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General discussion

Non System Disk, Press A Key

Dec 5, 2009 4:28PM PST

I've recently installed Win 7 Home Premium after using the beta and RC versions for about 12 months.
It worked fine for the 1st week, but yesterday a problem arose which so far I'm unable to resolve.
After POST, but before Windows starts, I get error "Non System Disk, Press A Key" After pressing a key Windows starts normally, but the problem happens now every time I boot up. I use a wireless keyboard which needs Windows to open before it is usable, so I have to connect a wired keyboard to "press a key."
I've checked the usual remedy's for this error, ie. made sure no disks in drives and checked BIOS settings.(Changed boot order) but so far no luck.
Does anyone have any further sugesstions?
Many thanks
Mike7P

Discussion is locked

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Had that on other machines.
Dec 5, 2009 9:31PM PST

The old hard drive spin up time issue was one cause. The next few times it was the hard drive getting ready to fail, other failures were "BAD CAPS" (see google), cables and power supplies. For me, it was never an OS issue across the dozens of times I saw this.
Bob

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(NT) Thanks Bob,Turned out to faulty IDE cable.
Dec 7, 2009 3:10PM PST