any computer experts out there

yelbis

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I was using the PC and put in a memory card from a camera. the pc has frozen. The only way to turn off is to turn off at the main switch on/off button.

The start up screen is blue background with advent and intel written on it. The machine is not starting up windows from this point.

Along the bottom of the screen it reads: press TAB to show POST screen, DEL to enter SETUP, ESC to enter boot menu.

The keyboard however, will not correspond.

Is it locked/frozen, any tips please. The OS is Vista.
 
yes, and also started it with it put back in. Worried that i can only use the power button to turn it off and on.
 
Have you got anything else plugged in? Remove all printers, usb hubs etc

Failing that go into 'Setup' and reset your BIOS settings to default.

Failing that, apply swift lateral pressure with the palm of your hand to the case (only kidding!).

If the PC still won't boot, it must have either had some kind of disk corruption or had a hardware failure of some kind.

If you have data on the drive, get an expert to look at it or you might end up losing it.
 
Yelbis - I did this too :

"Disconnected everything, turned off computer by mains and I'm up and running " to my regret..

It apparently damages the H/D - it did mine, had to get a new one.

My computer friend told me that if it ever happens again, with the main H/D on / off switch refusing to respond then if you hold the switch in for 10 or more secs. it will turn the machine off - it works, even with a frozen screen.

And no more damaged H/Ds for me !!! ( if only....)
 
it is sounding like a memory problem to me, to save you using the mains switch, you can press and hold the power button on the front for 4 seconds, this always turns the computer/laptop off
 
Turning off the power at the socket and holding the power button down for 30 seconds do the same.

I would try getting into the boot menu. It is either by holding F8 or F5 as the power comes on. First try selecting Safe Mode, or failing that "use Windows last known good configuration".

Of course you have it all backed up with a program such as Acronis so you can restore to a working configuration from the Acronis boot disc?????? If not, and you either get the PC working or get another one, that is what you need. Big external hard drive, and daily incremental backup with Acronis and complete backup once a week.

If the worse comes to the worse you might be able to retrieve data by using the hard drive as a secondary drive in another PC.

Sympathies

Tudorsailor
 
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