What would cause computer to not finish booting after power surge?
May 21, 2009 2:53 PM   Subscribe

What would cause computer to not finish booting after power surge?

We had a fuse blow while my PC was booting up. Afterwards, when I turned the computer on, I received the normal initial screen that detects each of my hard drives and I got the pop up to either boot in safe mode or normal. Either option I pick Windows won't boot. I just get a blank black screen.
posted by HenryGale to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)
 
Could be your power supply got borked, and it can only provide the barest minimum to get the machine on, but can't power the rest of the components when they try to initialize - were you running through a surge protector?
posted by FatherDagon at 2:59 PM on May 21, 2009


Response by poster: Yeah, the PC is plugged into a surge protector.
posted by HenryGale at 3:02 PM on May 21, 2009


Why don't you try getting a hold of a linux cd and trying to boot from that? If it works, then you know it's not the motherboard. Then you can try swapping out the power supply. If that doesn't work, then you may have a hard drive issue.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 3:02 PM on May 21, 2009


When this happened to me a few months ago, it turned out to be the hard drive. It seems that it was on its way out anyway, and the power surge finished it off.
posted by Shohn at 3:05 PM on May 21, 2009


Best answer: Any number of things.

None of them are good.

Try TLF's suggestion of a Linux liveCD. I'm partial to Knoppix myself. Just burn the CDand pop it in.

If it will boot to a desktop, your OS is hosed. This may or may not be fixable. If you can access your hard drive using Knoppix, then the drive is probably okay, it's just the OS that's gone. Consult your OS system disc and see what you can get out of it.

If it won't boot to a desktop, or if you can't get at the hard drive after booting, you've got a hardware failure and are well and truly hosed. You're probably going to need to replace the drive.

Check to see if you're still under warranty?
posted by valkyryn at 3:54 PM on May 21, 2009


Best answer: windows xp?

Boot with the cd, and run a repair install. It will save your settings etc, you will have to re-download service packs etc.
posted by defcom1 at 8:41 PM on May 21, 2009


recently had the same problem, i found that i had to unplug all my accessories from the pc for it to finish booting. the problem hasn't gone away either, i guess it's permanent until i get a new power supply. but at least i've figured out that i actually just have to unplug 1 device, not all of them. i've created a story in my head that the power surge injured the power supply and made it weak and it's no longer strong enough to boot with all the accessories hanging on. so i ease its burden until it gets into a sitting position, then i plug everything back in. :)
posted by phoeniciansailor at 9:56 PM on May 21, 2009


Response by poster: Turns out it was best case scenario... my Vista install got hosed up a little. Repair from the disc and everything else seems good to go! Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

On a side note, this was the "best" experience I've ever had with a potential PC disaster, due to the fact that all my sensitive data is finally backed up on an external drive. Protect your data, folks!!
posted by HenryGale at 6:57 AM on May 22, 2009


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