Computer Won't Start

I've been using my computer for a few months now(I built it myself), and today I was not able to start it completely. I am currently running Vista 64-bit, and it started like it normally did with a black screen running through various things. When it tried to detect IDE drives, it took much longer than usual, but still got past it. It then proceeded normally until trying to "Verifying DMI Pool Data .........
Boot from CD:
NVIDIA Boot Agent 253.0543

CLIENT MAC ADDR: 00 04 4B 18 7F B6 GUID: D4005B56-1A4B-0400-0000000000000
DHCP.....

It stayed at this point for quite a while. I tried hitting escape, and that cancelled the network boot and exited the NVIDIA Boot Agent. It then tried to go through it again, and I got this:
"PXE-E61:Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F:Exiting NVIDIA Boot agent."

It then started trying to load again, so after a time I hit escape again. After doing this, I got:
"DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

So I put in my vista install disk and hit enter. Upon doing this, I got a loading bar saying that windows is loading files. After the loading bar was full, it seemed like the computer was starting normally because the familiar screen of a small loading bar with little green lines running across it and copyright Microsoft Corporation underneath it. Unfortunately, it froze here, and the computer has still not started.

If anyone else has experienced this or has an idea of how to fix it, it would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: After sitting on the usual loading screen for long enough, a blue error screen came up saying a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage. Under this first part was "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL"

EDIT2: To answer questions, yes, it does turn on and i can get into BIOS, etc, but it will not boot into windows. I do not believe my computer recognizes my HDD, so corruption seems likely. No, I was not trying to boot it from a CD until the computer told me to put the install disk into the computer.

Hmm. So the computer actually turns on, but you can't boot Windows in other-words?

I don't know really, it's kind of hard to understand all this. Why are you trying to boot your system from the CD in the first place?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms795930.aspx

it looks like a driver corruption, or a driver conflict. unfortunately, i don't know the correct way to fix it. the link above suggest doing a stack trace with a kernel debugger, however, i don't know how to do that either :S

Well I know about the error, but I just don't get their post or what they mean by all of it.

If Windows was working and it's a driver problem, then they would be able to boot into Safe Mode. If a virus screwed the whole Windows install then yeah, who knows.

it looks like the OP's computer could not boot. he also tried to use the installation disk to attempt a repair. however, even that doesn't work because it freezes before it gets to the repair screen.

The machine seems to be trying to boot from the network - do you have a Boot server running?

If not - it may be that your Bios Cmos battery has died and the Bios is reverting to a 'default' network boot, power the machine on and press either 'DEL' or 'F2' to get in to Bios setup and select the 'Boot' menu - check that the 1st Boot device is set to be your Hard Disk. Remember to Exit and save settings - this might get the machine started but you'll have to do this each time you start until you get the battery replaced (an easy job about 30 mins work in total).

Try not to rely on the Vista CD to boot a system for use - very often they assume you are booting from them to restore or repair, very helpful but it can take hours of Driver downloads to get the machine back to where it was.

The first boot thing was and still is the hard drive and it still doesn't start. I'm not sure what a boot server is, so I can't really give you an answer. Where is the battery located, and how can I tell if it's out? Also, even using the vista disk doesnt get it started all the way.

The message you copied into your post is from a machine that appeared to be doing a network boot hence my question - if you aren't normally booting that way then it might suggest that your Bios Battery is dying.

The Bios Battery is usually located at the front edge of the motherboard and looks like a shiny silver coin - sometimes marked CR2032. There isn't an easy way of telling if it's dying except that usually your Bios settings return to default (and sometimes the Real Time clock looses times dramatically). The battery is easy to replace using a small flat blade screwdirver - but be careful not to break the retaining clips. Once you've done that, go in to your Bios and if it has an option to set 'Default's use that, then change your boot device priority to make the hard disk the first boot device.

So that would get the computer to recognize the HDD? As of now, the IDE Master slot says [None]. Slave slot says HP DVD etc. I kinda want to know exactly what's wrong before I go out and spend a bunch of money.

If the battery has died - then the disc drive parameters may be set to the Bios default rather Auto detect, so the bootloader in the Bios can't make sense of the drive.

I would try swapping the battery first and if you have one, the interface cable to the Hard disk (they do fail sometimes). If that doesn't help then find someone locally who will look at it and diagnose it for free (some IT techies do) - providing a solution here by remote control is going to be tricky for hardware.

i had something simular, in the end i found out my raid control clashed with sata2 optical disks. are you running a raid setting and sata2?