Goofed bios or raid utility and windows wont start

Discussion in 'Software' started by radiot, Oct 11, 2005.

  1. radiot

    radiot Private First Class

    I was attempting to get into my bios, without really knowing how, and wound up in my RAID utility. I exited w/o changing anything (not real sure) next I wound up in boot sequence selection which I exited w/o changing (pretty sure) windows screen (black with 4 color flag )comes up with little bar under logo, after a few seconds screen flashes red, machine reboots, to a screen saying "windows did not start properly.....select: safe mode, safe mode w/ networking, etc."

    This becomes a never ending loop: safe mode options displays a list of drivers, stops, reboots. Last good config, and start normally iterate to black screen with windows four-square, flash red, reboot, and back to "windows did not start..."

    System is: Tyan k8w, 2X opteron, 2gb memory, RAID is a 0 (?) (2 duplicate drives), video is ati 9800 pro (which has been malfunctioning, hence trying to get into bios to change voltage) XP sp2, all patched, ZA, etc.

    The bios is open and sitting next to me (wife knew how, why ask her first?)

    Thanks for any help.
     
  2. Hunab Ku

    Hunab Ku Private E-2

    go back into bios and make sure you haven't enabled raid if you haven't raid.

    just an idea
     
  3. radiot

    radiot Private First Class

    I do have a RAID array, I think its called RAID 1. It is two drives that contain same data.
     
  4. Hunab Ku

    Hunab Ku Private E-2

    and you didn't oc'ed your pc very very nasty? ;)
     
  5. radiot

    radiot Private First Class

    if oc'ed means overclocked, its not overclocked at all.
     
  6. radiot

    radiot Private First Class

    P.n.g.?

    I cleared the cmos, set bios to optimal defaults, and problem persists.

    What is happening at the black windows screen with 4 color flag and the little status bar? What would make it stop whatever its doing and reboot?

    Is the video card's death a real possible cause for my heartache?


    I noticed on last reboot to safe mode that the last driver to print before hang/reboot is amd agp driver of some sort. Does this point to Video card?

    How can I power down machine safely when caught between "select startup mode" and involuntary reboot?

    Anyone? Should I bring the machine into the shop or jump out the window?
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2005
  7. radiot

    radiot Private First Class

    Moral of the Story and Resoloution

    Here's what the deal was:

    My video card (ultra-crappy Radeon 9800 pro) seemed to be failing (~pyrate~'s comment here regarding permenant damage is absolutely correct) and the video card would crash my system. This happened one time to many and corrupted the "boot sector" of my HD, preventing windows from starting properly. So, unable to fix it, the box goes into shop, $505 later (4 hours labor, plus $110 for new HD), its all better.

    Moral: when something is crashing your system, diagnose and fix it IMMEDIATELY. A crappy video card cost me 6 times the price of a new card, and also cost me 7 unproductive workdays.

    The idiot_doug
     

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