Hardware Problem?

[zygomatic]

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-7VRX

I just installed another 160GB hard drive (6/7/05), had Windows running that night, and the next day, booted up my computer on 6/9/05 and it started to boot normally, but when it got past the BIOS and controller card BIOS (Promise Ultra 100TX2), the PC speaker beeped, which is unusual. I think the first time, it tried to load Windows, but then restarted. The next time, it went through the same routine, except it gave me the option to boot in safe mode, normal mode, etc. I tried all the options with no luck. I kept getting that screen, but then I started getting "load needed DLLs for HAL" Eventually I got an error that said "NTLDR is missing" This means Windows is corrupt, right? I didn't want to reinstall Windows and/or format the drive, so I tried using an old blank drive and wanted to install Windows on that so I could back up data on the first drive. The first couple times I tried installing Windows, it didn't even get to the installation, it was just hanging on the same screen for longer than usual. I tried restarting, but now I get a BSOD that says my motherboard is not ACPI compliant and suggested a few things, which I tried, but didn't work. One being flashing the BIOS. I flashed the BIOS close to a year ago to the most recent final version, but there is a beta, which I tried. The flash utility copied the BIOS off the disk, but when it tried to start erasing the BIOS chip, it didn't look like it made any progress, for at least 15-20 minutes. I reluctantly restarted my computer, but it still does the same thing, I tried flashing it one more time, but nothing. Not sure what else to do, any advice would help a lot! Thanks.

 

[Kage]

Hmm weird. The freezing your noticing would be happening when it is trying to access the second drive you put in to try and boot up.


First , try setting the one with windows you want to boot so you can copy data files to the other as Master, and the other one as slave using the appropiate cables and/or jumpers on the back.

Next try opening the computer and try if you can to switch the ide cable around if its reversed on that hard drive. Also try pushing the cables in farther into the motherboard and hard drive.

You could also try resetting the bios by taking the battery out for a hour or so to wipe the bios's memory, or check if your motherboard has a CMOS Memory Clearing Header (check manual) which you just switch, because its like a jumper, which resets the bios and then you just put it back in the same position it was in before.

Hopefully now, it'll boot with at least one of these suggestions

Then boot up, and transfer, and finally wipe windows on that other drive and start again.

I hope this works

 

[r53s]

If your new drive is parallel ATA, did you set the jumper to slave?
Or is it a SATA hard drive?

 

[zygomatic]

Yeah, it's setup as PATA, new drive was slave. Right now I only have the blank drive I'm trying to install Windows on connected to the motherboard.

 

[per]

Fix for missing ntldr. http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

 

[zygomatic]

I used another computer and I installed Windows on that 40 Gig drive. I put it into the problematic one, it goes through the BIOS, etc. still beeps (once), but when it should be loading Windows, I get a black screen with just a blinking underscore, but I can't type anything. Still haven't tried clearing the CMOS yet. Something's still f***ed.

 

[zygomatic]

It works now! I really have no idea what I did, but I took out the battery and shorted the terminals for a few seconds, took out a few other drives and cards, and then it booted, nothing to do with Windows or anything. Thanks for all your help!