Can anybody help with a Hardware Problem?

Question

My Hard Drive went down and I bought a new one. Installed Windows XP Home (and it is a real one!) and all was working fine, so I went to bed. Next day, the machine refused to turn on! I went and found an old HD (with Windows 95!!) and this managed to get my machine restarted, but can't use this with the new HD (because of the differences in file structure I believe) so can't look at the new HD to try to isolate the problem. If I put in the new HD, it says that it is not bootable. If I try to boot from the CD, it says that the Windows CD is not bootable. If I try to use my startup floppy to install the CD Boot, it says the BIOS won't allow the floppy to run the installation program.

If anybody has any ideas of how to solve this (before I pelt it across the room) I would greatly appreciate it! As a secondary part to my question, and for a bit of fun: anybody else HATE PCs? I have a 25 year old Spectrum that is still going strong, so why doesn't a PC last longer than 18 months?

Answer 1

http://www.bootdisk.com



will be of help.. hopefully u have a floppy disk drive. just boot off that , format..



u need to set the bios to boot of the cd..



maybe check the mobo makers site for a bios update before doing updates.. incase u wanna update to vista later.



as for ya spectrum, mine carked it years ago, my c64' still work.. i use emulators anyway ;-)

Answer 2

Travis's answer is partly correct, but how will you re-flash your BIOS if you cannot boot from a floppy? It does sound like you may have a BIOS issue, but it may not be only that. Try resetting the BIOS to defaults - when you power-on there should be a message telling you how to get into BIOS or Setup. It is usually the F2 or F10 key. Another issue may be with the number of drives you have in your machine. check that you have the jumpers set correctly for 'Slave' & 'Master' (or 'Primary') accordingly.

It is strange that you did manage to setup XP Home on the new drive though. When you did this, was it the only HD in the machine, and did you boot from the XP CD ok? Provide this info & others may be able to answer more fully.

Answer 3

The real problem with PC's is the fact that there are so many low-quality cheap OEM's building and retailing PC components that it is hard to determine which ones are good and which ones will crap out on you after a short period of time. I tend to stay with SOYO, MSI, AMD, Intel, Kingston, Ultra and PNY products as these have always provided years of uniterupted use.



As for your problem, it would seem that you need to check your BIOS/CMOS settings to allow the computer to boot. Check that any virus protection settings are turned off as sometimes this can prevent any bootable disks from loading.



Also, check the HDD that you are having trouble with. Make sure that any jumper settings are correct, that it's connected to the appropriate IDE/SATA cables and, if you're using IDE, make sure you're using EIDE/UIDE cable. Often times, generic IDE cables don't work with high capacity HDD's.



Next, check that all cables are properly connected. Also, check the motherboard and find the BIOS/CMOS chip. Make sure it is seated properly. Most modern MB's will not have BIOS/CMOS chips that can creep but the cheap ones don't have them permanently soldered on.



If none of that works, I would suggest looking for a better motherboard. Choose either a SOYO, ASUS or MSI motherboard. Stay AWAY from BioStar or other korean and chinese manufacturers. These are the cheap products that never work properly.



Finally, Windows, unforunatly, has a tendancy to fill itself up with all sorts of garbage that needs to be regularly cleaned (including registry entries, temporary files/folders and cached drivers/programs). I use a program called CCleaner. It's free and is very helpful in fixing various problems.



I've not heard of these problems on other platforms such as MacOS or Linux... go figure. Still, Windows is popular and does work (for the most part). You've just got to maintain it like a car.



Hope all this helps.

Answer 4

A good start is to reset your BIOS by removing the CMOS battery then putting it back in. The CMOS battery looks like a big watch battery, circle shaped and flat. Remove it for 2-3 minutes, make sure the power cable is removed during this process. Replace the CMOS battery and try booting the different devices from there.



If that does not solve your issue, then I would try to look for BIOS updates and flash your BIOS if it is not the current version.

Answer 5

I can't help with the first part in a definitive way. However, if you now have two broken hard drives I wonder if another part of your system is broken and causing the hard drives to break? For example, if the power supply is faulty this could damage other components. Could it be time to get it looked at by technicians?



Why don't PCs last? I think there are two main problems with PCs: i) cheap hardware, built down to a price; ii) a shoddy operating system that is unstable in design. I dislike Windows - every release has major problems, even after a few years it still goes wrong if you try to alter software, upgrade, etc.; which is why I'm an Apple fan. The Apple OS is properly designed to be stable, and the hardware is not built down to a price......



Alexander Chancellor

Friday June 8, 2007

The Guardian



While in New York, I paid a visit to a glamorous downtown computer shop in the hope of being tempted. Although I have a laptop that works perfectly well, I wanted an excuse to buy a new one, especially as computers are much cheaper in America than they are in Britain.



With my friend, Mike, a patriotic believer in the American way of commerce, I approached one of those knowledgeable and personable young salesmen that Macintosh employs to encourage customers to part with their money.



"What kind of computer do you have?" asked the salesman. "A PowerBook G4," I replied. "A PowerBook G4?" exclaimed Mike, striking his forehead with his hand in mock horror; for he knew that I wanted to be persuaded to replace it. "That's a good machine," said the salesman. "How old is it?" "About five years," I said. "Five years old!" shrieked Mike. But the salesman said: "I'd hang on to it if I were you. It should be good for a while yet."



"Who on earth trained you to be a salesman?" asked an astonished Mike before we left the shop empty-handed; the young man just smiled. I am beginning to be worried about the future of the United States.



in: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2098261,00.html



___________________

found on yahoo answers - anti-vista



http://www.jibjab.com/view/111288





______________________



When you pay the apparently higher price up-front it should be considered an investment - less time wrestling with Windows problems or suspect hardware later.



http://www.macobserver.com/article/2002/06/13.9.shtml



While nothing is perfect, Apple users tend to be happier about their computers.



http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1851295,00.asp



http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NEW/is_1994_Dec_12/ai_16308965

Answer 6

Go to www.seagate.com/support.And download disk wizard put on disk run it then reinstall windows.