Hi

I was recently installing a game on my pc (I know the game was ok as I had installed it before on my old pc), but it had a 'moment' and decided it wouldn't install. Whilst doing the automatic uninstall, the pc appeared to get into some kind of loop and hung. Anyway, I didn't have time to wait, so switched the pc off at the plug (not a good idea, I know, but I had no choice as had to be somewhere).

Since then, when i switch the pc on, it goes through the initial startup (I can still get into the F2 setup screen), but then as soon as it goes to initialise XP, it stops with a black screen, and just displays "Disk read error - press ctrl alt delete to restart".

I've tried changing the boot device - tried booting from an external hard drive via USB, and tried booting the XP install cd, neither of which works.

Does anyone know what this might be? I'm stumped.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer
Nick

hello nickywickywoo and welcome to pchf

unfortunatly it is not my area of expertise but one of the techs will be here shortly

did you try to perform a repair install of windows?

genie3251

Hi - thanks for the welcome!

Yes, I did try that, in that I tried to boot from the XP install disc - it starts up, then on a black screen I get the message "windows is now inspecting your hardware configuration" or something very similar, but then the screen goes black and nothing more happens - it's as though something's stopping the pc from going any further than that.

It's very strange - the boot device selected seems to make no difference - I'm wondering if something's blown on one of the boards maybe?

cheers
Nick

Hi nickywickywoo.

The initial problem of "disk read error" is a fixable one.

However, with your other problem, where the cd won't boot....as you also had the problem installing the game, i'm going to suggest you have a suspect cd drive. Are you able to borrow another one off a friend to give it a test? We won't be able to fix the boot error without a cd drive.

Hi

I do have another drive I can substitute for the existing one, so that problem can be overcome. What do you suggest thereafter?
Thanks
Nick

Have you made sure the cd boots with the substitute drive first?