| Author |
Message |
zig
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 - 10:48 am: | |
Wednesday, September 4, 2002 - 10:45 am
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Hi,
I've got a problem with my computer that has been running OK for some months prior to this.
The computer turns on sometimes but then occasionally completely loses power and I have to manually switch the button on the back of the case on/off a few times before it will start up again. Sometimes the power will stay on, sometimes the same thing will happen again. If that's not bad enough when the power does work the system cannot detect the HDD (not even in BIOS)though I get one beep and the LED on the MOBO reads correctly. Now strangely again sometimes it will boot up fine and load up windows with no problems and work for some days before the problems start all over again.
specs are:
Win98
Athlon 1.3mhz
512mb pc133 sdram
40gb Fujitsu HDD
Soundblaster live soundcard
Geforce II mx 64mb graphics card
Network card
300w PSU
EPOX 8KTA3 MOBO
2 extra fans for cooling in the case
I built the system myself and as I said it had been running fine for months before the problems started.
Any help gratefully received.
Cheers
Zig |
win
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 - 11:46 am: | |
might try to recheck bios settings. if you have them set up wrong, or not what the hardware can take, you'll get something like this. what about the motherboard battery? try replacing it? the other thing is. of course, virii, has it been on the net? any trojans or other goodies that you may have come across there? |
zig
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 4, 2002 - 12:59 pm: | |
Hi Win,
Thx for the quick response.
Re the BIOS, I'll have a look but I don't think that they've been changed since the computer was working OK, however may be worth re-setting to defaults I suppose.
Re Virus, yes it has been online so I'll run McAfee on it once I can get it to boot of course ;-)
Thx
Zig |
zig
| | Posted on Thursday, September 5, 2002 - 2:19 pm: | |
Update
Ok I went to my local shop and purchased a new case with a 350w PSU (was cheaper than stand alone PSU !! ) Have transferred the whole computer into the new case and it now runs without random power downs, however I've still got the problem that it will not detect the HDD btw the message "Invalid system disk" etc etc comes up, I assume this is because it can't detect the HDD and hence windows it's looking for the boot disk on the floppy ?? Any ideas if I can try anything else or has the HDD had it. Reading other posts it appears that the Fujitsu isn't the most reliable of drives and guess what, it's 2 months over warranty !! that's probably nearly £100.00 down the swanee then.
If there's anything else I could try before having to purchase a new HDD I will give it a go.
Cheers
Zig |
Kevin
| | Posted on Friday, September 6, 2002 - 3:11 am: | |
Is the drive recognized in the bios?
Check the boot sequence in the bios it may be set to boot from CDrom first.
Check cables and power connectors to make sure they are plugged in fully. Also hard drive cables sometimes get plugged in backwards.
The boot record on the drive may be corrupt or gone and a reinstall of Windows necessary. |
zig
| | Posted on Friday, September 6, 2002 - 4:42 am: | |
The power issue seems to be resolved with no power loss since using the new case/PSU.
The HDD problem however continues, it's not recognised in BIOS,boot sequence is floppy, HDD0, CDROM. I tried running the WIN boot disk and it reports that no HDD is conected as does the McAfee virus scanning program and Fujitsu's only diagnosis program !!
I've switched the cable from the known to be working DVD drive in case the HDD cable was faulty but still the same, so that eliminates that possibility. The jumper is set to master so that's correct (only device on EIDE 1 ) so it's got to be a faulty HDD.
So now to splash more cash on a new one which WON'T be a Fujitsu !!!!!!!
Cheers
Zig |
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