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General discussion

drives not found during boot

Dec 28, 2003 3:45PM PST

pcchips m810d mb
256 ddr266 generic
amd 1700+ xp
seagate 5200rpm 20 gig hdd
8x4x32 sony cd-rw
generic 54x cd-rom
generic 300w power supply.

first of all id like to thank everyone who has any ideas. im not an expert in computers but i do know some. ive built a few and never had this problem. the company i bought it from is no help. rma'ed the mobo once and they sent it back (i know because i maked the backside with a marker) although they said it was replaced. i e-mail pcchips and i havent heard anything from them. this is my last draw.
when i try to boot none of the drives are found. all the drives, power supply, and cpu have been tested ok on my other systems. i have no way to test the ram so that is a possibility. i ordered this comp for my mother and now am mad because i suggested she let me do it. its been nothing but a headache. almost 2 months now, she has my old amd900 and i want it back, it is(was) my media pc. btw aviod www.compubuzz.com, found via www.pricewatch.com. thanks.

Josh

Discussion is locked

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Re:drives not found during boot
Dec 28, 2003 4:07PM PST

- To test the RAM : download memtest86 from www.memtest86.com. You need a diskette drive to boot from, so maybe do it on another machine. But I don't think this is the problem.
- Are the drives being displayed on the BIOS-screen? Correctly? Does auto-detect work for the hard disk? How about the diskette-drives?
- My first idea: motherboard problem (IDE interface electronics); have it repaired or try another mobo.
- Try step by step: start with only diskette (it's a valid configuration PC's started with around 1980); then add hard disk; then add CD-ROM.

Kees

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Re:Re:drives not found during boot
Dec 28, 2003 5:20PM PST

Nothing, it finds nothing.

In post it says detecting drives. It searches for the primary master, after 30 seconds or so it reads something like "unknown" or "undetected" and then moves on to primary slave, secondary master, secondary slave. They all give the same "unknown" error. The it gives some error message like "BIOS memory size wrong". I dont exactly remember and the computer is in the basement right now. if you want the exact error I can get it to you tommorrow. Thanks for the help again.

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Re:Re:Re:drives not found during boot
Dec 28, 2003 8:10PM PST

1. What does fdisk /status reflect booting with the EBD, this typed at the MS-DOS command prompt?

2. If devices are recognized as attached peripherals they will be listed as resident on the "System Configuration Summary" (BIOS Startup Screen) at boot. Press the Pause key as soon as you see this screen start displaying. Pressing any other key to continue. If the CMOS/BIOS does not recognize and display peripheral information on this screen, Windows certainly will not.

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Clarification.
Dec 28, 2003 7:25PM PST

With my second point, I didn't mean to ask what the BIOS shows at boot, but what you see on the screen (most of the times the first screen, I think) if you go into the BIOS-setup (with del or esc or f10 or whatever). I mean the screen where you see and define your diskette drives (1 or 2, 360 kB or 1.44 Mb) and hard disks. Nowadays most of it is automatic, but still it tells you a lot more (like number of cylinders) than the message at boot.

It also has an auto-detect option for IDE-drives (might not work for CD-drives). So if you're sure drive and cable are correct (can be used in another computer) and the drives don't show up, it must be something on the mobo (that's all there is between the cable and the screen, if the screen functions). No need even to test it with another hard drive, as soon as you've got a known good one which you can autodetect in another machine and not in this one.

Only very old BIOS-es don't support auto-detect. Then you must know the number of cylinders and sectors etc and type them in yourself. But you don't expect it nowadays.

Kees

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Re:drives not found during boot
Dec 28, 2003 9:14PM PST

A similar issue (now resolved and one not) finds that 300 Watt power supplies are just too slim in size for the over 1 GHz machines. While you may not like the company you bought the parts from, most will sell you what you pick out and not tell you to select a 450 Watt supply to stay out of trouble. Such are 20-30 dollar items and worth it.

Next, you may be non-plused to have to update FIRMWARE in motherboard and CDRW drives before it all works as well as fit 80 conductor cables all around and set all drives to CS (cable select.) BIOS settings should be doublechecked to see if IDE channels (and USB) are enabled. I find the reset of the CMOS settings and a load of the defaults to snap some machines back into operation.

In closing, tests with just one drive per IDE channel can reveal if a device is DOA or doesn't work with another drive on the channel.

Bob

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Always nice to have the real hardware expertise around.
Dec 29, 2003 4:41AM PST

It's a pity it seems even more difficult to help with hardware at a distance then with software.


Kees