Let’s say in the above scenario you apply good troubleshooting techniques, namely: you stop and think. That’s right. Don’t panic, don’t do anything – don’t even turn off or reboot your computer, unless it is making a horrible grinding noise or the like. Then ask yourself “what has changed, or what did I change, on this computer recently?”
This is the most important question you can ask when you have a computer problem. Another way to put it is – what did I do to my computer the last time I used it? You’ll be surprised how asking this question solves the problem right away. For instance, in the above scenario, what if you asked this question? Hmmm… you remember that you used the computer the day before to check your bank account and send a few emails to friends asking to borrow money. You also remember that on a Windows XP site you read a number of tips to make your computer boot faster. In fact, you changed a few settings on your computer, following the articles instructions. So you start thinking about what you could have changed that would keep Windows from loading.
One of the suggestions was to go into the BIOS settings and take your floppy off of devices the computer tries to access to load an operating system. The article pointed out that you only need to have the computer try to load from the CD and hard drive since Windows XP and diagnostics can now be run from the CD. You remember you did change the device boot order in the BIOS. And you haven’t tried to start the computer since.
So you reboot your computer and hold down the appropriate key, usually indicated in the screen text when you boot, to take you into the BIOS settings. There you find that you accidentally deselected the hard drive, leaving the computer only the CD drive to access for an operating system. So you re-select the hard drive, save the new BIOS setting if needed, and restart the computer. Problem solved.
Imagine if when you first had the problem, if instead of trying another hard drive in your computer, you decided to boot with your Windows CD. You might have seen the hard drive was working, but still not booting. You might have decided the boot sector or Windows program data was bad, and decided to reformat the hard drive and re-install Windows, thereby losing your valuable files. And yet a simple BIOS setting would have solved the problem all along.
When faced with any computer problem, always make sure to consider all the things you might have done last time (or in the last week or two) on your computer. Adding or deleting a program, changing any Windows settings, changing any application program settings, changing the BIOS, or changing any driver could all cause a problem. It is usually a good idea to restart your computer and test it after any such changes. If you don’t and a few days later you have a problem, you might not remember what you did a few days ago.
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