Computer Messed Up, Help!

L

LostPuppy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 23, 2002
Messages
251
Ok so it all started with a few symtoms. Harddrives would just stop being reconized. Then my mouse would disapear. I could still move it around and click on stuff but there was no pointer to see where the mouse was. I didnt try to fix it cause im in the middle of finals and didnt have time.

Now it wont even boot. I turn it on and get this msg:
HardWare Initiate failed, Please Check Device!!!
Click to expand...
I kid you not, 3 exglamation points.
Then Underneath:
The Bios does not be installed. Press <g> to continue!
Click to expand...
Only one point this time, but its odd that the grammer is a lil , well you know...

So i hit "G" it trys to detect harddrives then i get:

NTLDR is Missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart
Click to expand...

I tried swaping out all non-required hardware... like extra ram, 3 hard drives, cd rom drives, sound card, still got the problem. Is it my mobo? do i flash the bios? help!?!?!
 
Either:

A) Your BIOS is outdated.

B) One of the following Windows boot files is missing or corrupted:

Ntldr
Ntdetect.com
Boot.ini
 
OK, what motherboard do you have? How many hard disks are in your machine? If you have multiple drives and your boot disk has a problem, then the BIOS will try to boot off of the next physical drive the BIOS detected. Try isolating down the problem a bit more by first: Remove any uneeded hardware (extra drives, modems, etc...)
Second: Go into the BIOS and check to see if your boot disk can be detected while at the same time, verify that you can hear the hard disk spin up when you first start your computer.
Third, Re-seat all your HDD cables, memory, and make sure no USB devices are attached such as an iPod or other MP3 player.

-E
 
DFI PT880-ALS
P4 3G
1G RAM (Two 512's Kingston)
Nvidia 6800 GT
5 Harddrives, 1 80G Sata (Thats where windows is) , 2 200G IDE's, 1 300G IDE, and 1 40G IDE.
600W power supply
DVD Player
CD/DVD Burner
And a 7.1 sound card as well as Promise Tech PCI to Ultra133 IDE adapter

I unplugged all the other drives and took out the two pci cards with no luck.

I'll try reinstalling those files Lord Nassirbannipal suggested.

I went into the bios and it said it detected my harddrives, i tired resetting defaults to see if that made a difference but no. I listened and the drive was spinning, but i also noticed another sound, it came from the harddrive but it sounded like it was cutting out. like you know that sound you hear just as your harddrive shuts off? it was kinda like that. My server has a 98se drive, maybe ill try booting to that tonight off this rig.
 
So, you are hearing the drive spin, but then spin down? In other words, it makes the spin "whine" sound but then you hear the spin "blip" sound and then it spins back up? That would be the spin up chip on the PCB is bad, or, you had a hard disk crash. If so, what you are hearing is the drive heads resetting themselves back to center each time they encounter the bad surface area the disk heads made contact. Theres no real recovery from that for your disk drive.

-E
 
MrE.. well that sucks... lol

Hopefully that isnt the problem. : )

EDIT: Good News... now when i turn on the computer it doesnt get past the P4 flash screen. which i think is a good sign its not my harddrive. I swapped in my 98se, still lags on p4 flash screen.

so Mobo or processor i guess....
 
blah now nothing is working........

how can i test the processor if i cant boot to anything... all my friends have AMD so i cant borrow their rigs... any thoughts?
 
Well, it could be a motherboard, but I'm starting to suspect the power supply first. Why? Cause your symptoms you described in the OP and the natural degredation of the system stability says that your PSU might be at fault. Just a thought.

-E
 
Might invest in a SATA to USB adapter so you can test your SATA HDD on a different PC and see if it will recognize the data. This also gives you another way to access your boot sectors even if the OS installed on it will not boot.
 
my friends do have sata support on their motherboards... ill use one of their rigs to check out the drive tomorrow.
 
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