fast fingers = dead computer, please help

hello. we have vista installed on top of xp, not with a disc. my dad was here
visiting, and when he started the computer, the first screen that says,
"hit any key to (install from cd? is taht right?), that your supposed to
ignore, he hit. I said, dad, I don't think you were supposed to hit anything.
next, it goes to another screen with two options at the top; the first one I
don't know what it said, but the second one said windows vista. my dad
clicked to that and bam, computer died.

and dies everytime we restart. it's not even booting to the system. can
someone tell me at least what the screens said before it died, and if anybody
has any idea how to fix, very appreciated.

Obviously I'm not a computer person. my husband is and I don't want him to
be really angry when he gets up to a crashed computer tomorrow.

thanks!
--
lanoneus

Hi,

At a guess, you probably need to reset the primary boot device in the system
BIOS back to the hard drive.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"lanoneus" <lanoneus@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:694CBD33-B90D-46A3-8370-28A73F11FA32@microsoft.com...
> hello. we have vista installed on top of xp, not with a disc. my dad was
> here
> visiting, and when he started the computer, the first screen that says,
> "hit any key to (install from cd? is taht right?), that your supposed to
> ignore, he hit. I said, dad, I don't think you were supposed to hit
> anything.
> next, it goes to another screen with two options at the top; the first one
> I
> don't know what it said, but the second one said windows vista. my dad
> clicked to that and bam, computer died.
>
> and dies everytime we restart. it's not even booting to the system. can
> someone tell me at least what the screens said before it died, and if
> anybody
> has any idea how to fix, very appreciated.
>
> Obviously I'm not a computer person. my husband is and I don't want him to
> be really angry when he gets up to a crashed computer tomorrow.
>
> thanks!
> --
> lanoneus

when the computer .trys to start.do you see,,at the bottome of the screen.to
enter setup,,click,delete or f2 or what ever.hit what ever quick and get in
to set up..use your four arrow keys to go accross the top.to find boot
order..you need to see what the boot order is and set it to hard drive.and
click on save and exit and reboot the computer.see if this fixes the problem..

"Rick Rogers" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> At a guess, you probably need to reset the primary boot device in the system
> BIOS back to the hard drive.
>
> --
> Best of Luck,
>
> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
> My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com
>
> "lanoneus" <lanoneus@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:694CBD33-B90D-46A3-8370-28A73F11FA32@microsoft.com...
> > hello. we have vista installed on top of xp, not with a disc. my dad was
> > here
> > visiting, and when he started the computer, the first screen that says,
> > "hit any key to (install from cd? is taht right?), that your supposed to
> > ignore, he hit. I said, dad, I don't think you were supposed to hit
> > anything.
> > next, it goes to another screen with two options at the top; the first one
> > I
> > don't know what it said, but the second one said windows vista. my dad
> > clicked to that and bam, computer died.
> >
> > and dies everytime we restart. it's not even booting to the system. can
> > someone tell me at least what the screens said before it died, and if
> > anybody
> > has any idea how to fix, very appreciated.
> >
> > Obviously I'm not a computer person. my husband is and I don't want him to
> > be really angry when he gets up to a crashed computer tomorrow.
> >
> > thanks!
> > --
> > lanoneus
>
>

1anoneus - Regarding Dad - he did not do anthing wrong "hitting the key" -
the computer is set to first "boot" from the CD drive - if no disk is in the
drive boot proceeds normally as it did in your case.

The second screen is normal in a dual boot setup - XP and Vista
installed -as evidently you do. The second screen offers two options - boot
XP or boot Vista. For Dad to select Vista would be normal procedure.

Regarding "...Obviously I'm not a computer person. my husband is...". under
the circumstances I suggest you let him square things away.


"lanoneus" <lanoneus@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:694CBD33-B90D-46A3-8370-28A73F11FA32@microsoft.com...
> hello. we have vista installed on top of xp, not with a disc. my dad was
> here
> visiting, and when he started the computer, the first screen that says,
> "hit any key to (install from cd? is taht right?), that your supposed to
> ignore, he hit. I said, dad, I don't think you were supposed to hit
> anything.
> next, it goes to another screen with two options at the top; the first one
> I
> don't know what it said, but the second one said windows vista. my dad
> clicked to that and bam, computer died.
>
> and dies everytime we restart. it's not even booting to the system. can
> someone tell me at least what the screens said before it died, and if
> anybody
> has any idea how to fix, very appreciated.
>
> Obviously I'm not a computer person. my husband is and I don't want him to
> be really angry when he gets up to a crashed computer tomorrow.
>
> thanks!
> --
> lanoneus