I am really desperate. First of all my computer freezes up and when it does that computer makes "beep" noise so, I reinstall the OP(winxp pro) after that I can't even get to windows welcome screen. It shows "Strike F1 to reboot, or F2 to set up menu" and if I strike F1 key it just repeating itself. I think this is hardware problem but I don't konw which one. If anyone has any idea of this problem please help me out. Big thanks in advence
First I would check all of the cables in the case. Before you do this, touch the case to ground yourself to avoid static discharge from you to the computer. Have you installed anything? Or moved or joilted the computer? After it beeps does the fan run? Be sure to replug the floppy cable if you have one, at the drive and motherboard, power cable too. Do this for all of the drives, then reseat the memory sticks, if the contacts on the memory sticks seem dark or discolored, use a pencil eraser to polish them up. Then put them back in. Then try a restart. Has it been freezing for a while? If so the hard drive may be bad, or your power supply may be too weak. If it is doing this on a cold start, I don't think heat is a problem. Let me know what happens. CD
1. I checked all the cables 2. Fans working just fine. 3. Well, unpluging the cables? I only did dvd drivers.(yes I have floppy drive.)-You mean unplug and replug all the cables? every single one? 4. I'll try memory sticks. Let me explan what happened before reinstalling the OS. It boots up slower than usual and after a couple of clicks can't move the mouse or can't use keyboard-ex. short keys. My best guess is my main hard drive(got 2 hard drives)gone bad, but why this is happenning? TY!!!!
I would suspect the hard drive is going bad. Try using the other hard drive as master. Put it on the cable by itself, be sure to set the jumper as master and install on it. See what happens. Yeah, believe it or not the cables can work themselves loose. I had a floppy ribbon that seatted loose, and would vibrate loose. When I would restart my computer, It would think there wasn't a floppy drive present and not even post. New computers don't even have a floppy now. I still remember usiong the 5 1/4, with no hard drive.
It sounds like a hardware problem. The PC is not passing POST (Power On Self Test) so it stops and prompts you to go into BIOS setup. Go ahead and press F2 to go into the BIOS and see if there is any indication what is wrong there. One screen should show what hard drives are detected. Usually under Power Management there is a place to check temperatures. There can also be incorrect settings preventing you from booting with memory and cpu timing, used by overclockers. I wouldn't mess with those unless you know what you are doing, but there should be a setting to have them autodetected. Basically try to use what information you can gather to determine which component is not passing POST, and so preventing your PC from booting.
Thanks codydog and Xian. I don't know how to overclocking. When I hit F2 primary and secondary drives are detected as unknown device or something and setting was auto. My computer is unplugged and wide open I can't check. So what I'm going to do is this buy a new hard drive and install it. Of course I have 2 HD but I do not want to use 2nd HD as master, because I've many files on that HD. I use this as just storage. My question is what do I have to prepare? I installed 2nd HD myself 4years ago but it was slave not master drive. Could you give me a tip?
There's no difference really in installing either a master or slave drive. It's all in the jumper settings you will see marked on the drive itself. You're best bet would be to remove both drives you have in now...set the new one as Master (primary) and set in the position you had the original boot drive. Start your system and see where you are at. If all goes well, install XP...and when you are finished with that, motherboard(chipset) drivers, video sound....etc, then you are free to test either of the other two drives as slaves to see which one is malfunctioning. However, there is also another you could try. Download the diagnostic disk from the disk's manufacturer's websites...and run the tests on the drives you have now from the floppy disk. Make sure your BIOS is set to boot from the floppy. That way, you can run all the tests on both drives and see which one is failing. If you're lucky (I am at a loss to saying otherwise!)...it could be your secondary drive and you won't have to reinstall...just replace.
To put a new drive in, just buy a good name. I prefer western digital. But the other brands are good too. Probably can get one larger than what you had for a decent price. To put it in set the new drive as master and plug it in. Turn on the computer, let your bios do it's thing. Save the changes. Shut down and restart with the windows install. To be on the safe side I would disconnect the second drive until I was done with the installation of the first. Good luck. EDIT>Sounds like you will have enough help if you have any snags. A lot of people here are more than willing to pitch in. CD
Morphs right. Western digtal has a good tool. It's free. If you want I can look the link up. If not most others are good.
