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General discussion

BIOS will not show a HD and computer will not recognize the HD

Jan 30, 2004 7:57AM PST

I have an HP Pavilion 513n with a 1.8gig processor. Previous to my problem the computer had been sitting for several weeks. I had taken the memory out and had not fully replaced it into the mobo slot. Without realizing this I turned on the computer. It beeped a lot, the power button light was on, and the HD access light stayed on continuously.

When I realized what I had done, I unplugged the computer and replaced the memory solidly into the slot.
Since then when I boot it, I get the screen message "Operating System Not Found." When I go into setup, it shows no primary master or slave drive. It shows my memory, floppy drive and DVD-ROM(as a secondary master) correctly. The computer will boot from the floppy drive with a windows 98 boot disk. It runs programs from the floppy disk without problems.

I have tried a different,working HD. I can hear it running, but the BIOS will not recognize it is there. I have switched cables. Nothing I try has worked.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Discussion is locked

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Re:BIOS will not show a HD and computer will not recognize the HD
Jan 30, 2004 8:14AM PST

Try this. Attach the HD and 80 conductor IDE cable to the SECONDARY IDE CHANNEL. Does it detect it?

Bob

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Try resetting the Bios to default .
Jan 30, 2004 8:21AM PST

.

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HD is working now
Jan 31, 2004 7:45AM PST

Thanks for all the suggestions. I reset BIOS defaults without any success. I then disconnected the DVD-ROM and connected that cable to the HD. The computer booted fine.

But then I took the cable in the primary slot and moved it to the secondary slot(the one that the DVD-ROM was in). After this the computer would not boot again. In other words the cable was bad the whole time.

Once again thanks for the help.
James