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General discussion

HELP! IS MY HD FRIED?!

by polkaishot Jul 11, 2006 1:15PM PDT

Earlier tonight it was raining by my house so I turned off my PC after there was a short power outage.

A few minutes ago my dad came over to use and turned it on and it wouldn't work. The boot screen showed up and it asked me if I wanted to start up the desktop normally or in safe mode. Thinking nothing was wrong, I chose normal and then to my surprise, after the boot screen showed up, the monitor went blank.

I then tried turning it off by pressing the Power button, but it wouldn't so I had to unplug the power from the back. I started it over and started it in Safe Mode which worked. I'm going to try reinstalling Windows, but before I do that I wanted advice from you guys.

As for system info, I've got a Gateway 504GR with WinXP Home edition with integrated gfx (for those who think it might be my gfx card).

Please help! Sad

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2 Posts
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FIXED
by polkaishot Jul 11, 2006 4:39PM PDT

All right guys, I managed to "fix" it.

While in safe mode I just restored it to a time before the storm (7pm). I still would like to know what might have caused my PC to act up like this though.

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The secret's in there...
by GeeBee Jul 13, 2006 3:30AM PDT

...somewhere, and indicated by when the computer did work.

A rule of thumb is : If the computer works in "Safe mode" and not in "Normal", you have corrupted drivers, or missing files.

"Safe mode" loads a minimum of these to get basic functionality going, to help you return the system to working order. If "Normal" mode fails when you've had a power cut, your PC has almost certainly lost a driver. Why? Well powering off, whether by accident or otherwise isn't an instant usually an instant death to hardware. Computers reset and Operating Systems crash all the time, without worry, so a power outage isn't any more dangerous. However, an immediate power loss can corrupt a system file or driver. Because these are loaded and in use, they are sometimes in a continual state of flux, and shutting down unduly springs a special surprise on them! They are then effectively corrupted as they weren't returned to a default ready status by a correct shut down sequence.

This is a simplistic explanation, and it doesn't happen, but when it does...Safe Mode's always the first route to recovery.

GB.

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