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jcrider4788
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August 1st, 2003 01:00
System Halt
My computer is a Dell Dimension 4400 1.6 GHz, 256MB, A03 Bios, with a WD XL-40 hard disk. The OS is Windows XP Home Edition.
I leave my computer on all of the time. Yesterday afternoon, when I went to use the computer, the screen was dark (as if it were in power save mode), and the computer was running.
I shuffled the mouse and did not receive a response. The computer would also NOT respond to a ctrl-alt-del, so I resorted to pushing the power button and powering the machine down.
When I attempted to reboot, it was extremely slow, as if something was tying up the cpu, when it got to the XP welcome screen, I received a message that told me that Uxtheme.dll could not be found. Once I ok'ed the error, the wallpaper was displayed, but nothing else. When I tried to ctrl-alt-del, I was told that rtutils.dll could not be found, so I had to power down again.
I entered the system in safe mode, copied the files that were missing out of I386 and into system32 (I was guessing that was where they should go). Rebooted the machine and all was well. I thought I may have picked up a virus and started the virus software before I went to bed.
This morning, before going to work, I checked the computer and saw a display similar to a NT coredump. I rebooted the machine and was told that the hard disk could not be found. Now, anytime I tried to boot from the hard disk, I get a black screen with "Boot Failure: System Halted" message.
I cannot run the recovery program because the system doesn't know that a hard disk exists.
When I go into the bios, it shows the Primary IDE Master as:
Drive Installed [WDC WD200BB }
Type [Auto]
Maximum Capacity [EMPTY]
Multi-Sector Transfer [16 Sectors]
PIO Mode [Mode 0]
Ultra DMA [Disabled]
Cable Detected [80 Conductor]
PS, I do get the WWW.DELL.COM world screen. Also, on reboot, the 3 lights on the keyboard flash 3 times. All 4 lights on the back of the computer are green.
I have executed the diagnostics on the dell disk with everything reporting good.
Thanks in advance for any help I can get.
I leave my computer on all of the time. Yesterday afternoon, when I went to use the computer, the screen was dark (as if it were in power save mode), and the computer was running.
I shuffled the mouse and did not receive a response. The computer would also NOT respond to a ctrl-alt-del, so I resorted to pushing the power button and powering the machine down.
When I attempted to reboot, it was extremely slow, as if something was tying up the cpu, when it got to the XP welcome screen, I received a message that told me that Uxtheme.dll could not be found. Once I ok'ed the error, the wallpaper was displayed, but nothing else. When I tried to ctrl-alt-del, I was told that rtutils.dll could not be found, so I had to power down again.
I entered the system in safe mode, copied the files that were missing out of I386 and into system32 (I was guessing that was where they should go). Rebooted the machine and all was well. I thought I may have picked up a virus and started the virus software before I went to bed.
This morning, before going to work, I checked the computer and saw a display similar to a NT coredump. I rebooted the machine and was told that the hard disk could not be found. Now, anytime I tried to boot from the hard disk, I get a black screen with "Boot Failure: System Halted" message.
I cannot run the recovery program because the system doesn't know that a hard disk exists.
When I go into the bios, it shows the Primary IDE Master as:
Drive Installed [WDC WD200BB }
Type [Auto]
Maximum Capacity [EMPTY]
Multi-Sector Transfer [16 Sectors]
PIO Mode [Mode 0]
Ultra DMA [Disabled]
Cable Detected [80 Conductor]
PS, I do get the WWW.DELL.COM world screen. Also, on reboot, the 3 lights on the keyboard flash 3 times. All 4 lights on the back of the computer are green.
I have executed the diagnostics on the dell disk with everything reporting good.
Thanks in advance for any help I can get.
Jesse L (retired)
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Posted August 1st, 2003 15:00
jcrider4788,
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
Try opening the system and reseating the harddrive data cable on both ends to see if that will resolve the error and get the system back up. If not, email support@dell.com and have the drive replaced.
Jesse L (retired)