Computer Won't Start up. Yes it's plugged in.

[Belkin]

I will describe the problem in depth with what I think are related bits of information.

My desktop computer, about six years old now, as of today, won't boot up past the Dell splash. The error:

"Diskette drive 0 seek failure"

Now I've looked this problem up and it is an issue that has to do with the computer trying to boot up from a floppy disk. I don't have a floppy drive and I've meddled with every option in the BIOS section. There is no option to "disable" floppies, given my motherboard/BIOS model. I've tried setting it to boot from hard drive first, but it still gives me the same error. I've tried F8ing upon Dell Splash, but it doesn't appear to work. I'm looked at numerous threads across the interwebs about this same exact problem and not one of them gave me answers that would help in my particular situation, and even in their situations the solutions didn't help.

What I've noticed is that in every one of the help forums, the poster mentioned they had recently airdusted/cleaned out their tower and removed dust bunnies from their fans and power units. I had done that about a week ago and suddenly my computer started BSoDing me about 2-3 times a day. I lived with it, just restarted the computer and it worked okay until the next time it would do it. Now today, it just completely shit itself and that is where I am today. Could I have knocked something lose when I cleaned it?

I also had a virus that is still lingering (the one you get from FFXIwiki...the one that poses as Vista Security and literally prevents you from doing anything to try to remedy the problem.) I had fixed it with some cheap, free software (MalwareBytes) but every so often the internet would give me stupid ass popups or shut Mozilla down completely. I'm not sure if this virus is related at all to the above problem, but I figured I'd include it just in case.

I guess this is an oddly specific problem that involves REAL tech support, but I figured I'd ask around here first to see if anybody has ever had/corrected this issue.

I can provide specific system information if it is requested. But for now, it's just a Dell running Vista.

[Caiyuo]

well this was fucking hilarious and seems like the same thing, have you seen it? Assuming the option he uses to set the floppy disk to "none" isn't available or you tried it already.

[Omniyoji]

LMAO

[Belkin]

It gave me hope briefly, but no. Now the error message is gone, but its just a blank screen with a flashing _

[Crab_Cake]

I also had a virus that is still lingering (the one you get from FFXIwiki...the one that poses as Vista Security and literally prevents you from doing anything to try to remedy the problem.)

Was it the one that happened years ago (2009ish) or was there another recent one?

[Crowort]

Is the HDD detected in the BIOS? (if not it could be you knocked one of the cables to the HDD a bit) I wonder if your virus might have made the boot sector unbootable. That is easy to fix if you have a windows disk (I'm guessing dell don't give out OEM disks so you might need to borrow one) The black screen with a flashing _ normally means either there isn't a disk to boot from or the disk can't be booted.

[Belkin]

When this first began, I would only get flashing _ with black screen. I had to fudge around with the BIOS a couple times to even get it to tell me "diskette drive 0 seek failure." I am completely prepared to reformat...I care not for the files on this computer anymore...but I don't have a windows disk.

[Artemicon]

Edited for retardation. I'm Stupid.

[Aylee]

DL a trail version of windows, reformat and enter your os serial number when prompoted (should be some where on your tower).