Help: pc doesnt boot

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 8:32 am

Hello to all!

My brother experiences a problem with his ancient PC (P2 266MHz) and I tried to help him with no satisfactory results. That is why I am posting here, in order to ask you if you have any idea that we havent thought/tried already.

Probably due to a light-storm or intense over-clocking, his PC got burned. After a lot of tests by a pc-technician, we found out that his old motherboard, the CPU, half of his memory modules and the PSU got burned.

We bought a new PSU (350W), we found a working equivalent motherboard to the old one, a working P2 266 like the old one and we kept whatever was not burned.

The problem is that the PC refuses to do anything after the intial boot-up. It finds the CPU ok, it finds the memory but gives the following message
"disk boot failure. please insert a system disk"
My brother's PC has 2 Hard disks (a 40GB new one and the 7GB original one), a CD-ROM and a SCSI CD-Writer. The OS is on the 40GB one, which cannot be recognized by the system unless we flash a new BIOS.
But no matter the boot order set in BIOS (A,C, SCSI etc) the PC seems not to care and doesnt search to see what is in the floppy drive, in the CD-ROM or in the CD-R.

I ve tried all the following combinations but with no luck:
1) all 4 devices (HD1, HD2, CDROM, CDR) and FD (floppy) connected as should, and the system freezes as it cannot recognize the HD1 without a BIOS upgrade
2) as before except HD1, and with HD2 set as primary master, I get a "please reboot" message
3) only SCSI CDR and FD, but it doesnt look for the WIN XP CD or the Win98 startup disk that I insert
4) nothing connect, I get on the start screen "Primary disk error"

Any ideas? I know that it is not worth fighting for such a system, but at least I d like to understand what is the problem! Why it doesnt boot from the floppy? Why it doesnt boot from the CDROM or the SCSI CDR?

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 9:44 am

Did you try new IDE/FDD cables? Also, can you check to see if the drives are spinning up when power is connected? I've seen drives get damaged by bad PSU's before. Best way to check is to put those drives into another PC to verify if they work or not.

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 11:27 am

My horse was struck by lightning, fell down a canyon and got mauled by a cougar. It lost a lot of blood, one leg, and has deep wounds around the head - now it won't gallop or even trot.

I've tried giving it carrots, hot oats and even a sugar lump. A brisk rub-down likewise had no effect.

When I kick it in the ribs it just whinnies a few times and goes back to sleep.

I've put a saddle on it, but it just won't get up.

I'm thinking of shooting it, but really it's a great horse - I'm sure I can get pulling my three heavily-laden wagons again. Suggestions ?

siberiansun · Post by **siberiansun** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 1:17 pm

^ i don't think anyone could miss that subtle hint...

Post by **hubird** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 7:23 pm

they shoot horses, don't they?

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 7:50 pm

On 2004-04-10 12:27, Spirit wrote:
My horse was struck by lightning, fell down a canyon and got mauled by a cougar. It lost a lot of blood, one leg, and has deep wounds around the head - now it won't gallop or even trot.

I've tried giving it carrots, hot oats and even a sugar lump. A brisk rub-down likewise had no effect.

When I kick it in the ribs it just whinnies a few times and goes back to sleep.

I've put a saddle on it, but it just won't get up.

I'm thinking of shooting it, but really it's a great horse - I'm sure I can get pulling my three heavily-laden wagons again. Suggestions ?

I feel a bit upset to answer this here, because this thread has nothing to do with horses, please, forgive me to do it anyway.

How sad Spirit, how sad... I regreat it so much... You know, I am absolutely convinced about the fact that animals can FEEL emotions almost as we humans do. So the first thing I think you can do for your hourse, is to talk to him, to touch him and give it some real tenderness and much love, you must make him feel you love him, this will give a lot of energy to the poor beast.

Of course, you should bring a specialist to your place, I think you need some proffesional help there. Perhaps a general operation to the wounts will cure him, even if it can no longer trot.

As with human beings, psycological help is in order here, so much love first of all, and proffesinal help to sort harm out.

I'm very sorry for this truly strange happening man...

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 8:16 pm

Yeah Spirit, my condolences there too. I ended up giving my old horses to family members as I upgraded and they didn't have one. Now we can all send mail via horse.

Post by **garyb** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 9:22 pm

hey,that was MY horse!you were only borrowing it!

p.s. those sound like some D.O.A. hdds.....

*edit* nestor,this IS the ot forum!.....

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: garyb on 2004-04-10 22:24 ]</font>

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 7:07 am

Busted.

spoimala · Post by **spoimala** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 4:02 am

I thought Spirit's story is a figurative hint to rodos, not a real story.

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 8:02 am

This thread did turn a bit surrealistic...

On 2004-04-10 10:44, dArKr3zIn wrote:
Best way to check is to put those drives into another PC to verify if they work or not.

Thank you dArKr3zIn for the help. We ve checked them in another PC with the same cables and they did work...

Oh, well... I think we ll bring the poor old PC to Spirit's horse in order to keep the poor horse company..

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: rodos1979 on 2004-04-13 09:05 ]</font>

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 8:15 am

There's a use for your poor ol' hoss yet!

...from the makers of 'Shergar Snacks'

Royston

Post by **hubird** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 8:44 am

I thought this was food for humans, made of dogs!

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 9:35 am

Bleuch:

"Restaurateurs in Korea were planning to offer “dog meat juice” to foreigners outside the World Cup stadium in Seoul. “We plan to develop canned dog meat tonic juice, which football fans can enjoy in their stadium seats,” said Choi Han-Gwon, the head of an association of dog meat restaurants."

I think they have a refreshing cat juice tonic drink too...although IIRC both dog & cat food products were baned during the Seoul Olympics.

I think I'll pass.

Royston

Michu · Post by **Michu** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 10:19 am

rodos

i'd try booting with just HD2 and IDE CD-ROM
and trying if you can install OS from CD then.
how is SCSI drive connected?

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 5:20 am

Hello to all!

On 2004-04-13 11:19, Michu wrote:
rodos

i'd try booting with just HD2 and IDE CD-ROM
and trying if you can install OS from CD then.
how is SCSI drive connected?

The SCSI drive is connected internally to an Adaptec SCSI PCI card.
I ve tried what you suggest but with no success... I give up!

It is not worth to try anything else and spend any more time on that PC....

dbmac · Post by **dbmac** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 6:30 am

Try removing the battery from the mboard - leave it out for 10 minutes, then replace and reboot. You might also try flashing a newer bios.

/dave

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 9:04 am

Thanks all for the advice, but my horse hasn't moved for some time and Im suspecting the worst. In fact there's now a distinctly unpleasant odour.

I'll try a final flogging and see whether it has any effect.

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 3:22 am

On 2004-04-14 07:30, dbmac wrote:
Try removing the battery from the mboard - leave it out for 10 minutes, then replace and reboot. You might also try flashing a newer bios.

/dave

I have tried that too but no luck...
@Spirit: maybe you should try to flash a new bios to your horse as well!