[BFG_Creed]

Alright, my dad's girlfriend's daughter's (LOL) computer crashed. She comes running to me, natrally, and i see start to get into it. This computer is an Emachines (AKA Emas**t) so their customer service is crap. When i start up the computer, if I am lucky I might be able to get into the BIOS. Other times, It brings up a command prompt where it cannot recognize any drive but A:/. When i leave it alone when I startup, it goes to the profiles screen and restarts. When i get into the BIOS screen is split horizontally down the middle, with the top half a clone of the bottom half. I have pulled the CMOS battery overnight, put it back in, nothing happens. My mediocre skills cannot handle this feat, any suggestions? If there is a most messed up computer contest, i submit this!

 

[The Duke]

Do you have a spare PS to swap in for testing?
I vote #1 for most messed up PC

 

[PROBN4LYFE]

Or if you can get to the "A:\\" prompt again try typing in "DIR" to see if the system files are there...then try to find the infamous "RECOVERY DISK" for that thing...LOL

 

[Crimson_Blade]

well im not sure about the splitted CMOS screen, but regarding the comp not recognizing any other drive by A:\\ , make sure the the IDE cables that go into the hard disk (if IDE hard disks are used in this case) are inserted correctly and the right way round, (the red line on the cables indicates "pin1", it normally is on the right when you connect at the back of the drives.
also you might want to check the jumpers aswell
___________________________________________
ps. Off topic: my comps sucks more than yous!

___________________________________________

 

[BFG_Creed]

Unfortunately, I do not have a spare power supply. And no hardware was tampered with before the crash. And yes, I can and do mess around in dos, I have accually made a few apps that run in windows. defrag, disk cleanup, that sort of thing. I also made a file that took out another file, than deletes itself! But anyway, my dad's girlfriend had a spare hard drive with windows on it. So i plug that in and it boots. The thing runs as slow as molases in Junuary. I cleaned that drive up (minimizing startup, taking down some visuals, and backing it up). But still, the BIOS and DOS prompt are still messed up. The only bad thing is that that version of windows is black listed. I plugged in the original HD, i started up, looked in the original HD and then norton said there were i think 27 types of malicious files in it. So i formatted the original HD. I still have the system restore disks, but i cannot change the boot sequence to CD, if anyone has a T-series Emachines, can you give me directions on what buttons to push, please?