I believe Dells get you into the BIOS by holding down the <delete> key during boot-up.
Go to: http://www.knoppix.net/ and download the latest version of Knoppix and burn it to a CD as an ISO. You can run it live off the CD to check for hardware problems. -p [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > My computer is fracked up again, though this time I've been able to at least > recover my data with relative ease. > > I really need help: my computer won't boot. > > It's a Dell Precision 650 (I think) dual-Xeon workstation, running Windows > Vista Ultimate for about a week now. It's a few years old, but it's more > powerful than anything new I've tried lately. I bought it used from my old > boss last December. It never had problems while I was using it at work for > two > years, nor after I brought it home, until I started playing games on it > (specifically GTA San Andreas and Star Wars Battlefront II). A little over > two > weeks ago, my hard drive became inaccessible and I didn't have the original > Windows XP disk, so I had to scrap everything and buy a new OS and hard > drive. > Vista has been a dream until two days ago. > > At the point in the boot cycle where the BIOS is done and Windows is supposed > to start, nothing happens. The screen is blank and a cursor smugly blinks > away > in the upper left corner. I've tried using the restore options on the > Windows > Vista disk, but to no avail (it says there's nothing wrong with my install of > Vista, and restoring the system to a previous date doesn't fix anything > either). I used an old Norton SystemWorks disk to run their equivalent of > Disk > Check, where it found some sort of "security descriptors" problem and fixed > it, > but the system still won't boot. I'm beginning to think this is a hardware > issue unrelated to the hard drive, but I don't know how to find and solve the > problem. > > Also, since this is a used computer, I don't know how to get access to Dell's > BIOS drivers and related software in case there are updates and whatnot. > > If anyone has any ideas on things I can try or where I might find drivers and > such, please let me know. I'm getting desperate here: I just want a stable > computer! > > Oh, please don't throw some "Switch to Mac/Linux/abacus" balloney at me. > Aside > from the fact that I can't afford anything new, I actually like Windows and > don't think the OS is the issue here. > > Thanks, > John > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net