cannot boot from win7 dvd - continuous beeps - can boot from ubuntu dvd though; following win7 crash

James P · Mar 23, 2014

Hi All,
For no apparent reason, my desktop PC froze (screen went black) forcing me to hard shutdown. This used to happen while gaming; but would be solved by reboots or by compressed air (realted to overheating of graphics card).
Now after bios screen, cursor on top left flashes, disappears, and screen dims.
I burnt a linux (ubuntu12) image to dvd and am able to boot from it and access hdd files. I can browse windows files running linux. I never see any activity on (what I suppose is the) HDD activity LED though.
I burnt a win 7 installation dvd to try to repair Win7 and all i get when i try to boot from it is continuous beeps that only stop when i hold power down and shut down. Tried a different download for same win version - same issue.
Issue seems HW related, but I'm just not a HW guy

Any ideas out there?
Thanks for any help or ideas you can provide.
James
Packard bell Ixtreme M5740

lonewolf7 · Mar 23, 2014

Yes it seems like hardware issue. First try your HDD on a different system, look how it behaves there ! If the problem persists on a different machine, then it probably be a bad HDD. You can also try the CHKDSK command from CMD. Sometime it helps.

Else it could be either one MB, GPU, PSU. BTW what is the make/model of PSU ? What are the temps of your system ?

James P · Mar 23, 2014

Well, the psu is an FSP ATX-250PA; and the temperatures were looking ok - nothing above 35º (even less when I started this morning - 27ºish, though currently backing up so cannot check (that in itself is what is confusing me about the HDD problem - surely I wouldn't be able to copy files as I am doing now if it were faulty?)..
Either way, I won't be able to install the HDD on another machine for a few days unfortunately..
I did identify that one memory stick was faulty, but have already removed it and the issue remains identical.. And it only beeps when the windows7 installation disk is inserted; again, confusing me.. (perhaps I'm easy to confuse..

)
Considering I cannot get to any windows screen (i thought cmd prompt was within windows) what's the process to call up the command window?

Tom Tancredi · Mar 23, 2014

"I burnt a win 7 installation dvd to try to repair Win7 and all i get when i try to boot from it is continuous beeps that only stop when i hold power down and shut down. Tried a different download for same win version - same issue."

Okay first question, are you talking you 'torrented' a download or you talking you downloaded from the Microsoft Digital Distribution site?

Secondly I would suspect that yes you damaged the hardware with overheating, but you say the Ubuntu does boot fine and the PC is working fine. So, if your measurement is that Windows doesn't load, I would HIGHLY suspect the above / other malware/virus got into the system and won't be repairable only replaceable.

James P · Mar 23, 2014

Hi, I got the official download from MS. (both times - I found two links to the same OS version (home premium, 64)
What gets me is that the failure is immediate - there seems to be no attempt at loading windows beyond the first two cursor flashes after bios. Still, following from your answer, I'll try a kasperski boot disk to check if anything is detected.. Unless you are aware of any other more effective tool for the job..
I'll update on the result.
Thanks

Tom Tancredi · Mar 23, 2014

Well there can be a bad HDD as well, due to the heat and other damage, but to test even that 'theory' the same path would need to be taken. All steps would involve a ext. HDD, booting from Ubuntu, dragging USERS from the drive to the ext (yeah you lose all the games and apps sorry, can't do anything about that) and if you stored stuff in any special directories (i.e. in the D:\MySuperVideos). Download and make a DBAN CD, unplug the ext. HDD and reboot, wipe your internal HDD, then try to reinstall Windows.

IF during any part of this fails (data can't be copied, DBAN can't wipe the HDD, etc.) your looking at a hardware failure, either PSU (irregular power causes irregular errors), CPU, RAM or HDD. Next step would be hook the HDD using a SATA to USB connector and try data copy/wipe that way to see if the HDD fails on a secondary computer. If the HDD can succeed, then PSU/CPU/RAM is next.

Over all IMHO considering all this I would cut losses once I got the data off the drive (if possible) and I couldn't wipe/ reinstall a OS and shell out for a new computer (depending on needs, Walmart $249 i3Core).

James P · Mar 23, 2014

Well... Despite the horrid hassle it involves; I can access all data and back it up.. (am doing so now

)

Kaspersky fails to even mount the disk.. (maybe 1.5 hrs weren't enough?!) My suspicions thus land squarely on the HDD right now..
I'll be testing that as soon as poss; but for now.. I can go no further.

I cant justify shelling out on another PC just yet...

I had hoped the symptoms were known and I was simply failing at formulating a search string to locate the answer...
Alas the testing must go on...

Thank you guys, Ill update with any progress I make as soon as possible.

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