Frozen on startup

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nintendo9713

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Well, my mom's computer has been getting the fatal error blue screen so I jsut told her your better off reformatting or something like that and she did. She reformatted with Windows XP home edition, and now everytime you turn the computer on, the monitor instantly goes idle, and when you turn it off and back on, its a black screen with the monitor menu frozen on it and you have to turn it off. I thought it was the hard drive, but I put an old one in and it froze instantly just like the other. It started up once and right when the desktop loaded, it froze. Any help or theories on what's wrong would be greatly appreciated.
 
If its for example a Dell or HP or whatever, witch may have a Built in Onboard DIsplay adapter... *And if your using a aftermarket PCI or AGP Graphics card...

check BIOS and make shur your witch ever Dispaly adapter the monitor is hooked up to is set as the Primary adapter in BIOS.

...if that hardware example doenst apply to you, ignore that advice.
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only other thing i can currently think of:

did she Install XP Home over the Old installation? without reformating?.... if she just installed it to the same partition without reformatting it will not work.

..if the partition was re-formated(aka erased) befor installing the new windowsXP, then it should work.(at least to desktop.)
 
It beeps once, and I don't know about over heating. It needs to be cleaned but I'll do that after it gets fixed. I also don't get that far to run safe mode. It happened once, and my mom used that to reformat and we're back at square one. I don't know what to do.
 
correct me if i got any of this wrong....

your moms comp... starts up fine, it beeps, and you can see the BIOS Post screen(or Manufacterer Logo) but once windows starts loading it instantly locks up and no display is shown.....

IF so, then theres only 2 likely possibilityes....

) your Harddrive
) or your System Ram
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you can easily test your Ram, by downloading Memtest86(pre-compiled-package-for-floppy), extract it to flopppy disk, and boot from the Floppy. (it will auto run on Boot).
download from: http://www.memtest.org/#downiso
note: it continually tests the ram for an infinate time limit, just Hit Escape whenever it finishes with a PASS.

you can Download Diagnostic Utilityes for boot floppy to test your HDD, for Free... HDD manufacturers always have such utilities on there Support/download section of there website.
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But first.... when you guys Re-Intsalled windows... during the installation did it give you a warning similar to: "waning the option you chosen will erase all data on your harddrive"

because if it didnt, that may mean you may have done a Repair install or a Install over your Old OS, witch wont work correctly. note - A clean install will Reformat the Harddrive.

also you can check simple things such as: *If you moved anything inside the case(if not ignore this): check to make shur all your harddrive connections are tight/proper.. and the Jumper Setting on the HDD is correct.
 
No, I turn it on, and there is nothing. Instantly it goes idle and what not. I don't think it's the hard drive because I put an old one in and it did the same thing. Doesn't load what so ever. I think my mom overwrote everything because the one time it loaded, before she reformatted again , it had nothing on it, just My documents. I don't know waht to do :(
 
well... in that case...

if it beeps once, and you cant see anything, and everything else acts normal (you just cant see anything).

(if its just a Single Beep, that usualy means everything is OK conserning the Motherboard/BIOS).

and the display problem will definalty have nothing to do with any other component, such as your HDD... so it could likely be either your Graphics Card or Monitor.. witch has a problem.
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1) first, simply try Resetting CMOS

theres usually a CMOS jumper next to the battery on the Motherboard.(same size as a watch battery)... unplug the comp, and move the jumper to pins (2,3) for ~10seconds, and then put it back on Default pins(1,2)... then plug back in and try booting.

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if that doesnt solve it:

Unplug the computer, open it up... and remove the Graphics card, and wipe all the dust off its Heatsink(depending on the card you may need to remove a plastic cover on top of the heatsink).

while your at it, also blow or clean the Dust Off the Other Heatsinks inside the comp as well... and then plug it back in and try booting again.
 
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