it seems you may be able to enter the BIOS setup, are the hard drive and optical drive correctly identified in the BIOS?

Everything was removed I only have my keyboard (PS/2) connected.
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Yes, BIOS alone, my computer doesn't have a floppy disk. The Flashing utility looks for a ROM inside my HDD, not from external devices or medias.

POST shows everything tested successfully, without errors.

I've set BIOS boot to primary HDD. I've also tried setting to CD-ROM with a XP SP2 in it, but not even the "reading media" message comes out.

Next I'd suggest disconnecting all drives from the motherboard, which should provoke a complaint about not finding a bootable device (eg Operating System not found). If nothing changes, I'd look for a CMOS reset jumper, as taking the battery out may not have achieved a reset (some boards can hold capacitive charge for a long time without the battery).

See also troubleshooting for that mainboard:

http://support.asus.com/Troubleshoot...gcg&os=&no=978

Windows XP will not function with the majority of SATA controllers. If your XP was set up with the motherboard controllers set to IDE emulation rather than AHCI with a SATA driver (likely as system has no FDD and driver is generally installed from one), you might get XP booting again by setting the SATA to IDE mode in the BIOS setup.

$10 says that you had a USB flash drive or media card plugged in...

What you did was a form of taking apart the engine block when it doesn't crank.
Critique aside, unplug power, reset CMOS.
Remove all peripherals (CD, hard drive, floppy, any cards not needed - obviously except video).
MAKE SURE THERE IS NO USB FLASH DRIVE OR MEDIA CARD PLUGGED IN!!!
Power back and see if it complains about a missing drive (might take few minutes).
If it does connect the hard drive and see if it boots (or at least crashes while trying to boot). If it crashes you hopefully have a backup copy of boot.ini If not it's not that difficult to add an entry to match your OS.
If everything is fine and the OS starts to load you can then connect the peripherals back.

My windows was installed from a retail XP CD that came with the computer, an original one in case the thought of a "30 Day Trial" CD come into this matter.

Unfortunately there was nothing plugged on USB besides my mouse. Which I ended up unplugging after this problem started.

After I removed my HDD and CD ROM, SATA cables, a message showed up asking me to select a boot device or something, I thought one of those 2 could be causing the problem, so I made an AND connection:
0,0 : Boot message
0,1 : Nothing
1,0 : Nothing
1,1 : Nothing
And yes, it does complain about missing drives.

Like I have mentioned, I did copy boot.ini and ntlrd from my working Laptop which boots correctly.

Sounds like the PC is trying to boot from the wrong drive. Check the boot order in the BIOS setup.
Someone said pull out all USB memory drives. Good idea, this can cause exacly this problem...