ASUS MB, AMD cpu boots to XP start screen, then nothing

[bobinbroomfield]

Had a lightning strike last night that shut the computer down. With a "snap" sound. Rebooting goes through XP Startup screen, then only desktop wallpaper shows. Mouse moves, nothing obvious to me in the BIOS setup. Are the CPU or Motherboard chief suspects here?

MB is ASUS A7V600-UAY
CPU is AMD

Thnks folks

 

[T_T]

After XP loads to the desktop, try opening the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Del). If that works, click on File -> New Task (Run). In the box that pops up, type in "explorer.exe", then hit enter.

 

[bobinbroomfield]

After XP loads to the desktop, try opening the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Del). If that works, click on File -> New Task (Run). In the box that pops up, type in "explorer.exe", then hit enter.

tried (Ctrl+Shift+Del) and no result of any sort. Caught the POST info and I really couldn't see any problem there.

Also tried booting with a DOS disk and system couldn't locate any drives other than "A" drive.

Tried an old Win-98 boot disk without success. CD Drive spin but no response.

Do you think it would be easier to replace the MB and CPU?

 

[T_T]

Replacement is always easier; however, I'm not sure that is completely necessary. I'd start with the hard drive. If you can, connect your hard drive to a friend's computer as a slave drive and then make a disc image of your hard drive. Acronis True Image is the software I use to do this task; there is a trial version, I believe.

After you've made a disc image of your hard drive, format it, and then use Acronis to reimage your hard drive. If that still doesn't help you, then i'd look into possibly replacing the hard drive.

Bottom line is, I feel a little reluctant to suggest replacing the mobo and CPU if you can still get through POST and the OS loads (somewhat). This problem seems more like a hard drive issue than a mobo/cpu issue.

 

[bobinbroomfield]

T_T
Thanks for the tip of it being a hard drive problem. After messing about this past day, as a last resort, as the machine was running, I unplugged the driuve cables (two drives) and reinstalled them.

Drives starting spinning and my menu screen appeared. Must be in the wrists! Anyway thanks for leading me in the right direction. I was just about to buy a new drive. And I WILL get a "Acronis True Image" in case it craps out again.

Life is good again

 

[bobinbroomfield]

Best answer selected by bobinbroomfield.