Ugh, my computer won't boot

S

Svardeked

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 25, 2005
Messages
66
Well I suck at computers now. Spend all my time on guitars now haha. :D

Well here is the story. I yanked an annoying system blower out of my computer because it was making the most irritating whining noise ever. So I put the computer back together, and the computer would not boot. My cousin checked the computer out, and he resetted the cmos but it did not work. So I opened it back up and saw the power cable to the hard drive was disconnected. How embarrasing. :eek: I connected it, and it booted it. Then it said something about Floppy failure or something like that. Hit F1 to continue or press delete for setup. I press F1 to continue, and all it does is give a blank screen. And that is all it did everytime I turned the computer on. So I disconnected teh computer for a few days, and I hook it back up. It boots again, giving me the same options. This time I go to setup. Boot sequence is it first goes to the Floppy.

I have 2 hard drives in the computer, 1 SATA and 1 IDE. In the boot sequence thing, there are options hdd0 hdd1 hdd2 hdd3 hdd4. I put hdd1 as the first boot option. The SATA drive is my main drive. The IDE one is just a back up drive. Anyways, all I get is the stupid black screen, and I don't know where to go from there. How do I get this stupid thing to start working again?? :confused:

Excuse my ignorance. Thanks.
 
first of all do you have a floppy drive? if not you need to disable it in the main setup screen. Second SATA drives are considered SCSI drives in most BIOS's

If you haven't already, you need to remove the floppy from the boot sequence if you don't have one, the computer will hang looking for a nonexistant drive.
 
sorry had to read it twice, now i get it.

lol, and after reading it a third time i realize after my edit someone posted exactly what i was about to say.
 
oooh fast replies!

Yes, there is floppy drive. as for sata considered scsi in most bios's, is there something else that i have to do?

Here is the problem. When I turn the computer on, there is only a blank screen. I cant access the bios. unless there is another way. the solution i found was just to leave disconnected for a while. but i will have to try it tomorrow because to do it now i have to disconnect this computer and the connect the other. i need to get my laptop so i can do step by step lol!

but keep suggestions coming. I appreciate all your help!
 
no beeps... no bios... honistly sounds like your 20pin insnt plugged in :p

maybe a video card issue? anywho im tired ill put some thought into it tomorrow.
 
It sounds too me like that "system blower" thing you took out might have been your CPU fan. And now it's overheating and locking up.
 
Ha! Well it did show video for a while which allowd me to access the bios. And after putting hdd1 as first thing to boot it just gives the black screen.

Ryan, the systme blower thing i removed is a weird looking black fan that takes the place of a pci slot. And I do know what the cpu fan is :p

Haha, anyways I shall have a looksie inside the case and see if i can find any problems. tomorrow that is, i'm exhausted form today. :(

Thank you all again!
 
Sorry I am late to post.

Ok I inspected the inside and everything is connected. However, I still get the blank screen. Reset cmos again? I don't know how lol i dont have the manual eiterh and i dont know the model of the board. It's an asus board and my processor is athlon xp 2600+
 
This is probably not the problem as you have powered up into the cmos but I have seen weirder things.

Check the cpu fan is plugged into the correct power socket on the motherboard.
Its usually the nearest to the CPU socket.
If you dont know which one, try the others. Look carefully, its easy to miss one.

If the fan isnt plugged into the right header and the CMOS is set to monitor the fan speed, it shouldnt turn on. It could be there is a fault in the system and it does turn on but doesnt work.
worth checking.
 
Thanks for your reply.

there were only 2 sockets around the cpu, one the fan was plugged in and other something else was plugged in. i tried switching them around, but that did not work. :(

oh and there is a jumper near the cpu that says cpu on one side and fsb on the other. the jumper is on the fsb side. does that have any significance?

ugh this frustrating! :eek:
 
Ok i have more info, since there isn't much now.

i reset the cmos again and i got it to boot. i got the floppy failure thing first. on the same screen, it said my primary master is my dvd burner drive and the dvd rom drive is the primary slave. but for primary master and primary slave, it says none.

