Problem starting up my computer, help!
 

Its actually my dad's computer but right now, when i turn on the cpu, it goes to this screen that says detecting array, and after like 10 secs, it says it has some error and I cant get into windows or even go f8 in the beginning to start up in safe mode. It's currently running on win xp.

what do i do in this situation?! i cant even format it if i wanted to.

Never seen that issue but when I had problems booting into windows...I put in a windows install cd (xp, vista, win7) and it booted from there which allowed me to re-install/reformat windows again. Not sure if that would work in your situation though.

detecting array, is your computer in RAID configuration?

What is the error message that comes up?

after 10 secs of detecting array, the PCI device listing shows up, and at the bottom it says verifying DMI pool data.....
Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter.

ive put in the winxp disk when i first had this pop up, it doesnt boot up.

try to book using your (select CD rom in BISO to book frist)
Try to see if you can repair it.

sounds like your Hard Drive, or RAM is dead.
exactly what error message are you getting?

what i just posted was exactly what came up, my bad, i thought there was a different msg that popped up when i first saw it, tripped out lol.

detecting array = RAID setup. sounds like you have a dead HDD.

unless you never had RAID and somehow switched your BIOS to boot from RAID first. in that case, set it back to SATA or ATA.

I had the same error message pop up recently, although I don't remember seeing the "verifying DMI pool data" part.

My system has 3 hard drives, so I unplugged the two that I only use for storage, leaving just the one with Windows. It booted up fine after that, so I reconnected the two other drives later.

Not sure what caused the problem to begin with, but you can give that a try if you have a similar situation.

thanks for the advice, but im a noob when it comes to computers, how do i go about switching my BIOS to boot to SATA or ATA??

pretty sure i only have 1 HD in there so this shouldnt be the case, thanks tho, glad it worked out for you!