Discussion Locked

sudden loss

0 helpful

12 replies

by bulldoggy_27 Apr 20, 2006 last reply Apr 21, 2006

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

I have a P4 2.4 w/768 RAM ASUS P4P800SE MB Gforce 6600 GT 3 80gb+ HD. With the same configuration for about the past year except maybe the video card upgrade this past Jan. I left for work yesterday afternoon and left the pc on and when I came back that night it had restarted. The problems is that it never went thru, it ended at the boot from network. The HD light kept blinking and didnt really seem like it was spinning, so I went and purchased another HD and still have the same issue. I unplug everything and just leave the dvd rom and the new HD, and the bios recognizes the HD and the ROM but when I run setup of Win XP it says there is no HD connected. I changed HD and IDE cables, unplugged all non essentials, and even hooked the drives up in a different configuration. Any ideas on where else I should look?

12 replies

by cmiller5400 Apr 20, 2006

On the MFR's website of the HDD, download software to test the drive. It sounds like it may have a mechanical problem...

by bulldoggy_27 Apr 21, 2006

Poster rated this answer.

by mrjay67 Apr 20, 2006

Might double check jumper settings. Sometimes When setting the master it is specific as to whether its a single master or master w/slave. I am taking since you mentioned IDE that this is an IDE drive.
On the off chance that these might be Serial you might need a driver disk for XP to see them. When booting to XP setup it should prompt you to hit F6(if memory serves) if its SCSI or need additional drivers.

Other wise it could be just a faulty drive(s). Some newer drives are rather quiet so it may not make much noise to tell if its spinning. Might also try swapping IDE channels. Possibly IDE1 is not working quite right.

just trying some other ideas

Jason

by bulldoggy_27 Apr 21, 2006

Poster rated this answer.

by dmiles Apr 20, 2006

First take out the memory and reseat it
You should also reseat the video card
boot computer and press the F8 key try using the last known good configuration
try using safe mode to trouble shoot the OS system

by bulldoggy_27 Apr 21, 2006

Poster rated this answer.

by sgt_shultz Apr 21, 2006

tell us more about your ide controller. is it on board. did you try resetting the bios settings to 'most robust' or whatever it is...give us brand and model number of the drives...new and old also would ya?
sounds like could be you need to add the ide controller drivers during the install of xp? have you installed your updated bios and mbd drivers?
you could maybe throw money at it and go get a Promise ide controller to add in...

by bulldoggy_27 Apr 21, 2006

Poster rated this answer.

by xt john Apr 21, 2006

Sounds like you did everything correct so far. I had a pc die on me a few months ago, wound up the power supply smoked the motherboard. The computer went through the motions, fans spinning, drives whirring, etc. Chances are, if you try the original HD in a different pc, it'd boot right up. We've seen this happen on the job with several IBM models (the NetVista line in particular). Since you've done all the obvious, maybe time to use a known good MB and Powersupply.