Help with Desktop

[JrDave2304]

Im installing a new SATA drive and needed a floppy drive to install the SATA drivers. So i took a floppy drive out of a different computer, well my parents gateway desktop to be exact. Now, I put it back in, and connected everything to the back of the computer. The computer turns on, but the monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc. do not seem to work or "power on". The monitor immediately goes to "power save mode", the lights on the keyboard do not come on, and the lights on the bottom of the usb optical mouse do not turn on. I am very confused as to why this is happening. I have a wireless network through that computer and that still works, so I can still surf the web on my laptop. I thought I somehow knocked a connection loose, but I have looked at all the connections, unplugged them, reconnected, double checked, and I still do not see anything wrong. I just put a video card into the PCI slot to see if i could at least get picture, but nope, same resultIs it possible that i somehow fried the mobo? But the CD drives still work, so I am not very sure on what happened. Any opinions anyone would care to share?

It is a Gateway 500S Plus with a Socket 478 Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz processor (pretty sure on that), Gateway mobo, 256MB RAM, integrated video, Windows XP SP2, DVD Rom, NEC 8x DVD-RW, Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 80GB ATA/133 HDD

Help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[jonnyGURU]

Carriage returns are your friend.

CDROM's are going to blink, open and close simply because they have power. Nothing confusing there.

All you did was take out a floppy drive and put it back in, right?

Take the floppy drive back out. Does it now work?

The PC has on board video? If not, remove any and all video cards and fire it up. Does it beep?

If so, it's the video card.

If not, or it the mobo has on board video, remove any and all RAM. Fire it up. Does it beep?

Something up with the RAM. ESD? Not seated all of the way in? Etc....

If not, remove ALL drive cables (IDE, floppy, whatever you got.) and fire it up. Does it beep?

If so, then an IDE cable might be screwed. Reinstall RAM and video card and fire it up to see if it posts without the drive cables hooked up. If it does, concentrate on the drive cables.

If not, throw it out. Board's fried.

 

[daniel49]

floppy drive hmmm you probably knocked one of thier ide cables loose and didn't notice.

 

[JrDave2304]

took floppy drive out: no difference

has on board video, so i removed the RAM: beeped three times, but still same result

removed all IDE cables: no difference

CPU fan spinning, wireless network working....so im assuming i f'd up the I/O ports or something? Who knows, Ill guess ill put in a new mobo and see what goes on.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Ok. You moved forward too fast.

It's not the mobo.

If you remove the RAM and get beeps, then the board is probably fine.

When you "removed all IDE cables: no difference" did you do this with the memory still out and PC beeping or did you put the memory back in?

 

[JrDave2304]

i did both...

with RAM out: beeping
with RAM in: no beeping and same result

i have different ide cables, should i try those?

 

[jonnyGURU]

No. You should get a POST without drives attached. Attaching the drives with ANY cable should be the last thing you do.

Are there any other cards in the PC? Can you remove them to see if you can get a POST (yes, put the RAM back in.)

 

[JrDave2304]

the only other card in there is some card with phone jacks that is never used

 

[jonnyGURU]

Pull it out. Something is keeping this thing from posting. I don't think it's the board or CPU because you get the beep codes when you pull the RAM.

If all you have is a motherboard with on board video, CPU and RAM and no other cards, drives, etc. you should still be able to post.

Also, disconnect power from the drives and double check the power connector to the motherboard.

The RAM that was in there: One stick or two?

 

[JrDave2304]

one stick

edit: pulled out the card with all drives unplugged from mobo and powered off, still no beeps, or anything. then i plugged everything in and still the same result.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Hmm... Seems like the on-board video pooched somehow.

What's odd is that the defailt video for a motherboard with on-board video is PCI if there's a PCI card present. You tried a PCI video card and it didn't help.

Is there a clear CMOS jumper on this board?

 

[jonnyGURU]

Also, could be an issue with that one stick of RAM. Although it'd be strange since it was just working. Maybe you whacked it with some hellacious ESD.

 

[JrDave2304]

There's a 3 pin jumper labeled BIOS CONFIG, and the jumper is on the 2 furthest right pins. Is that the clear CMOS perhaps? And if so, should I move the jumper over?

ESD = ?

 

[jonnyGURU]

Probably. Sure sounds like a Clear CMOS jumper to me.

ESD = Electro Static Discharge

 

[JrDave2304]

Well I ran to compusa and got some RAM, put it in and now everything works. But now it won't boot up cuz it says it can't find the hard drive :frown: , does that mean the HDD is fried? And if so is there anyway to get anything off of it such as my mom's pictures from her digital camera?!?!?

 

[jonnyGURU]

Whoa! Just double check the cable. Remember we did unplug it and plug it back in. Maybe you should just try that other cable you have.

Man... I got this weird jerking feeling in my knee.

 

[JrDave2304]

Checked connections: everything fine

switched to different cable: same result

I get the screen:

Intel(R) Boot Agent Version 4.1.08
Copyright...blah

Intel Base-Code, PXE-2.1
Copyright..blah

CLIENT MAC ADDR: 00 07 E9 B3 A34F GUID: A0E65A20 E11D B211 8000 BB5846A31ECF
PXE-E53: No boot filename received

PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent

Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device

 

[jonnyGURU]

Yeah.. DEFINITELY not seeing a boot sector there.

Does the BIOS at least see the drive or no?

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: JrDave2304
Checked connections: everything fine

switched to different cable: same result

I get the screen:

Intel(R) Boot Agent Version 4.1.08
Copyright...blah

Intel Base-Code, PXE-2.1
Copyright..blah

CLIENT MAC ADDR: 00 07 E9 B3 A34F GUID: A0E65A20 E11D B211 8000 BB5846A31ECF
PXE-E53: No boot filename received

PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent

Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device

It's trying to boot from the network card. You should be able to disable that in bios. Is the bios seeing the drive?

 

[JrDave2304]

Its not seeing it in BIOS

Another thing though. I just noticed I didnt have the DVD-RW drive connected and when i connnected it I got a message saying "Secondary Slave Drive not ATAPI compatible"

 

[jonnyGURU]

And the DVD is the secondary slave?

Did you clear the CMOS?

 

[JrDave2304]

No, I didnt do that yet.

How do I do it? Move the jumper, then what?

 

[jonnyGURU]

Move the jumper. Wait. Move it back.

 

[JrDave2304]

Sorry, ive been really busy with work lately....

but i cleared the CMOS and set the defaults in BIOS and when i booted up i got a message saying the hard drive was not found

 

[jonnyGURU]

And you've confirmed that drive is plugged in w/ both the power and IDE and you've tried another IDE.... try another power connector? Maybe one of the pins pushed in.