computer acting up

[#1]

Can anyone suggest something please
First windows xp showed the usual start up screen with a blue thingy moving across from side to side
Then i got a white on black screen showing various options
various safe modes, last known configuration that worked etc
Nothing worked so i tried safe mode
got a blue screen. something about a "dump" and also about problems with missing registry values ( I forgot to take notes)
I restarted and cant get past the start up screen
when i hit safemode again it just ponders and restarts like its in a loop
I took out the hard drive and tested it on another computer using a caddy.
There was a ton of dust under the fan so i vacuumed the whole insides and put everything back
Now when i try to boot I hear a beep and only get the first white on black screen with "Press ESC to enter setup" etc... then it goes off and beeps and comes back on, over and over. I can get into the bios bit not into windows, not even safe mode
any suggeations please
Now I cant even get the log on screen
computer beeps, then I get the white on black screen with the "Press ESC to enter setup" etc
then it keeps

[#2]

The first issue you had sounds like a windows corruption.
Your second issue after cleaning sounds like your hard drive isn't been recognised.
It might be that the cables aren't seated correctly after you put it back in, can you double that they are all in the right places and pushed in?

[#3]

It shouldnt enter setup unless its corrupt it should just try to boot from cd  floppy hd depending on the order and then say no bootable media unless the bios has been corrupted with your messing about.
As has been said check you have the cable in firm at both ends and the power cable in, check you havent knocked anything else out does the fan on the cpu still work ok?
Now enter setup and see if can see the drive and the cd drives and show the right cpu.
If it can see the cd's but not the hd either the hd  the cable or the controller is duff. Try it on another cable or remove the cd's and use that to see if the bios can see it
If you can get the drive to work in another pc or caddy then put it in and run chkdsk. You can either open a cmd prompt and type chkdsk d: /f    (replace d with the drive letter. Or in explorer right click on the drive and choose properties and then check the drive from the tools menu. Its often worth rebooting and doing it the second time. If it finds error and corrects them then it may boot when you put it back but while its in a caddy copy any data off as you may loose it if you have to reinstall.

[#4]

That beep and enter setup... sounds like a bios error indication.
Since you don't need a disk to do power up, I would remove your disc entirely (if previous options haven't worked).
I would guess that you've lost all your CMOS settings.
These are easily recoverable.
Unless you know different, the battery could need replacing...

[#5]

Quote from: samuria

If you can get the drive to work in another pc or caddy then put it in and run chkdsk. You can either open a cmd prompt and type chkdsk d: /f    (replace d with the drive letter. Or in explorer right click on the drive and choose properties and then check the drive from the tools menu. Its often worth rebooting and doing it the second time. If it finds error and corrects them then it may boot when you put it back but while its in a caddy copy any data off as you may loose it if you have to reinstall.

Thank you all for help so far
I put in a hard drive which had windows on it and made the existing HD a slave
It worked fine
Both drives were picked up ok. I could read all the files on the old drive too
I think that counts out a BIOS error
I ran chkdsk on both drives but found no faults there
I was keeping the spare drive for another machine so I dont want to use that as Master
I tried out starting up the old drive again. It beeps then picks up the HD and DVD ROM drives
then it beeps and starts over again
Looks like a HD error
or could there be something I havent tried?

[#6]

if you have an XP install disk you could try the repair option (note - if you installed SP3 that won't work without slipstreaming it onto the XP install disk).

[#7]

Try booting from the XP DVD, as suggested by Oldjim above, get to the XP Recovery Console and run a fixmbr from there, see if that brings the drive back to life.

[#8]

Old Jim,
How do you slipstream SP3 onto the Windows XP CD? I'm sure that my pc has SP3 on it now, and you never know when repairs might be needed. I would need fairly detailed instructions cos I'm not that clever with computers.
Thanks

[#9]

follow the instructions at
http://www.howtohaven.com/system/slipstream-xp-service-pack-3.shtml
or
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/xpsp3_slipstream.asp

[#10]

Hi Samuria,
I've followed your top suggestion, and have looked at that process. It gets to the point where I am supposed to create a bootable Win XP Setup CD. For this it says I need on my hard drive the folder c:\I386. It also says "Do not use the files in "C:\Windows\Driver Cache\i386" or any other folders".
My PC doesn't have the folder c:\I386, and the process doesn't suggest what to do in that circumstance.
If anyone has any suggestions, please?
Thanks

[#11]

if you are following the first website you create a directory C:\XPSETUP.  and copy all the files from your cd into that directory which includes the  i386 directory on the cd

[#12]

Hi Samuria,
Have done that and got the "XP with SP3" CD safely stored away.
Thankyou