PC not booting after shipping

[Gabe Lewis]

So, bare with me. I had my computer shipped to me by UPS from California. When it arrived it had a big dent in the top of the tower. It looked superficial to me, so I figured hey, lets boot it up a see how she's doing.

I turn it on, no beeps, no boops, I hear the hard-drive spin up, and all the fans turn on, but all I get is a black screen. I checked all the connections on the GPU, monitor.

So I start fiddling with things. I removed and remounted the GPU, no dice. I unplugged all the ide cables. No dice. I removed the ram, still not beeps. After a while I start messing with the Sata cables (both HD's are sata) and one of my fiddles worked. I boot up and get the proper boot sequence going, but it finally peters out on a screen saying "NTLDR is missing". And then I'll try and restart, and back to black screen. With enough fiddling I can get it to boot to that every now and again, but I've got no clue what I'm doing that's working, and no clue how to fix that error.

Any thoughts?

[Hawkeye Fierce]

Get an RMA #, send it back.

[Gabe Lewis]

Clarification - I shipped a computer I already owned to myself. I just moved for California to Chicago. I did not just buy this thing. It is my own special frankenbox.

[Mike O'Malley]

Was it insured during shipping? A big dent is damage regardless of how it affects functionality.

[Gabe Lewis]

It was insured, but the the claims process is a pain in the ass, I do intend to file a claim, but would also love to just have my computer up and running already. I only got it insured for $200 which would replace the mobo and processor, but I'm not sure thats the issue.

I've got it booting consistently now, but am still getting a NTLDR message.

[Hawkeye Fierce]

Ah, apologies then.

[MatthewF]

So, bare with me. I had my computer shipped to me by UPS from California. When it arrived it had a big dent in the top of the tower. It looked superficial to me, so I figured hey, lets boot it up a see how she's doing.

I turn it on, no beeps, no boops, I hear the hard-drive spin up, and all the fans turn on, but all I get is a black screen. I checked all the connections on the GPU, monitor.

So I start fiddling with things. I removed and remounted the GPU, no dice. I unplugged all the ide cables. No dice. I removed the ram, still not beeps. After a while I start messing with the Sata cables (both HD's are sata) and one of my fiddles worked. I boot up and get the proper boot sequence going, but it finally peters out on a screen saying "NTLDR is missing". And then I'll try and restart, and back to black screen. With enough fiddling I can get it to boot to that every now and again, but I've got no clue what I'm doing that's working, and no clue how to fix that error.

Any thoughts?

You might want to try a dynamic update/repair depending on which OS you're using.

[Gabe Lewis]

OK, thanks the jeebus, I just fixed it. Using this boot disk. Whoever made that is a life saver.

If anybody ever gets the NTLDR message, try this out: http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

[Coca Cola Zero]

If a physical shock caused my boot loader to go missing I would be very suspicious of that computer moving forward. Hopefully the problem is solved, but backup anything important.