My Dell pc has crashed,any ideas??

[Gavyn]

Hey guys i have a customized Dell computer which is about 5 years old.It is a Dell Dimension 8400 with 32 Bit Windows XP as the operating system.My computer will start but won't boot Windows,not even the start up options like safe mode.Just get a blue screen.My Windows XP disc is not in working condition,i asked Dell to send me one but since my computer is not under warranty anymore they wont oblige.I downloaded a Windows XP ISO and burned a XP install disc.The problem is that Dell won't boot this cd.It will let me access boot menu but that's it.I do not have the resources to buy a new computer and i am not a guy with a lot of technical know how,so please assist me in solving this issue and have patience with me.The computer has always worked great till now and has not given major issue like this before.

[jesse]

You will most probably need a Dell cd or an original equipment manufacturer cd to use the cd key.An ISO wont necessarily come with the same key for XP from which it was made.You should try booting from the Dell recovery partition.You need to enable this first from the BIOS.If you wish to save the hardware then try buying a new Windows XP cd or use the trial versions of Windows 7 if your system has enough resources to handle it.A Linux operating system is a very good option too.

[Humberto]

I never had issues with booting from a non original cd or my media on my Dell till now,so i doubt if that is the real issue at hand.Test your CD on a different system and see if it works there.Try getting a different ISO file or a different cd of Windows XP.You can also try some Linux based distribution which are usually free and might help you out in this case if you can't buy a new Windows XP CD.On the graver side for the hardware,you should also maybe check your hard drive just to be sure,its not an issue related to that.

[Dr. V]

Well i would ask you to take it for servicing since that will be a cheaper option if the problem is not major like hardware failure.You also need to take backup of the data on your system so try connecting your hard drive to another system and get a backup and also try installing Windows XP from there.If your hard drive is the actual issue,from the manufacturers site you can get a testing utility which can be downloaded to make a bootable CD which then you can run to see if your drive is maybe an issue in the first place.

[Devasis]

Most of the diagnostic tests are small enough to run on a floppy,so if you have a floppy drive,you can run it from a floppy.Check your hard drive manually to see if it is connected properly and run a diagnostic for it.Run a memory test for your RAM,something like Memtest86.That being done, check the BIOS to see if in your boot order CD ROM is first.Try replacing the CD drive to see if that can help you out.Hope this helps,good luck.

[Solomon]

You should try replacing your RAM.I had a similar kind of issue with the blue screen.Replacing the RAM fixed the issue.If you have a doubt try inserting a new RAM and see if your computer works fine after that.RAM causes the computer to freeze at start up.Run the memory test as has been suggested in an earlier post.