Hopefully this helps. If more info is needed, I can reset the cmos and get more info, like go into teh bios and whatnot.

Thank you all!
 
Unplug power and data cables from everything except what you need to boot.
Leave just one hard drive cable with only the boot drive on it.
If that works, you can add things back in slowly to find the problem.
 
Thanks. went ahead and disconnected everything except my sata drive.

still says floppy disk fail (40) and cmos checksum error - defaults loaded.

at the bottom it says press f1 to continue and del to enter setup.

should i hit f1?

edit: oh yes and primiary master, slave and secondary master, slave all says none this time.
 
Another update. i went ahead and pressed f1 and it preceeded to boot. then i get the error disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter. so i reconnect everything, and try again, but I got the same error.

edit: also, if i turn off the computer, i have to reset the cmos again so it will boot up!
 
Svardeked said:
Thanks. went ahead and disconnected everything except my sata drive.

still says floppy disk fail (40) and cmos checksum error - defaults loaded.

at the bottom it says press f1 to continue and del to enter setup.

should i hit f1?

edit: oh yes and primiary master, slave and secondary master, slave all says none this time.
Click to expand...

If you have CMOS Checksum error, the CMOS may not be setup to use your hardware properly, the CPU and ram will be running at safe speeds.
Press del, go into the CMOS and make sure it is setup correctly.
Press F10 to save.

You might want to disable the floppy drive while you are in there although this will only give an error after power up and not affact anything else.
While in the CMOS, make sure your hard disk has been found and the size is correct.
 
ryan_975: never! lol! i know better than that. :eek: hehe.

Ok I think I disabled teh floppy. wherer it says legacy diskette a, it was at 1.44m, 3.5in and i put it at none.

i still dont think the hard drive is recognize. primary master says raite rdr-108h d which is the dvd drive. primary slave says memorex dvd+/-rw. secondary master and slave say none. this is on the main screen.

there are some options in the advanced menu. Advanced BIOS features, advanced chipset featuers, integrated peripherals, power management setup and pnp/pci configurations.

oh yes, and i just realize something. i dont have an ide drive. my sata drive is split in two. partition. maybe because i havent use the computer in so long. im sooo stupid! :eek:

EDIT: If i need to take pictures of the screen, I will do so!
 
ryan_975 said:
I think I might can actually help :) Try to find out what model motherboard you have.
Click to expand...

Ok I got the model number it is A7N8X-E Deluxe.
Thank you!
 
unfortunatly no. only other computer i have is an old 600mhz HP Kayak XU. It only has SCSI and IDE.
 
update: i put in an old 40gb Maxtor drive and had it set as master and it was recognized as secondary master. i changed the jumper to slave and it was recognized as secondary slave. but my sata drive is still not recognized! :( :( :( :(
 
Check all the settings in the CMOS to make sure that SATA is not disabled in any way.

If you are plugged into the RAID controller, the config for that comes after the normal IDE drives have been detected.
You may have to press F2 or some other key combo (it should say) to get into the config.
See if the drive is detected there and if not check the settings for oddness and see if there is a way to reset it if all else fails.

Have you tried different power connectors, different SATA cables and using different SATA slots on the motherboard?
 
i went through every setting, and i cannot seem to find anytihng about sata :confused:

i dont think im plugged into the raid controller because i dont see any config for it. the maxtor is still recognized.

i have tried different power connectors, and i only have one sata cable and one sata power cable. and there is one other sata slot and i tried that one too. :( ugh frustrating!
 
Does the drive power up?

Hmm there should be some configuration for SATA in the CMOS.
You should at least be able to disable/enable the controller.
 
the drive is getting warm so i am assume that it is powered up?

yeah i can't find the setting so i will list everything.

