computer crash

I have a computer its a HP with windows xp was running fine then the power flashed off and back on and when I turned it back on it will only go to that black screen where you can boot up in safe mode normal mode or last known working version of windows , no matter which you choose it just goes back to that same screen , tried to go into recovery but it only brings up a blue screen and doesnt do anything else . Is it dead or just stuck ? help would be appreciated

 

I really need to get that new battery for my battery backup...

Sounds like something may have gotten zapped. Can you get into the BIOS? If you can, that might let you look around a bit at your devices. Also, remove any extra hardware that you don't need to boot (extra hard drives, CD/DVD...).

If you are passing POST (Power On Self Test) I would suspect the PSU or the hard drive. Can you test the power supply with a multimeter?

A bootable CD would be a good thing to try (reconnect CD/DVD drive). Many Linux distros can run from the CD drive.

 

nothing else connected dont seem to be able to get into anything but that one screen not sure about the power test , dont really know what to do

 

Can you get into the BIOS?

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/a/biosaccess_pc.htm

Can you download and burn a bootable CD OS? Something like this: http://www.knoppix.net/

You will most likely need to get into the BIOS to setup your CD drive as first boot device unless it is already set to that by default.

Do you have a multimeter?

 

cant get into bios , tried that disk it didnt work and no dont have a meter

 

Not looking good. I am officially off duty here, enjoying some Christmas cheer. Perhaps someone else can advise you further.

 

The fact that you can get to XP safe mode options makes it seem like an XP problem to me.

Many HP are F10 to get into BIOS which key are you using? Which model HP is it?

When you tried the Knoppix disc did you burn the ISO as an image file to make it bootable rather than as a standard data disc? I'm thinking if we can get it to boot from Knoppix then it may be worth downloading a recovery console ISO to try a chkdsk /r on the C: drive to see if that does any good.

 

I found a cd recovery disc from my laptop which runs xp also and put that in and reloaded it , from what I could tell that whole drive was wiped out but after reloading I looked into the my computer and there is a recovery partition can I use this to restore the original setup that was on this computer my laptop didnt have the same stuff that the desktop had , like a dvd burner ?