A different boot problem

[marybels]

:eyes: I sure hope you can help with this...My friend's computer starts to boot up, but gets stuck at the blinking curser on the black screen...I installed windows xp on it, it is a pentium 4 about 3 years old. I came up once, and will not boot again. I even changed the hard drive, and reinstalled windows xp...the same thing happened. I could sure use some ideas as to where to look next...The motherboard looks fine, no problem with the cans, or broken solder points...I checked that out when I had it open.

Pleas help me...and my friend!!! otherwise this will happen to the cpu....:asmd:

[STi FlyBy]

Is it a custom-built computer or an OEM (e.g., Dell) computer? I know Dell has 4 LEDs on the back (A, B, C, D) that are supposed to give guidance to the problem.

[marybels]

It is a gateway, with no more warentee I read the other threads, and do you really think it could be the motherboard??? I did not see any lights on the motherboard. where would they be?

[STi FlyBy]

It is a gateway, with no more warentee I read the other threads, and do you really think it could be the motherboard??? I did not see any lights on the motherboard. where would they be?

Dell LEDs are located on the back of the computer.

It could be a variety of things (I would guess hardware-related, though). Any error messages?

[eCK0]

Can you get into BIOS?