Windows Vista Windows Booting Problem

The manufacturer is Phoenix. I don't know any specifics beyond that, or if there is a certain brand I have. But I do know that I haven't updated the BIOS since I purchased the computer, and this was back in maybe 08 or 09. How would I go about updating it?

Yes, it gives me an error message. It actually gives me different ones at various times. As I said, it's given me the Windows Boot Manager screen a couple of times. Sometimes I get the screen that says insert the system disc, this one is the most frequent. Sometimes I get a screen that says something along the lines of windows didn't shut down properly (although it did). Sometimes I will get a port 01 message screen. And sometimes I will get a NVIDIA Boot Agent screen.

So really, the error messages are hit and miss, I never know which one is going to pop up. However, the BIOS fix seems to work every time, regardless of the previous error.

 

Yes, I just checked. I have the version from 08/14/2008. R01-A4.

I'll go ahead and download/install the updated R01.B0 version now.

 

I installed the update as you said to do and then rebooted the computer. Of course, it worked fine the first time. Then each additional time, I still have to enter the BIOS.

The part that is frustrating me is the fact that when I go into the BIOS I don't have to change anything. It's already in the correct boot order. All I do is re-select what is already selected. I literally make zero changes, yet it works every single time.

Any clue on what the next step would be? I could try to write each error out if you think that would be helpful.

 

In response to Arie:

Yes I have to enter the BIOS myself. If not, error messages will pop up.

In response to Evan Omo:

Okay I will try that now.

If it helps, I attached the pictures of the steps I have to take each time.

As you can see, when first entering the BIOS everything is already perfect. Second step, I change the First Boot Device to any other one one.Then the third step, I change it right back to Hard Disk. Lastly, I save to CMOS and exit.

 

Alright lol, time to update you on what happened.

I inserted the system disc, and went to the command prompt. The first two commands worked perfectly. The third one said "The requested system device could not be found" (I took a pic of that screen in case you need to see it)

I went ahead and restarted, and the windows boot manager screen came back up. This is the same problem I had before I posted this question. I had to restart and go back into system repair and try to repair the computer. After trying about five times it finally repaired correctly and now I'm here. I'm not sure if I'll have to run startup repair each time I want to boot back into windows, but that's how it was before, so I wouldn't be surprised. I guess I'm right back where I started lol.

 

There's never just one error. There's been four or five that show up at any given time. I never know which one I'll get. Earlier I described most of them. Here's the paragraph:

Yes, it gives me an error message. It actually gives me different ones at various times. As I said, it's given me the Windows Boot Manager screen a couple of times. Sometimes I get the screen that says insert the system disc, this one is the most frequent. Sometimes I get a screen that says something along the lines of windows didn't shut down properly (although it did). Sometimes I will get a port 01 message screen. And sometimes I will get a NVIDIA Boot Agent screen.

As far as checking out my drive, is there a way to know the manufacturer? I can't recall.

 

Thank you. And sorry I'm a little slow. I don't know what I need to look for on the Western Digital site. Here's all the information I got from the Speccy program.

WDC WD32 00AAJS-22B4A SCSI Disk Device
Manufacturer Western Digital
Business Unit/Brand Desktop/WD Caviar
RPM/Buffer Size or Attribute 7200 RPM with 8 MB cache
Interface/Connector SATA 3 Gb/s with 22-pin SATA connector/SATA 1.5 Gb/s with 22-pin SATA connector (Mobile)
Interface Fibre
Capacity 298GB
Real size 320,072,933,376 bytes
RAID Type None

 

Thanks.

Should I run the quick test or extended test?

 

Okay so I ran the extended test.

It said: "The test found bad sectors that may be repairable"

And it gave me the option to click Repair, so I did.

It then said: "Error was detected while repairing bad sectors. Please contact WD technical support for help. "

 

You will need to check if the warranty on the drive has expired. I don't know about WD warranty, it might be 5 years, if you are unlucky, it will be 1 year. They won't replace the drive unless it is under warranty. Look up the warranty details for your model on the WD website.

In the meantime, back up your data and investigate how you can get the "system" transferred over to the new drive.

Matt

 

So basically I need a hard drive?

When I booted up today I got a new error message. It said something along the lines of pxe-61: Media test failure, check cable.