Re: re visited Green Screen - warning, a long ramble

<jeff> wrote in message
news:ldsrv1db280eujm1e14jt1ug2lcrujgg2l@xxxxxxxxxx
On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 15:29:52 GMT,
"pmj" <post@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<jeff> wrote in message
news:o6sqv1lv68a4bpd602mck2s1t2kemcf6bc@xxxxxxxxxx
<snip>
By the way It is a Medion MD8383XL and not had a reply from
Medion yet.

Have you tried Ringing the Medion Support HelpLine up?
They have an 0870 (NationalRate) Number, which you can find on
the [Support Information] Button on the General Tab of the System
Properties Dialog Box
<snip half a dozen different ways to get to the System Properties>
Doh!
I just realised!...
If you can't Boot your PC up, then you aren't going to be able
to get to any of that Information shown on the System Properties
thing, are you?
:-(

Re last para, I will have to say 'Bugger' Just had her running,

Great!
:-)

... but now failed again.

Oh dear!
:-(

... Do not know where to begin - I have 5 pages of notes, will
try to paraphrase. is that the word?

Thanks for the url's for diagrams, and suggestions, most helpful.
<snip>
Got the battery out,
<snip>
Refitted the battery connected the old Compaq monitor and eureka
she loaded up ok. no date of course and the TV software reported
a fault and closed, otherwise most things looked normal. Thinking
that was it shut down and fitted the TFT.

Power up, nothing, not a thing on the screen and cont. sound from
tower.

Maybe it was doing it's "Found New Hardware" thing?

Or did it not even get as far as that?

It might be an idea to go into the BIOS & Set the "ReSet ESCD"
(Extended System Configuration Data) thingy?

... Power up, 'del' cont

I'm not sure what you mean there by "cont" - Normally I take "cont"
as being short for "continued"?
But Pressing the [DEL] Key, to get into the BIOS Setup just goes there,
there's no need for anything else to be Pressed to get there.

... and CMOS setup utility screen appeared, but no keyboard control.
switch off at tower.

The PC *should* be able to handle the (USB) Wireless Keyboard OK,
when in the BIOS, but you do need to make sure that Option is Enabled
in the BIOS (it is by Default)

Power up, 'del' cont CMOS appeared again and immediately press
right arrow and moved over to top right option and other arrows
active also.

& can you use the PageUp & PageDown (& Plus/Minus Keys) & the Enter
Key to get to & Set the various BIOS Options?

Is it a normal (Phoenix) AWARD BIOS?
Something like V 6.xx PG?

The one with the Blue (Background) Screen, with Yellow/White/Pale
Blue Options?

Accepted Save and Exit and she fired up part way into windows
(the ms windows XP logo with the 3 traveling buttons 75% across.

That's actually just an Animation - it *isn't* (unfortunately)
any indication of actual Progress.
So, you can't really infer anything from how far across the bars go.

... Continued to hang with fan going full blast. switch off at tower.

If it was *Starting* to Boot into WinXP, then it *may* have been
doing a whole load of "Housekeeping"?
Which may make it *seem* as if it had hung?
How long did you leave it for?

Power up again and got a screen full warning that windows had a
problem and advised to start in safe mode etc etc

Yep, if you Shut it (or it Shuts) Down, during BootUp, then the next
time it Boots up, it gives you the "Safe Mode Boot Menu thing.

... (did not have time to read and fully take in) before she booted
to the windows log in screen

Ah...
When you get that Boot Screen, there's a Default Option Highlighted/
Selected & if you do nothing within the Countdown time (30 Seconds?)
it just Selects that Option.

The thing to do is to Press one of the Arrow Keys 9or the [Escape] Key.
That Stops the Countdown, so you can have a chance to See & Read all
the Options & then choose the one you want.

... and I logged in ok.

Try it again & see if it gets into Safe Mode OK?

Changed the screen to 1152 x 864 which seems about right.

Nope.
For any normal LCD (17 or 19 Inch), the correct Resolution will be
1280 x 1024 & if you Run it at anything other than that (the "Native"
Resolution), it won't be as clear or as accurate, unlike a CRT Monitor,
which will happily work at lots of different Screen Resolutions.

... Inspected installed progs. etc etc and in general could not see
anything amiss.

Have a look in the Event Logs?
Control Panel (or Start Menu) Administrative Tools>Event Viewer

Reset Date and Time and logged off and closed down.

