Computer doesn't want to power up

[stevty2889]

Have you tried botting up with the hard drive unpluged from both the PSU and motherboard?

 

[cecco]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
Have you tried botting up with the hard drive unpluged from both the PSU and motherboard?

Ok, I tried that and here is what i got:

Internal LAN mac address: 00-11-5B-27-FA-D8
Verifying DMI Pool data...........
Boot from CD:
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSTERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

What does this step determine/eliminate as far as troubleshooting goes?

Oh and the battery is a CR2032, but the board is fairly new. I will go out and get one though just to make sure and rule it out. Thanks again.

 

[CheesePoofs]

Does that mean you got past the point where it normally fails?

If so, try another HD, see if that helps. Also, try reconnecting the first HD and make sure everything is connected correctly.

 

[cecco]

I just tried putting a win 98 boot disk in the floppy (WinXP PRO installed in hard drive) and continues to some sort of setup screen that I have never seen before with three choices:

Reinstall win 98 without reformatting
Install win 98 with format
exit

Several questions here. If I continue install and insert the XP pro CD instead will it work? More importantly will the applications currently installed work again.

If I were to swap the hard drive in question with the good one from my own comp, is there a chance that it too could become corrupt?

 

[stevty2889]

Strange but it seems that your hard drive is what is causing the system to shut off. Try putting that hard drive in to your computer, with any other drives disconnected, and see what happens. If it starts up ok, try running the maxtor hard drive utilities to verify that hard drive is ok. If it doesn't start up, there must be something majorly wrong with that hard drive. It's also possible that the PSU in that computer is no good, so it's shutting off when it tries to spin up the hard drive, or maybe there is a standoff in the wrong place behind the motherboard, thats shorting out the motherboard when it tries to access the IDE controler. Pretty strange, the only reason I said to try booting without the hard drive, is because you said that it shuts off at the time it tries to detect it.

 

[stevty2889]

p.s. I don't think that it's corrupted hard drive data, that wouldn't cause the computer to power off when bios is detecting the drive, but I'd still try that drive in your computer, before trying your drive in that computer.

 

[cecco]

stevty, thanks for the idea. I put the hard drive in question in my computer as master and disconnected my own drive all together. It did the exact same thing! Once I got to booting the hard drive the computer shut off. Interesting since if I put the hard drive as slave in my computer while using my own as primary and I was able to read the data and make backups of it on a CD-R.

Have we isolated the problem. Bad boot sector on the hard drive? Would a reformat fix it or does the drive need to be replaced?

The goal here is to save the data and I think i did that when I backed it up on the CD, the question is if I reformat/repurchase the hard disk, will it work on a new install of windows?

Thanks all for your patience, hopefully I'll be done with this soon. I need my daily dose of CS:S.

 

[CheesePoofs]

I don't htink it has anything to do with a bad boot sector or corrupt HD, it sounds more like there is a physical problem with that drive. Plus, how would you be able to format it if every time its connected to a computer the computer won't boot?

I say ditch it and get a new one ... problem solved.

 

[cecco]

I agree, I will let my friend know. I think the hard drive is a bit over a year old though, so it might not be under warranty anymore.

 

[CheesePoofs]

Most hard drives have 3 year warranties, so unless it was OEM it should be under warranty.

 

[DanDaMan315]

Did you put the thermal paste on the CPU? It will overheat if you forgot, you might want to check...

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: cecco
I just tried putting a win 98 boot disk in the floppy (WinXP PRO installed in hard drive) and continues to some sort of setup screen that I have never seen before with three choices:

Reinstall win 98 without reformatting
Install win 98 with format
exit

Several questions here. If I continue install and insert the XP pro CD instead will it work? More importantly will the applications currently installed work again.

If I were to swap the hard drive in question with the good one from my own comp, is there a chance that it too could become corrupt?

Windows XP does not reuquire BOOT FLOPPYS, instead choose the CD-ROM Drive as the first boot drive in the BIOS Menu and leave the Windows XP disk in there. Any thing made after 1997 will boot from a CD.

Also in most cicrumstances when using a windows 98 or me boot disk you will want to choose the Install windows 98 without formating option. The formating option is most often used for the installation of windows on new drives.

 

[cecco]

Yes, you are right about the warranty. Reason I said that was because the slip I found said limited 1 year warranty, however upon checking the serial number on their website I found that It was still under warranty.

I didn't build the PC, however It had been running for over a year with no problems, again the hard drive failed even when placed on a different computer.

Googer, that was my mistake, the OS on this system is actually win 98SE. It had been a while since I saw this computer with it's operating system up and running and my friend had a windows xp disk that he wanted to install from scratch. Well I guess he'll get the chance now.

I hope I never see this error message again! But thanks again for your help.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: cecco
Yes, you are right about the warranty. Reason I said that was because the slip I found said limited 1 year warranty, however upon checking the serial number on their website I found that It was still under warranty.

I didn't build the PC, however It had been running for over a year with no problems, again the hard drive failed even when placed on a different computer.

Googer, that was my mistake, the OS on this system is actually win 98SE. It had been a while since I saw this computer with it's operating system up and running and my friend had a windows xp disk that he wanted to install from scratch. Well I guess he'll get the chance now.

I hope I never see this error message again! But thanks again for your help.

Yeah! This would be the perfect time to set up a dual boot configuaration, just be sure all drives are formatted with fat32.

 

[Icopoli]

This exact same problem happened when I got my current system.

Bought new asus k8n-e deluxe, amd3000, 512mb ram, his x800 pro. Kept my 30gb Maxtor drive, would POST and all that good stuff, would JUST about load windows, then reboot. I put in my XP disc, ran repair, it finally booted, but then found out that the repair destroyed my registry and just formatted.

 

[cecco]

Icopoli did you get a sumcheck error as well and when you say you almost got to windows, did you see the XP loading screen?

Oh and forgive the n00b question, but what is POST?

 

[stevty2889]

POST= power on self test
Definatly sounds like the hard drive is bad, if it's causing the computer to shut off, it's got some major mechanical problems. I suggest when he replaces his drive he gets something other than a maxtor..

 

[cecco]

What would you recommend? Computer will be used by the owner of a small business in order to run quickbooks and use the internet, reliability a must.

 

[CheesePoofs]

Seagates are know to be very reliable and quiet. Plus their new ones come with 5 year warrenties.

 

[cecco]

Thanks CheesePoofs, I'll begin looking into those.

 

[stevty2889]

Yeah I agree, seagates are quiet and reliable.

 

[allanon1965]

the checksum error will appear everytime you reset the cmos......ignore it and reset the time,date,etc....once that is done, providing the battery is ok, you wont get that error again, i think you were searching down the wrong avenue with that error code...sounds for sure like a physical problem with the hd....

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: cecco
What would you recommend? Computer will be used by the owner of a small business in order to run quickbooks and use the internet, reliability a must.

Then there is only one option; ditch the IDE drives and get a pair of Mirrored SCSI 10k Drives. SCSI has a much higher reliablity than standard drives and are built to take a beating.

 

[Icopoli]

If you have some sort of bootable O/S CD, by all means put it in and see if you can run scandisk/repair windows or format/delete partition.

 

[CheesePoofs]

Googer: If its a small buisness, they probably wont' have the money for SCSI drives. Don't they cost a couple of hundred dollars each plus the cost of the SCSI card? A seagate with a 5 year warranty should be fine, just replace it within 5 years if reliability is an absolute must.

Icopoli: The computer won't start with the HD in it, so that won't work.