Tech: When a Computer Gets Stuck

Subject: Tech: When a Computer Gets Stuck
From: GUEST,EbbieattheCyberlounge
Date: 25 Aug 11 - 09:53 PM

I moved down the hall a few weeks ago and of course disconnected the computer. I did not jostle or thump or drop the computer but when I hooked it up a couple of weeks later the cursor did not respond. In the process of button pushing I sent it into 'hibernation'.

Now it will not traverse from a blue screen with four or five commands, among which is 'Boot Menu'. When I push that button, it says 'Loading Boot Menu'. And just hangs there.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Subject: RE: Tech: When a Computer Gets Stuck
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 25 Aug 11 - 10:36 PM

???? I tmight help to know what Operating System you're using.

There normally is no cursor response until enough is loaded to let the computer know that there's a mouse attached, and that doesn't usualy happen until after the Boot Menu has run. Until a mouse driver is loaded, you only see a list of "choices" and use Tab or Arrow Keys to move to the one you want.

You won't ordinarily be asked to push a button to run the Boot Menu unless your computer is rigged to dual boot to a choice of Operating Systems.

A first step often is to reboot and hold down the F2 key while the machine is starting up. This normally will take you to the BIOS menu. The BIOS is a chip on the mother board that runs a few hardware checks and then opens a minimal system sufficient to give the machine enough "brain" to call up the uperating system. The boot menu tells it where to look for the "real OS" so that it can then crank up the rest of the computer.

Although F2 is the normal key, a few computers use a different one, so you should watch for a message that says "Press XX to enter Setup" while the machine is starting up. Setup is where you're trying to go.

Since you can't know just when the computer will look at the keys, you need to press and hold down the correct key until "something else happens." In Setup (actually it's BIOS Setup) you can change the boot sources, and the order in which the BIOS looks for a Boot Menu that it can follow. If you have several choices listed, it will use the first one it hits on.

The description sounds like it has looked in all the places where it's told the Boot Menu should be, and isn't finding one or the one it finds is corrupted. You may need to add either a CD drive or other source to the list ahead of the normal System Drive if there isn't one in the list, so that you can boot from a Setup or Recovery Disk that can replace a missing or corrupted file.

On a few computers, if the CD drive is listed in the BIOS list and there's a CD in the drive, the machine might "hang" looking for the menu file, but normal resonse is to quickly discard that source and go to the next one. It wouldn't hurt to check and make sure you don't have a disk in the drive(?) although it won't hurt if there is one there on most machines.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: When a Computer Gets Stuck
From: Amergin
Date: 25 Aug 11 - 11:15 PM

You may also crack it open and reseat the hard drive and/or the memory sticks. Sometimes those jiggle lose, or even when the computer gets warm, they creep loose.

It would be helpful to know what error you're getting when you get the blue screen though.

Subject: RE: Tech: When a Computer Gets Stuck
From: GUEST,Uncle Rumpo
Date: 25 Aug 11 - 11:31 PM

When a Computer Gets Stuck ?


I guess hospital emergency X Ray departments have seen everything
and heard all the excuses
for how even the oddest objects end up jammed in the human posterior !!!???