*Orig posted in Asus forum but I beleive this is a generic problem and not mobo specific so I'd rather post here.....

I've got an [ASUS A7V8X-X] motherboard and now when I boot, or try to, I get a message about 'DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER'.

When I get into the Award BIOS I can see the setting for primary master is set to [AUTO] but none of the drive specifics are filled in as they would normally be for my hard drive. Actually, the only thing on the screen now is the word [AUTO], and nothing else.

Also, if I change the boot sequence to be the CDROM first (to try and boot off my Windows XP CD) the system still does not recognize the new/saved boot sequence and still appears to try booting off of the hard drive (as I still get the same error message above about disk boot failure).

Lastly, I hear two beeps from the board every 20 seconds while the power is on.

I'm looking for any/all assistance as I am at a loss as to what happened and what I should do now.

Thanks!
Walter

Set the boot order in manual: floppy>cd>ide0 or hardrive. If that doesn't work, try changing the ribbon connector to a different port on your motherboard. Maybe your main ide or sata connection is bad.

Thanks.
I did not get a chance to try that yet.
However, it miraculously booted yesterday and I really need to try and understand what is happening to make sure it doesn't happen again.

It might be the hard drive but I doubt it. What has me the most concerned is that when it failed to boot I would get the 20 second beep from the motherboard. I don't know what that means. Could it be the motherboard battery?

Thanks!
forthill

I encountered that same scenario a few weeks back with an employee's computer. She rebooted it the next morning and it miraculously worked again. It is unclear what had caused the problem, but I'm sure I would have heard from them if it happened again.

From what I understand that board has an Award BIOS. Here are the beep codes, see if one matches what you were hearing:

http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/awardbeep.htm

The list is small because the Award BIOS mostly uses error messages displayed on-screen to alert the user of a problem.

I believe that particular motherboard had a batch with faulty batteries, so I would definitely suspect that. Get a replacement battery ASAP. You also might try a different IDE cable. A faulty cable can cause this error. The error might also be the sign of a failing hard drive... but your description of the HDD in BIOS makes it sound like the battery.

Short of opening the case and popping out the battery (and losing any bios settings) is there a way to determine the battery type/number for the board so I can go out and find a replacement? Or are they all pretty much standard in mobos these days?

Thanks.
forthill

Should be visible right on the front of the battery. You don't need to remove it to get the number. It should be possible to remove the battery for a little bit if necessary without clearing the BIOS (the length of time varies, so do it at your own risk; it's not really a problem if it resets, just write down your current settings for reference). This is because the battery doesn't feed the BIOS directly, but through a series of capacitors. Even with the battery removed the BIOS will be fed the voltage remaining in the capacitors. Could last for a few seconds to a few minutes.

Usually you will get an error and you will be asked to load the CMOS defaults if the battery is acting up. However, that is an older board and if you haven't replaced the battery yet, it may help to replace the battery.

When you run the auto detect in the BIOS, does it recognize your hard drive? See if the manufacturer of you hard drive has any downloadable diagnostic software. Run it and see if gives back any info. I would also check to make sure all of your cables are seated properly on your drives, including power connections.

Are the beeps only in Windows, or do they sound off even when not in Windows. Most information for constant beeps on the Award BIOS points to memory issues. You may want to reseat your memory. However, if they are only in Windows, and if you're using some kind of hardware monitoring software, that beep could possible be from the monitoring software telling you something is running outside of its parameters.

Could be the HD,PSU or the MB its self.

If the system is 3 years old or better then more like the PSU or MB (the caps go bad).

To test the HD goto grc.com and get SpinRite...it will repair corrupted files,SMART errors,bad sectors (makes them useable again) and will refresh/repair all the info on the drive. It will take 9-12 hours to do a compleat repair/refresh on a 150GB drive!
Unless the HD has stopped spinning this program will fix the drive and all the info on it.

Z

Well, when I was having the problem auto-detect in the bios did not work at all. It said [AUTO] but the typical config information that gets pre-filled was not even there. Now that it has come back to life the auto-detect functions as it should - filling in all of the config info for the drive.

Also, the beeps ONLY happened during the time when it was unbootable at boot time (never got to start Windows). The beeps too miraculously disappeared when it righted itself. Does this fact mean anything to anyone?

I'll try the spin-rite stuff [again] but when thisw happened a few months ago the diagnostic showed nothing wrong with the drive.

As people have commented, it could either be the hd, mobo, psu, or maybe the battery. I will try the battery first, then I'll try re-formatting the hd. If it continues to happen after doing that then perhaps I'll get a new mobo and maybe a psu.

Thanks,
forthill

Hmm...open your case up (you're going to replace the battery anyway, right?) and with the help of a flashlight closely examine your motherboard's capacitors. If any of them are leaking or bulging it may be time to start thinking about an upgrade. Be sure to ground yourself before touching any of the components inside.

I purchased a new battery and while replacing it, I had a look at all the barrel capacitors on the mobo. They all look good - not bulging or leaking.

Interesting though - after replacing the battery and rebooting I immediately was put into the bios to enter/verify new settings as the old battery was out for quite some time. After re-entering the date/time and making sure the hd was detected correctly and then saving the bios settings the next reboot again dumped me back into a DOS screen with various auto-detection details and the following warning:

SMART Failure Predicted on Primary Master : Maxtor 5T060H6.
WARNING: Immediately back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent.

It gives an option F1 to continue and I can then get into Windows ok.

So I suppose it really is the hard drive even though when I ran the thorough hard drive diagnostic utility SPINRITE it said all was ok.

Thanks.
forthill

It is unclear if it is the HDD. I would try a new IDE cable. You should go ahead and backup your data. I would read your HDD documentation for information on that SMART error, or you can do some research here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self- [...] Technology

HDDs make weird noises when they fail. Also be wary of degrading performance and random crashes.