Fired up again. Got screen detailing OSB storage device (3 lines)
IDE Channel 2, Master disk, LBA, ATA 100, 250GB.

PCI device listing.
Bus No. Device No. and 5 more columns and IRQ
15 lines of info

It *might* possibly, Help to see that Info?
Though that's really just the BIOS working through the POST - Power
On Self Test. There *might8 be some clue there as to what the prob
might be?

and hung at that. Switch off

Power up again, Nothing just one long bleep.

Power up again, Screen showing no signal.

Power up again, 'del' into BIOS window, select save etc and she then
carried on to MS Window XP logo (Blue markers at right end of box)
and hung.

Power up again, cannot get into bios screen. Switched itself off
and on and got the Windows warning screen again.

Paraphrased - Windows could not load and warned that could have been
caused by, new hardware installed or power failure and other possible
caused There was at least two start options - carry on or revert to
previous good position.

The previous good position was selected and she started up OK

That uses a (Saved) Version of the Registry.
Each time the PC Successfully Boots up, it Saves a Version of the
Registry, so that it can be chosen as the "Last Known Good"
Configuration, from the Boot Menu.

Screen res. had altered so reset to 1152 x 864.

It won't actually do any *Physical* Harm having it Set at that
Resolution, but it should be 1280 x 1024, for any normal 17 or 19
Inch LCD.

... Time and date had been retained.

Yep, they should be.
They are stored in the BIOS/CMOS RAM

... Net connection OK.

Great!
:-)

... I fired up the Network Drive and after about 5mins the drive
came on line (this time delay is usual)

During this period Pop Tray went on line and took the emails.

Did another general inspection and everything appeared ok so Closed
Down. She went on to install 5updates and then shut down normally.

Power up again. Screen reports no signal and then power down.

Doh!
:-(

... Hold in start button until comp stops

Power up again. and press 'del' Tower gives a series of long
bleeps - screen no signal etc switch off.

It might be an idea to look up the Beep Codes for the BIOS?
That way, you would know what it is trying to tell you.

Power up again. switches itself off and on again, 'del' no effect,
and this time hangs on the Intel Pent 4 logo, no bleeps and cooling
fan slows down.

Wait 5 min's and reload pencil!

LOL!!!
:-)

Power up again - nothing

Power up again - nothing

This is sounding ominous!

Power up again - with Medion Bootable cd created 5.3.05 in tray, -
nothing

Power up again - with Medion Operating System Installation cd in
tray, can hear cd drive running - but nothing.

Weird!!!

It really should just Boot up off a Bootable CD.
Don't forget with a WinXP Install CD, you have to look for the bit
(at the Bottom of the Screen), which says...

<quote>
To Boot from CD, Press any Key...
</quote>

& you have to Press any Key, *while* that message (with the Dots)
is on the Screen.

Ditto pressing 'del' again nothing

Sorry for the lengthy ramble. I have also saved it (the ramble)
as a separate file for future use when and if ringing Medion.

Saw a reply from Medion when the emails appeared asking me to ring
them and go through with their expert, but before doing that am
trying to get some facts in a logical order, difficult with nothing
being really consistent.

Yes.
If it was repeatable, then you could prolly track it down a lot easier!

It would suggest to my non expert knowledge that prob. could be
residing on the system files on the Hard Disk,

Yes, but then how come it doesn't Boot up off a CD OK?

... if it managed to start up OK tomorrow, would it be possible
to reinstall Windows without destroying everything else on the
disk?,

Yes, you can Run the windoze Install Routine from within windoze.
& do an "over the top" Install (also known as a "Repair" Install).

Alternatively, you can do the Install from a Bootable Install CD
(assuming you can get it to Read & Boot from the CD!)

If you can't get it to Read the CD at the mo, but you *can* get it
to Boot into windoze OK (even Safe Mode), you can Run the Install
from the i386 Folder., which is in the windoze Folder.
Navigate to & Run the File winnt32.exe

... another alternative would be a new hard disk and when running
ok (LOL) fit the present disk as a slave/2nd disk?

Yep!!!
But that would mean doing a complete Install of windoze on it,
wouldn't it?

& you would lose the (Pre-Installed) OEM Applications & Drivers.
But you can Install them later.

Do that (Installing windoze on the new Hard Disk) *without* the
existing (suspect) Hard Disk in the Machine & only fit it once you
have the Installation up & Running OK.

HTH

--
pmj


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