I'm Puzzled

[RacerChuck]

I apologize if this is long winded..........

A year and a half ago, I had my i845 1.8 Ghz P4 shut down on me and not start up again. So, I replaced the MoBo, Processor & RAM (Upgraded to 2.4 Ghz & DDR333 RAM) only to find out it was the power supply.

So I had this presumably good MoBo, Processor & Ram laying around.

I got the itch to build a spare computer, so I bought a new case & Power Supply and put it all together with a known good IBM 30GB HD.

I hit the power switch and it posts, but says no HD can be found.

I go into the BIOS and it can't detect the HD (Although when I put my ear to it, I can hear it's spinning).

So I figure the IDE Controller or MoBo is smoked, and go buy a new MoBo that has onboard everything.

After the swap I hit the power and get a post and go into the BIOS and notice the HD is detected.

So I figure I'm on my way, Set the CD for Boot Priority, put the W2K Pro CD in, and let it rip.......

After Windows loads itself on the CD, I get a message that says no "Bootable media can be found, Press F3 to exit"

Sure enough, I go back into the BIOS and it can't detect the HD.

So, I head to CompUSA and get a new Maxtor 40GB HD.

I put the New HD in and the BIOS tells me it's detected.

I go through the W2K CD thing again and the BIOS losses it AGAIN!!!

So I replace the IDE Cable and the BIOS say's it's detected.......

This time I get through a successful installation of Windows and Drivers and everything works fine......

The next day I hit the power, and as Windows is loading, I get a blue screen that say's begining MEM Dump and no Bootable Media can be found.

I go into the BIOS and sure enough, NO HD!!!!!!

About this time, I'm thinking about renting a small plane, and throwing the whole computer out the window and letting it smash through the roof of the nearest Intel Headquarters (Just Kidding)

Does anybody have any ideas what the problem is?
Could it be a virus Cached into the Old Original RAM Chips???

 

[Uncle Bob]

can you list exactly what you've got (now) and how it's all set up, drivers, controller, master/slave settings etc

 

[RacerChuck]

It's one of the "El Cheapo" Mobo's with everything On Board (not even an AGP Slot) which makes everything easy:

MoBo is an Intel D845GVSR

Maxtor 40 GB HD Connected to the Primary IDE (Yes it's at the end of the cable and I have tried both Cable Select and Master)

CD ROM Connected to the Secondary IDE (Jumpered as "Master")

Floppy is connected to the FIDE

(2) Ram Slots occupied each by the Old (256MB) 266 MHz Ram pulled from the problem system

The old Socket 478 1.8 Ghz Proccessor that was in the old (Problem) system

Brand new Powermax 300 Watt Power Supply (The CD Rom, HDD and Floppy are NOT Sharing Power)

I'm trying to load Windows 2000 Pro as the operating system.

I recall from a long time ago, that you can get one of those viruses that infect the boot sector of your hard drive and when the Hard Drive is re-formatted, it becomes re-infected because the virus is held in the RAM's Cache.

Is that a possibility?

 

[oldman420]

Try this start windows setup from the cd and enter the recovery console type in fixmbr and then y then type in fixboot that may do it.
im me if i can help.
jerome

 

[amdskip]

IMHO, that powersupply is pretty crappy. It may be new but the quality sucks. Also, try running memtest86 on your memory to test for errors.