Advanced BIOS Features:
Boot virus detection
CPU level 1 cache
CPU level 2 cache
Quick Power on Self Test
First Boot Device
Second Boot Device
Third Boot Device
Boot Other Device
Boot up Floppy Seek
Boot up NumLock Status
Gate A20 Option
Typematic Rate Setting
APIC Mode
OS/2 Onboard Memory>64M
Full Screen Screen LOGO Show
Speech Post Reporter
Post Complete Report

Advanced Chipset Features:
CPU External Freq. (MHZ)
CPU Frequencey Multiple Setting
System Performance
Memory Frequence
FSB Spread Spectrum
AGP Spread Spectrum
CPU Vcore Setting
Graphics Aperture Size
AGP Frequency
System BIOS Cacheable
Video RAM Cacheable
DDR Reference Voltage
AGP VDDQ Voltage
AGP 8x Support
AGP Fast Write Capability

Integrated Peripherals:
Primary VGA BIOS
USB Controllers
USB Keyboard & Legacy Support
USB Legacy Mouse support
Onboard AC97 Audio Controller
Onboard LAN
Onboard 1394 Device
Floppy Disk Access Controller
Onboard Serial Port 1
Onboard Serial Port 2
UART2 use as
Onboard Parallel Port
Parallel Port Mode
ECP DMA Select
Onboard Game Port
Onboard MIDI I/O
Onboard MIDI IRQ

And the other 2 settings are Power management setup and PNP/PCI Configurations.
 
Sorry, I'm stumped for the moment.
Its late in the day so I'll have a think and get back tomorrow.

If you can try the drive in a friends machine it will be handy.
 
hi sorry for being late i just barely got home. :)

i looked through first, second and third boot device and there is no option for pata or sata. :( im going to look at the manual right now and see if i can find info.

thx i will keep you updated
 
not much info regarding sata in the manual. i checked the jumper to make sure the sata controller is enabled, and it is. drive is still not recognized. i am positive the drive is working. but i dont know of anyone else with a comp so i can test it.

i have to be doing something wrong, but i tried many different things. and right now i dont think i can build a new computer now! :( :(
 
Could you possibly take a picture of the inside of your case? preferably multiple angles, so we can get a look at your physical set up.

I'm thinking that it could have something to do with the RAID controller (assuming there is one).
 
bah i was about to take pics but my batteries are dead but i will get some pics for sure. i will take various different picture
 
The drive sounds like it is damaged.
If thats the case, its one of those things.
If you have told us all the steps that happened, nothing you have done should have killed it.

The other possibility is the SATA controllers on the motherboard are damaged.
 
:( nooo! it was a raptor too! :( oh well. i will see if i can test the drive in another comp. if not, i will buy a new hard drive. until then i guess i will install windows 98 on the 40gb hard drive just so i can at least use the computer.

Thank you sooooo much for your help all of you. I really really appreciate it!

oh ok i just saw your edit. i will try to have the drive tested somehow. but i really hope the sata controllers are not damage. but if so oh well i guess. it was old computer and outdated so maybe i should have upgraded to something better anyway LoL!

sigh :(
 
good luck.
hopefully it will just mysteriously start working to get some karma back :)
 
thanks! yah hopefully it will just start working! :D

oh and now there seems to be another problem. it won't boot off teh windows 98 cd! i put cdrom as first boot device and i press f10 to save to cmos and it just goes to blank screen afterward. i turn off the computer and turn it back on and still black screen so i have to reset cmos again! stupid computer!
 
Sounds like the march of death has started!
One component could be drawing too much power (ie the hard drive), the motherboard is damaged or power might be at fault (ie bad connection, PSU dieing...).

I'd strip the whole PC down, clean all the cards/connectors, check for bent pins etc and rebuild.
 
thanks! i guess i will do that. probably tomorrow since i have to get to bed haha. :eek:

definitely does not look good. thank you so much for the help! i will keep you updated. :)
 
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