Hi there, I'm having a bit of a problem with my PC and would appreciate some advice. I have an Advent T9202 3.4G P4(hyperthreading) with an 80 Gig HD and1 Gig Ram. I am running Windows XP Pro (sp2).
Yesterday I installed "The Ultimate Troubleshooter" and used it to change some settings and turn off some start up services etc. When I rebooted my computer today the following happens:
There are no POST screens, I can't start in Safe Mode, I can't access the BIOS. The computer eventually displays the blank desktop and "show desktop" is ticked. CTRL+ESC doesn't do anything either.
I can't boot from the Windows CD or Hirens Boot disc as I can't access the BIOS to change the boot sequence. I have tried some other hard drives but get nothing. I have even tried a new SATA drive-still nothing! Somebody suggested I reset the BIOS by removing the battery, which I did. It made no difference. CTRL+ALT+DEL doesn't do anything. The only thing I can do is right click on the desktop.
I am all out of ideas, can you help?
Thanks
Dave

ps. If I remove the Hard drive and put it into a USB external drive bay and connect it to my laptop would I be able to fix the poblem from there?

Please help!!!!!!!!!

Hello and Welcome to PCHF

Cant tell you how many times I have tried to tell people not to use those types of programs.......sigh

When you removed the CMOS battery did you disconnect the psu connector from the board?

Hi, I think I've learned my lesson! No I didn't disconnect the power supply connector, but there was no power to the PC at the time.
Dave

I hope you didnt have the system powered up when you removed it

Dont matter if there was no power or not, remove the CMOS battery, disconnect the psu connector from the motherboard. Wait 10 minutes and reconnect. You should be prompted or given the chance to enter Setup by pressing a key, either Del or F2 or F1, depends on your system

Hi, I took out the battery and power lead as you suggested. After 10 minutes I put them back. There is still no POST screen and if I hit delete/F1 the pc just hangs and fails to boot at all. There is no output to the monitor until I get the Windows desktop after a few minutes.(if I just let it boot as normal).
Do you have any other suggestions?
Thanks
Crewey

Have you tried Last Known Good Configuration?
What settings and files did you delete/remove from startup? What were you thinking and did you know what the files were for?
I am not sure what you could do if it were placed in your external drive. Not much you can do and why you cant access the BIOS is beyond me and puzzling the heck out of me.

When you boot, press F12, sometimes it brings up a boot menu