|
|
Paging Dr Cane - the pc surgeon.
|
I have a problem booting up my new to me pc. I've tried three hard
drives in it but every time I try to boot it up it goes so far then
|
Question mode = really dumb
you do have an OS on those discs?
|
On one of them for definite, still no go.
|
|
tells me to remove disk or media from the drives. There are no disks or
anything in any of the drives.
Please Doc, what shall I do?
|
Got any flash drives (SD cards, etc.) or USB devices plugged in? Try
unplugging them and booting.
How for does it get before it tells you to remove whatever from the
drives?
|
It has usb devices plugged in, but they are easily removed obviously.
When I start up it recognises the drives etc, but that's as far as it'll
go.
|
So it's not getting past the POST (Power-On Self Test) I assume there
are no obvious errors returned? Does the computer 'bleep' at you (and
if it does how many long/short bleeps are there as they mean
something)
|
When I first fire it up I get two short and very soft muffled bongs
followed by a short beep.
|
If it's an Award BIOS I think 1 + 2 = Video adaptor error (or is that
2+1?) Anyway, what you're describing don't sound like bleep codes.
|
|
One short beep-There is a problem with the memory refresh circuits on
the motherboard.
|
I get this every time on my current pc. It's always done that and the pc
I had before always did that too, and I had that one from new.
|
Five short beeps-The CPU is indicating an error.
Eight short beeps-The video card (also called graphics card or video
adapter) is missing, is not responding to the BIOS POST, or has faulty
memory.
One long and three short beeps-The monitor or video RAM has failed. If
you confirm these devices are functioning properly, check other parts
of the video system.
|
I've tried unplugging each dvd drive and then both, tried unplugging the
floppy drive and it's the same. The only external connections are for
monitor and hard wired mouse and keyboard. There are no usb connections
made and no network card connected.
|
Have you tried unplugged ALL of the drives and seeing if it still
gives the same error?
|
There is an SCSI card in one of the pci slots and I'm wondering if I
should remove that altogether as I'm not likely to use any SCSI devices.
Apart from that all there is is an unused network card, dvd rw, dvd
drive and a floppy drive. It's been left pretty basic until I get the
thing running on XP and then I'll start swopping bits from my old one
into this case.
|
Remove the SCSI card. Destroy!!!
|
|
|
It beeps once just like a fully functioning puter, scrolls through the
black and white lsistings bit until so far then it gives the message
"remove disks or media from drives" all usb devices are unplugged.
|
Take the floppy out?
|
It's empty, but I'll disconnect it anyway.
Just about to have another try, XP disc at the ready just in case.
|
Bad form etc..
and that didn't work
|
|
|
Leave Pip's ear out of this.
|
"I shagga the one ear..."
|
"and posta da pics ..."
|
"that wassa the Flook"
|
"I didn't realise the bloke 2 feet away was taking photas"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If I were you I'd unplug all of the USB devices (including USB mice,
hubs, etc.) and see if that helps. If not then ask Cane :)
What's the model of your motherboard and/or BIOS?
|
Asus A7S266-VM motherboard, not a clue about the BIOS.
|
|
|
|
|
Disconnect floppy.
Disconnect all BUT ONE CD ROMs/RAMs & DVD ROMs/RAMs
Unplug all cards from motherboard apart from a graphics card (if the
mobo has built in graphics, use them and remove any plugged in gfx card)
Go into BIOS and perform a reset (load BIOS power on Defaults).
Still in BIOS change the boot order to CD/DVD and then HDD, disable all
other devices.
Bung Windows CD into drive and reboot machine.
If that still doesn't boot somethings broke, nick parts from Pips PC to
replace yours until it works :-)
|
|
Try booting from CD
|
That's the next step.
|
...and that didn't work either.
|
|
|
|
Disconnect the floppy drive (disconnect cable at motherboard end). Get
into the BIOS menu - probably by pressing the "del" key during the boot up.
You may need to keep hitting the del key repatedly until bios menu screen
appears. Find the page that has the settings for date, time disks etc. Set
the floppy drive to "none". Find the page with the boot disk settings. Set
the boot disk sequence to IDE0 first, IDE1 second etc. Save settings. Make
sure the disk attached to the motherboard IDE port is formatted. Try again.
If this lets the computer see a hard drive properly then the floppy drive or
cable is defective and should be replaced.
|
|
Did you go in to the BIOS settings and specifically set the boot
sequence to CD before HDD? Possibly disable floppy drive seek if there
is an option for that.
|
|
Sounds like a BIOS problem to me.
|
Thank you, Dr Cane. Now, I have this hairy wart on my todger...
|
|
|
|