Win XP won't Boot - Black Screen

[sdananay]

Two days ago I began having intermittant problems: my desktop beeps, recognizes the drives but as it begins to boot, the screen goes black. Twice I was able to restart (after several attempts) to get windows running. Today, about 50 attempts later - no go. I tried booting from the CD - it hangs at "Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration ...". I tried booting from a floppy - I can hear the A drive reading the disk but it hangs at "Verifying DMI Pool Data ............". Finally, I tried F8 to get into safe mode - no option would run, it just hangs and will not respond to ENTER. I reseated all the cables, the CPU and jiggled everything I could jiggle to break any surface gook. But to no avail. I'm not sure this is a software issue because it appears that the OS is not loading. Any ideas are greatly appreciated in advance. I have a 900MHz 30G, HardDrive, 256 Mb RAM, CD, CD/RW+DVD/RW and of course a floppy disc drive. Yes, its about 5 years old. The only weird thing I did recently was I accidentally plugged my cell phone into the USB cable because I thought it was my charger.

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Look for swollen caps on the motherboard after a few years you might see that some caps might have leaked , there was a lot of problems with this a few years back .

 

[sdananay]

Yes, there is one capacitor - electrolytic I presume, that has a slightly deformed top on it. They have an "X" or a "Y" which I think is the "blow-out port" and the one is not perfectly flat. How would that affect it not booting? Do you think that it's value has changed enough to render that circuit useless? Hmm ... I suppoose anything is possible with ELECTRICITY 'CAUSE YOU CAN'T SEE IT!

Thanks Kermit!

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Have a read through these pages>>

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm

http://www.kingsley-hughes.com/pc-zone/windows/dmihang.asp

http://www.tippscout.de/pc-locks-up-at-verifying-dmi-pool-data_tipp_3011.html

 

[rotjong]

Call me silly but make sure the battery on your motherboard isn't dying/dead.

rotjong

 

[sdananay]

Thanks Hipster and Donjong - I will try these later today.

sdananay

 

[sdananay]

I systematicaly began to go through all of the items that Hipster Doofus sent me links on and BINGO. Resetting the BIOS fixed it! Thanks.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Good stuff.