Thanks Morph416 Well, my floopy drive is not working and mostly I did not need it. Can I boot it from cd drive? Where can I download the BIOS? Here's another question. After googling for a while for HD, I found this western digital caviar se wd2500jb 250GB.(http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?item=N82E16822144309) I bought this computer 2001, and many parts are upgraded.(Dell Demensin 8100) Is it okey to install 250GB or bigger HD, because I read it somewhere some old computer can't handle it.-My concern is my old motherboad can handle it or not. "My computer originally came with 40GB and I added 80GB extera HD."
Looks good, here's a link to the 8100 setup. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dsleest/specs.htm#drives If you are running xp, you should be able to boot to the cd drive. If it doesn't, a simple change in the bios will do it. EDIT>He was referring to running the diagnostic from the floppy drive. If it's on the blink, don't think you will be able to do that, unless you borrow a floppy drive from another comp.
This is kind of silly question. Do I have to match buffer size? Mine is 2mb and what i'm going to buy is 8mb. I went to a local computer store to buy HD and technician told me hard drive is last result and there's very rare chance that hard drive is malfunctioning. It could be cpu or motherboard. He wants $50.00 for diagnosis alone and blah blah..... What do you think of this?
I really appreciate all your help and time. Be honest with you I don't know what to do when I have to deal with bios or dos something like that. I have two other computers available and an old desktop has a floopy disk drive, and I think I can boot from the floopy drive. If you could tell me where can I download the boot up or diagnosis disc. http://hardware.mcse.ms/message305625-3.html Read this if you have a time. That is my HD. I guess many people having a problem with. --------------------------------------------------------------------- powerleap 2.80Ghz/ 1,280Mb of RAM IBM 40GB/WDC 80GB of HD sony dru-800a/LG gsa-4040b dvd drives windows xp professional ED
Any diagnostic disk can be found at the manufacturer's website...if your drive is Hitachi or IBM, you'll have to look there. The "support" section from the site will lead you to the link you'll need. Any floppy disk from an old computer will work...so long as it's not an ancient computer. There's a big difference in 1.44mb floppy drives, and the older 720k's. Dell will have the BIOS update for the 8100 if it's still available from their support section. You'll most likely have to go thru a few prompts or pull down menus to input your information you need...but you will need a floppy disk to update the system's BIOS...though I suspect that's not the issue. So, IMHO..you should put that on the back burner for now and focus on the hard drive issue. If you plan on going to the 250GB drive from WD, and the system won't recognize it,...then we'll help you thru updating the BIOS if need be. However, even decent priced PCI IDE add in cards can be booted from and don't need BIOS updates for larger drives. (yet another option!) Keep one eye open to the fact that the drive may have indeed failed..as they typically only have a running life of three to five years. Mostly on the three side. Don't let techs wanting money up front tell you any different, they have moving parts with specs within the millionth's of an inch and after a bit of time wear down and fail. We own the WD1200 (120GB) drive, which received numerous awards for speed and reliability when it came out...and the blasted thing locks up on me from time to time. It now serves in a USB backup case.
You're absolutely right Morph416. I did hours of research before make a purchase and found out there is a warning about installing a HDD larger than 137GB on an old computer. Because the old computer may be not recognize no more then 137GB. http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=533 Of course there is a solution but I don't need no more headache, so I decide to go for a 120GB(WD1200JB), and this is more than enough for me. First things first I need to make this computer working. Also there is a chance it might not be a HDD problem. I'm just waiting for my order. Anyway since I'm not very good at computer, could you tell me what do I have to do before installing a new HDD, or it's just simple like install a HDD and OS? Thanks again. PS. I did download the diagnostic disc from hitachi website and tried it. It didn't work. Computer wouldn't recognize it.
