What's going on?

[Fuzzy]

Yesterday my 'puter started running like it was wading through molasses until with no warning the screen went black and this appeared...

Reboot and Select Proper boot Device or Insert Boot Media in Selected Boot Device and Press a Key...

I did a forced shutdown as I had no idea what was happening or what any of those things were. I restarted while using the F12 key and brought up the diagnostics thingy and ran the Pre-Boot System Assessment Build 4525.

About an hour later it finished doing whatever it was doing and it instructed me to reboot having found no faults.

So I rebooted and it started up in safe mode and after telling it to start windows normally everything went fine and it worked without a problem........ Until this evening when the same thing happened all over again.

Anybody got any idea what's causing this and how to fix it if'n you do?

[Ruth]

That sounds like a question for Pam, but I just wanted to add that I've had a lot of internet explorer problems recently.  I finally did the microsoft search for a fix (whatever it's called) and I hadn't intalled 8 updates.......it was wierd  It seems to be working OK now.

[Sean Qendra]

Does this happen during boot up, or after it's been booted and has been running?

[Fuzzy]

It happens out of the blue, the 'puter will be running OK then starts to load stuff slower and slower, the cursor doesn't follow a smooth line, but skips and jerks as it moves across the screen. Then the whole thing freezes up to the point where I can't even shut a page down or bring up Ctrl Alt Del... Then the screen goes black for a few seconds and the message.... Reboot and Select Proper boot Device or Insert Boot Media in Selected Boot Device and Press a Key... appears. At that stage there's nothing I can do, or know to do other than force a closedown.

Then I proceed as previously mentioned and run the diagnostic programme, which so far has reported back that it found no problems, only to have it happen again some 24 hours later. Going by the timescale between the two happenings I'm expecting it to go again at about 5pm this afternoon, but we'll see.

[Sean Qendra]

I was wondering if you might have a cable loose on the motherboard - but it might be that the hard drive's failing.

[Fuzzy]

I wish I knew Bill, but it didn't happen again today so fingers are crossed. The 'puter was bought March 1st last year which means only another 22 days until the warranty expires.

[Sean Qendra]

If it's still under warranty take it in.  Write down what details you remember about the condition and tell them.

[SimplyPam]

Take it in! My guess is that the hard drive or some hardware bit is failing. Back up your pictures and documents if you can and while you can.

[Sean Qendra]

Don't forget to back up any bookmarks, too...so many people forget those

[Fuzzy]

Yep... Thanks, I'd already decided that course of action was the way to go before it's out of warranty. Hopefully the Geek Squad at Best Buy where it was bought will be able to put it to rights.

[Sean Qendra]

I've found that usually they just send them out to be repaired.

[Fuzzy]

That's fine to, as long as it comes back fixed.