PLEASE HELP!! Puter won't Boot

[DAVENRINO]

Aloha,

Looks like I won't be on for a while.  Puter won't boot - stops POST @ "Detecting IDE drives".  Normal intial startup "beep".  It shows correct CPU/memory and mem test ok.  Won't boot in SAFE mode - get blue screen.  Made it to BIOS once and time is correct.  Both hardrives listed in BIOS but it locked up when I tried "Detecting Drives" on primary HDD and can't get to BIOS anymore.  POST stops every time at "detecting IDE drives" with F8 or DEL held down/or not and  with/or without XP disk in either DVD burner drive. Anyone have any ideas?  HDD failure?

Mahalo,

[Hap]

DJ, closest thing that your experiencing that has happend to me was when I had raid drives and upon POST some similar symptoms occured.

Slap an old hard drive in her and try to get to where you install Windows.  If you can't get that far, then motherboard, memory, or cpu problem (s) someplace I suppose.

Regards,

hap

p.s.  hope being without Aces High for a short time doesn't make exile in Hawaii too insufferable.

[Spatula]

Sounds like your HDD has failed. Or the controller for it. Try another HDD if you have a spare.

[handy169]

can you post the blue screen error number?? it would give us a better idea of what may be wrong

also i noticed you where overclocking maybe something went wrong?

[Irwink!]

I would think that if you've got the cd drive configured in setup as a boot device then you should be able to boot from the XP cd regardless of an hd failure. If it won't you may have more wrong than an hd/controller failure. Can you get in to setup and configure your cd drive as the first boot device? After it is configured you'll get a prompt during the boot process to "hit any key to boot from cd..."

[Roscoroo]

hd failed ???

pull the cables from hd , cdrom, and try to boot it to bios.

[Schutt]

Check hard drive cables maybe they slipped a bit and dont have full contact. otherwise see if you can boot windows (or knoppix) from cd rom when you have harddrives unplugged.

[WhiteHawk]

Originally posted by DAVENRINO
Aloha,

Looks like I won't be on for a while.  Puter won't boot - stops POST @ "Detecting IDE drives".  Normal intial startup "beep".  It shows correct CPU/memory and mem test ok.  Won't boot in SAFE mode - get blue screen.  Made it to BIOS once and time is correct.  Both hardrives listed in BIOS but it locked up when I tried "Detecting Drives" on primary HDD and can't get to BIOS anymore.  POST stops every time at "detecting IDE drives" with F8 or DEL held down/or not and  with/or without XP disk in either DVD burner drive. Anyone have any ideas?  HDD failure?

Mahalo,

Kinda sounds like what is happening to mine?  Hmmm.

[DAVENRINO]

Thanks for suggestions.  I will try AFTER I drag the case and external H2o setup out of it's bay in the desk.

[Balsy]

DJ,

I have near same system. I enabled quick boot, and disabled the floppy check, and ran a year later into a problem where it wouldnt boot up.

Get in bios, disable quick boot, and let the puter check for floppy and I was good to go..

Worth a try before you do surgery..

Balsy

[Roscoroo]

mine (same system ) failed a hard drive this spring and it did the same thing .. i pulled the hd and it booted bios just fine . dropped in a different drive and it worked fine after that .

[WhiteHawk]

Originally posted by Roscoroo
mine (same system ) failed a hard drive this spring and it did the same thing .. i pulled the hd and it booted bios just fine . dropped in a different drive and it worked fine after that .

Hmmm, i pulled HD power cable to mine and it still didnt make it to BIOS.  I also checked voltage on BIOS battery and 3.7+VDC.  I was thinking it was the HD, but it should make it to BIOS without the HD eh?  HMMM,  tested PS voltage at the HD and a few other places, still giving steady voltage, but I didnt test it at the MB, but MB lights are working just fine  (8-\.  Next up is RAM i guess, I got 2 sticks of mushkin pc3500, should i try to remove one or the other and visa versa??

PS  sorry im horn in in on yer thread DAVENRino, but maybe we can get thru this together.

[OOZ662]

Yesterday one of the games I play froze, BSOD'd, and ate both my BIOS and my CMOS. I couldn't get to the "Setup" page because my CMOS was corrupted and needed a reset. See if you can find a pair of CMOS reset pins on the motherboard and slide a jumper over them. An easier way would be to remove the little button (watch) battery from the board, unplug it, and let it sit for a minute before popping the battery back in and booting up.

(I love you, DualBIOS)

[Roscoroo]

WhiteHawk's is different .. it points to something burned out ,, like a ps . or board failure .

ussually if its ram  ,,, the board will give a series of beeps . if its befor the ram you dont get anypost beep then its the board .    cpu's are kinda rare to go out even when over clocked ..you have to overheat them ussually for a cpu failure or voltage spike them hard ...

(on slowboot the board tests the ram and it ussually shows up then )



Daven's got shook in that hawaii earthquake .. not shure how hard .. but it may have been enough to hurt the hd ...(our hugequake up here years ago wrecked lotsa cd players and hd's )  


or did bolth of u guys get shook and zapped ???

[DAVENRINO]

I came home from Guam the day after the quake so puter wasn't running but my 250 gig external drive for my Cable TV DVR died.  I will try tomorrow as I was busy all day ordering my new Conroe setup.