Weird boot problem

Hi all. I'd be grateful for some advice about a non-booting Dell Dimension 3000 desktop pc.

A friend managed to half-kill his machine and gave it to me to sort out. When I got it, it was locking up on boot and asking for a BIOS password.

I finally cleared the BIOS but it still wouldn't boot and kept telling me that 'ntldr was missing' and stuff like that.

I managed to patch in a floppy drive (this machine didn't have one) and somehow, with the aid of a half-dozen assorted trouble-shooting boot floppies, managed to get Windows started.

The OS was infested with bugs, nearly 400 of 'em, but I cleaned them out ok. But it still wouldn't boot normally.

So I took a look at the boot.ini. It read:
-------------------
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT= "Microsoft Windows XP Setup "
-------------------
I examined the drive structure with an XP install CD. The final (blue) screen read:
-------------------
76294 MB Disk 0 at Id on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]

-: Partition1 [FAT] 31 MB (24 MB free)
C: Partition2 (C drive) [NTFS] 73171 MB (53741 MB free)
Unpartitioned space 8 MB
E: Partition3 [FAT32] 3075 MB (1688 MB free)
Unpartitioned space 8 MB
-------------------
Obviously, the FAT and FAT32 partitions contain system building data, but I don't have any Dell Recovery disks. Not that I want to recover it, now that I've got Windows running almost normally.

Anyway, after more fooling about, I got this boot screen:
----------------------
Please select the operating system to start:

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Setup

(Use keys, blah blah, Enter to choose)
---------------------
Selecting 'Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition' gets a full boot.
Selecting 'Microsoft Windows XP Setup' gets the message:

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

So I removed the last line of the boot.ini. It now reads:
---------------------
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
---------------------
But now I get the message:
----------------------
Please select the operating system to start:

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Windows (default)
---------------------
Selecting 'Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition' gets a full boot.
Selecting 'Windows (default)' gets the message:

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart
---------------------

It seems that I'm almost there. Can anyone tell me what other adjustments I should make to get the machine booting normally?

Thanks

 

I think your boot.ini file should look like the 5 lines below (if this display is more than 5 lines, /fastdetect is part of line 5).

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Also, you may have an aborted installation of Windows on the disk, look for a folder named windows.old.

 

BurrWalnut, thanks. Your ini works fine, except I'm wondering if I can dump the line 'Windows (default)'?. Just been looking at one of my PCs and I notice that I don't even see the ini (boot options) onscreen - it just goes straight to Windows.

Anyway, it works and that's the main thing

 

You want to keep the (default) line but just change the (timeout=30) to (timeout=5).

 

If you had used the boot.ini version that BurrWalnut suggested (and it worked successfully) , you wouldn't be offered any boot menu to choose from and would not see the option to boot any default system or 'Windows (default system) ". I'm left wondering why you would need to delete it since it shouldn't be there???

Keep in mind, if you only have one system loader line in your boot.ini file, you won't get any pause to select which system to boot (regardless of how many seconds you choose), since there isn't really any choice. Windows will ignore the pause time that you insert if you have only one system loader line in your boot.ini file and boot directly into Windows.

The only way to get the boot process to stop or pause when booting a single line boot.ini system is to insert a negative value for the pause period (like -1). When you do that, it will pause indefinitely, and wait for your approval. I might add that doing that isn't such a bad idea since it also give you some other boot options, such as the ability to access the boot options menu that pressing the F8 key during boot would deliver. Sometimes that F8 menu option is hard to access for some users or for some systems so perhaps in those instances, a negative time value in the boot.ini delay has value.

 

Well, I just took another look at the boot.ini file and here it is, cut and pasted onto a memstick. As you can see, the only difference is the timeout - 5 secs instead of 30:
-------------------
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optIn /fastdetect
-------------------
This results in:
'Please select the operating system to start:
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Windows (default)'
---------------------
Either selection now gets a full boot.

The main reason I changed the timeout was to avoid seeing the information that "shouldn't be there ", LOL.

Well, I guess I could change the timeout to 0, which should remove the screen altogether, shouldn't it?

And I note that I could add the option '/noguiboot, which would remove the 'Windows XP' splash screen also.

Perhaps the information that "shouldn't be there" is showing, not because of the boot.ini itself, but because of a glitch in the way that the ini is being handled, i.e., by whatever operator kicks in next.

FWIW, the XP version is XPHome, and I've updated it to SP3. But the display hasn't changed; it was the same when XP was SP2.

 

There is a flaw in your boot.ini default system loader line. You are missing a parenthesis symbol.

You have:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2\WINDOWS

And should have:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

 

Ah! Thanks for spotting that. My old mother was right after all, you do go blind eventually

 

Hi, i am also facing same type of problem.
My laptop HP Pavilion DV2185ea stopped booting, completely black screen with 1 long & 2 short beeps and no other indications. i tried ON & OFF once worked when re-booted same the problem.

If you have any idea share with me

Regards

Rentala

 

rentala, That normally means that your video system hardware has failed. Reseat the video card, if such you have (Not likely on a laptop). If you have MOBO integrated video, it's probably time to get a new computer. Final decision should rest with a qualified technician confirming the diagnosis.

Masonite, I know the feeling. Of all things lost, I miss my mind and my keen eyesight most. Glad you got your one-eyed monster tuned up properly.

As the best,

Dude