Old Computer Freeze At Startup

[dem0x7]

Hey Guys,

I have a really old dell that has just been sitting in storage for a while. If I remember correctly, everything was working fine we just decided to upgrade computers.

Well I have a text file on my harddrive that I could really use. Nothing MAJOR, but would like to have that could be useful to me. I decided to get it out and hook it up to see if I could get it running.

For some reason, whenever I boot it up it freezes on the loading screen. It doesn't turn off, but the Mouse and the Keyboard lights completely go off, like everything is shut down, but it is still running.. if that makes sense.

I hit f12 on startup to boot in safe mode, and it ran all of the lines that it usually does but stopped on one of them and it just sits there, frozen. So I'm thinking it just does it at a certain time, like a minute from when I turn the computer on.

Has anyone heard of this before? Is there anything I can do? I opened the computer up, and it's really old, so it has all the seat belt looking wires. So I'm not too sure how to take that out and put it in mine to get the text file I need, since it's connected to so many things, I'm not sure what to do!

Thanks so much! Hope there is something I can do.

 

[Lexluethar]

Easiest thing would be to take the drive out with the IDE cables in tact (those seatbelt wires) and put it into a working PC that has an IDE port. This way you can use the drive as an alternative drive (so it isn't being used to boot) and you can take the needed files off the drive.

 

[dem0x7]

Thanks for the reply. Here is what I did. Once it was stuck on the loading screen, I just let it sit and I ran upstairs. When I came back 10-15 minutes later, it was on the loading screen!

The only problem, is that the keyboard would not work. I tried another keyboard, but it just would freeze up, just like my original problem, except the mouse was working fine. I was stuck because I could not enter my password in to log in.

What I did was boot it up using Safe Mode, since the keyboard DOES work at the loading screen, so I hit f12, and went to Safe Mode.. logged in to the secret Administrator account, then went to Control Panel and removed the password from my user name.

Restarted the computer, logged in to my user name, got the text file, and wrote down the important stuff that I needed. All without a keyboard

Glad I got what I needed. I would be concerned about the computer, but it will never be used again, so no worries!

 

[Lexluethar]

Glad I got what I needed. I would be concerned about the computer, but it will never be used again, so no worries!

Isn't that quote what go you into this in the first place?