pc wont boot

[smithandrew12]

Hi all hope you can offer me some help i have a pc that suddenly wont boot up at all ,all i get is a quick flash of the windows logo a very quick flash of a blue screen and boot sequence restarts not getting any beeps ,the strange thing is during the boot sequence the hard drive (sata) shows as being there but when i go in to the bios its not there at all ,i have tried reinstalling windows and have done this many times in the past but during installation it is telling me there is no hard drive to install to.have pressed f6 during installation ,i have taked the hard drive out put in another pc and i can get it to boot (in safe mode) and it shows in the bios i have taken another hard drive that i know works put in the pc and i get exactly the same set of events no beep brief windows logo brief flash of a blue screen and reboots

thanks in anticipation

[smithandrew12]

the bits i am struggeling with is .why i cant see the drive in my bios but it shows in the raid bios and it shows in the boot sequence ...why is it i cant install windows to the drive as its saying no drive to install is it i have to download sata drivers even though the drive was working perfectly well before it went down

[smithandrew12]

anyone please

[RandyL]

Is this a raid setup?

 

Personally it sounds like the drive is failing or failed. I would backup data now.

 

i have taked the hard drive out put in another pc and i can get it to boot (in safe mode)

i have taken another hard drive that i know works put in the pc and i get exactly the same set of events

Why either of those things works at all is beyond me. Unless the two computers are identical the installations on the drives would not match the paramaters of the other hardware.

 

Again reason to backup all your data.

 

What is the make/model/number of your PC?

 

You say you have installed Windows on it "many times in the past".

 

Why did you need to do that and what type of disks are you using to do it? Recovery disks or Full Windows disks or what?

[smithandrew12]

Hi thanks for the reply

yes this is a raid set up

 

i can access the raid bios but cant get any further than the initial bios page the drive shows up here but i get a message not enough drive space ,i dont yet have a floppy to reinstall the raid drivers though when i tried to install windows i pressed f6 and the raid drivers were installed from the windows disc (with service pack 2),my thinking is, this set up was working so the raid drivers must be there is it likely they have become corrupt

 

my set up is

 

Asusu p4s800-mx se socket 478 onboard gaphics sound

intel celron chip

maxtor 70 gig sata

512M sdram 400mhz

megatrends bios

not sure what the power supply is

 

bit of a heap really

 

i have taken the hard drive out put in another pc and i can get it to boot (in safe mode)

was a tad surprised as they are different sockets but are both sata drives and i could only get it to boot in safe mode

but it did boot in safe mode in the other pc

 

You say you have installed Windows on it "many times in the past".

 

yes i have installed windows many times though not on this set up that was just to let you know i did have an idea of what i was doing.tried to install from an original copy went through all the processes including installing the raid drivers but came up no drive to install to

 

am a bit stumped at there being no beeps but can get the windows logo up though it is brief, its not impossible for the onboard speaker to be knackered

 

cmos has been reset by removing the battery and pins

[Plastic Nev]

If that hard drive runs OK on another machine, but is not being seen at all in the original, I suspect a major failure in the BIOS itself or even some other fault on the motherboard. considering the BIOS is an integral part of the motherboard, then a replacement board is the next step I am afraid.

If possible to obtain exactly the same board then all should bo OK, but if the board is more than a year old, then it is unlikely to find a direct match.

You can still replace with a different board but you would need a full windows disk of the correct level, SP2 or 3 depending on what is already on the existing operating system, in order to do a Windows repair, so the OS will work with the new board.

Considering you have access to another computer anyway (how else did you try the drive?) then you could install the drive as a secondary or slave drive, that way you can get at all your data on that drive in order to back it up before going much further, just in case you have to completely re-install windows after a motherboard change.

Nev.

[smithandrew12]

Sorry for the delay in reply ..reinstalled the raid drivers from the motherboard disc via a floppy drive and all is well ..well knid of am still a bit worried at why it happened in the first place though i have noticed the cpu temperature is running at 91c am going to check the processor and fan over the weekend and also the thermal paste see if that lowers the temperature at all

 

cheers

andy

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, glad you got sorted, it obviously must have been the raid drivers corrupted so the BIOS couldn't recognise the raid set up perhaps.

That temperature is a lot too high, fine for frying eggs but not good for CPU's, do check out the fans, heatsink, and thermal paste as soon as possible, and until that is done try to avoid using it at all, if possible.

[smithandrew12]

thanks nev will do..i will get back once i have had a look Edited February 13, 2010 by smithandrew12

[smithandrew12]

heatsink fins all clogged up with ****e ..and also the heatsink and fan base has a boken securing clip housing is it possible to buy the bases seperately or is it out with the superglue

cheers

[Plastic Nev]

Is this broken clip part of the fan itself, and does it also hold the heatsink down onto the CPU?

If so is there a label and any model details on the fan and can you let us know them to help find you a replacement.

I doubt even superglue will work as these plastics quite often need specialised adhesives or in some types of plastic, nothing will stick them back together.

 

If the heatsink is held down to the CPU by a different method and separate from the fan, then you may be able to hold the fan down with an epoxy resin type of adhesive such as "Araldite" but that is only if the heatsink is separately fixed, it does need some amount of pressure onto the CPU for the heatsink to collect and get rid of the heat.

Nev.