Help! Desktop won't fully boot

[mwade]

Soo frustrated; everyday it seems like something is going wrong and pretty much everything needs $s I don't have and now this:

Computer: Windows XP

Was working in Photoshop and had some other windows open while files were opening and it stalled so I had to ctrl alt d to close Photoshop. Not unusual when I've been working all day and opening so much. Realized I was low on space on my C drive which is both my program files and where that particular set of images was so I changed my preferences in Photoshop to put the cache in another drive and then tried reopening. Stalled again so I restarted, but it decided not to restart.

I get the motherboard screen, black, motherboard screen faster, then sits on a black screen. I can get the motherboard screen back and the ability to edit the bios stuff that I don't understand by ctrl alt deleting. NOTHING I do seems to get me past this (I've turned off multiple times and even unplugged for a few minutes).

Could really use help on this.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Help! Desktop won't fully boot

Does your hard drive spin up or make any noises when booting?

 

[JF_Gophers]

Re: Help! Desktop won't fully boot

When booting up you should try booting into safe mode. Usually accomplished by hitting an Fkey (F2, or F12 something to that effect) during the boot up process. If it boots into safe mode OK you may be able to troubleshoot the problem.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Help! Desktop won't fully boot

When booting up you should try booting into safe mode. Usually accomplished by hitting an Fkey (F2, or F12 something to that effect) during the boot up process. If it boots into safe mode OK you may be able to troubleshoot the problem.

F10 is the usual suspect IIRC. F12 is typically a boot list (DVD, HDD, USB, etc.)

 

[mwade]

Re: Help! Desktop won't fully boot

How would I see the problem in the safe mode?

 

[JF_Gophers]

Re: Help! Desktop won't fully boot

How would I see the problem in the safe mode?

There is a few basic things you can do.

The last of which would be to use the System Restore feature. But in that case you could use Safe Mode to transfer all of your important files onto a seperate storage device.

Otherwise:
- Run disk cleanup and disk diagnostic repair tool (if you have it).
- Run disk defragment
- Check the filespace on C: and clear some more space if you are really low. Low HD space on the boot drive can be a problem all on its own.
- Delete the last file(s) you were working on and reboot to see if they were the issue.
- You could uninstall Photoshop and then boot up normal. If that works you can just reinstall the program.
- Run System Restore

It's possible Photoshop freezing has nothing to do with the problem. You could try disabling anti-virus and booting up to see if that was causing any issues. Or it could be something else completely.

 

[MadTownSioux]

Re: Help! Desktop won't fully boot

F10 is the usual suspect IIRC. F12 is typically a boot list (DVD, HDD, USB, etc.)

If you have a Dell, F8 boots you up in Safe Mode. But you have only a second or two to hit it, so from the moment the computer starts up you have to hit the f8 key.

Or - Here's a primer on using MSCONFIG to boot in Safe mode.
Safe mode bootup using MSCONFIG

 

[mwade]

Re: Help! Desktop won't fully boot

Thanks everybody. It was actually something very simple that I could have fixed myself (actually tried it, but the proper drive wasn't in the list so it didn't work).

If you have an ASUS motherboard (my computer was built from scratch - not a Dell), they apparently are known to just change the boot drive from time to time. I've had this for just under 1.5 years and this is the first time. Anyway, it is simple to switch back.

If you do have ASUS, it'd be smart to know how to recognize the boot drive by the drive's actual name and not just the assigned letter. In my case my program drive is only 640 gb while the 4 others are all 1.5tb so it was easy to spot.