Hard Disk Failure?

[Alky]

Ok here is the problem

I was playing a game... and talking on ventrilo, and basically my computer froze and i was hearing a high pitched noise, yet i could still see things happening on the screen and people were still talking on ventrilo, yet i was unable to do anything. i waited a little while thinking it might catch up with itself, but nothing and i Hard-shutdown the computer.

I started the computer back up (flashes gateway) and then where it would normally go into windows i get this long error message with a bunch of different numbers and codes. i contacted gateway customer service they told me it was my videocard (i got a geforce 7900gt about 6 months ago) i reinstalled the one that came with the comp and still same error code. and the problem didnt happen until 6 months later???

I tried to get into the bios but it doesnt let me.
I tried to installed the repair disk and tried to get something from that.. the CD ROM recognizes it and i continue, but as soon as i do i get the error message that i had been getting all along. i have an extra band new hard drive laying around but i want to make sure before i shotgun parts at it.

Any help would be greats thanks in advance

 

[ragemonkey]

At first glance it sounds like it may be something up with your hard disk. However, the fact that you cannot get into the BIOS at all is of great concern. Not being able to boot points to something amiss with the HDD. Not being able to get into the BIOS suggests there may be something else (Vid Card, Proc, Memory) going bad.
What error message (if any) do you get when trying to go into the BIOS? Does it just lock up? Is the system (or has it ever been) overclocked?

Here are some things you can try...

(For the BIOS)
A hard reset the BIOS by yanking the backup battery or using the jumper on the mainboard. Then try entering the BIOS again.

(For the HDD)
Try swapping the HDD and booting from a WinXP cd... does it work?

If so, try the same with your existing HDD... does it work?

If so, try entering Recovery Console and doing a CHKDSK and let it fix any problems it finds

I Hope some of this info helps...

 

[Alky]

i cant figure out why i cant get into bios. Gateways says to tap F8... i do that and it goes to the screen with the error. so i tried a few other F keys F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8... all go directly to the error screen,

I never shutdown my computer and i dont let it go into sleep mode (i know but i have my reasons for doing so) so the HD is always spinning.
Had a friends HD crash while doing the same thing. thanks for the ideas... i think its #1 Hard Disk, #2 memory, #3mother board in that order

i just hope its not the last one since i already own a spare HD and memory isnt that expensive, mobo would be the a damper on my wallet

 

[ragemonkey]

So what you're saying is that you cannot get into the BIOS. That is good news, as originally I thought you were locking up in the BIOS - which is usually very bad. Not being able to get into the BIOS, is not bad at all. It is definately not indicative of bad memory/proc/mobo. And if you're not overclocked, so much the better.

As for not being able to get into the BIOS. A lot of modern keyboards have a "Function Lock" key on them. If you don't hit that before trying F8 that may be why you cannot get into the BIOS because the system is not registering that key stroke as the correct one.

Hope that helps.

 

[Alky]

Oh ok i see now, i havent build or played around much with newer machines... last time i built a computer was like 5+ years ago... Windows ME OS.

So where is the "fuction key" or like process to getting into my bios? sorry if i sound like a nub might need a slight walk through on getting into it. its year and half old computer 3.2ghz w/ HT 512ram XP Home OS, i never noticed a fuction key on the keyboard. but i would imagine it is there since its a newer computer.

 

[ragemonkey]

If your keyboard has a function lock key it is usually in the upper left area by the Esc (Escape) key. It is usally labeled as 'F Lock' or something like that.

I am very curious as to what the Blue Screen error message is when you try to boot your Recovery CD. If you could, please post the verbage of that error message... it may help determine what exactly is wrong.

 

[mizlplix]

As a LAST resort before replacing the HD, run KILLDISK. The trial version will write 0's to the HD in DOS mode and then you can reload XP and everything as is normal.

What I see is that you have glitched system software stopping almost everything usefull from running. (I've been wrong before...Heh)

 

[Alky]

I have the Error code written down, just in case i needed it... its actually a black screen...

from memory it starts out like this

TRAPS00000000============EXCEPTION===============

cr1=00008000 cr0=00000000 cr2=0001000 cr3=0400200



something like that (actually a lot more) ... i will write the complete error code when i get back from lunch... i am at work now. so in the next hour or so. i will post the complete error code

 

[nobly]

Here's a pic and article on this f-lock thing:
http://www.answers.com/topic/f-lock
(if you ask me it seems pretty stupid, but hey, it might be better than scroll lock).

You should be able to get into BIOS no matter what (barring someone locking it down w/ a password). If you can't access the BIOS, it doesn't sound good.

anyways, things you can try:
1) put your HDD as a slave in another computer and try to access it (and hopefully pull off critical data)
2) download and run diagnostics from the manufacturer (or search for the ultimate boot cd which has them all on a iso file)
3) if the HDD seems ok, back up your data and try to install XP again. Or try to install XP on the new HDD.

First eliminate HDD issues. Then proceed to memory, etc.

 

[badge]

I had a similar problem. To be sure I had a bad HD, I took my hard drive out and hookd it as a slave on another computer. That computer blue screened too with the bad HD. Sure sounds like the same problem I had.

 

[ragemonkey]

First thing, if you feel your Hard Disk do you feel or hear it spool up? If not it's bad and jump to the bottom. If it does and your BIOS does not give a HDD SMART error (early failure detection) all may not be lost... read on.

It really sounds like 1 of 2 possiblities. Which one it is really depends on how far into the Windows preinstallation you get before the blue screen error. The Hard Disk could be bad, or one or more parts of the file system has become corrupt, making windows unable to "mount" the volume. A hard power down can cause this, especially on disks that have 8MB or 16MB of cache on them, or any type of RAID array.

To determine which one it is requires keeping track of how far the preinstallation gets. When WinXP setup firsts begins, it will give you those screens of 'Press F6 to install a SCSI or RAID driver", "Press F2 to enter begin Automated System Recovery"... then copy a bunch of files. It will then get to a critical point where it says "Setup is initializing Windows...", you should see the lights on your keyboard flash then the "Welcome to Windows Setup" screen appears. Behind the scenes during that keyboard flash all volumes on the system (espeially whichever volume windows marks as Volume 0, or HDD0) are being mounted, and tested. Once this test passes the Windows Setup screen comes up, and allows you to choose which partiton or volume to install windows on.

It doesn't matter if the disk is bad or the file system is bad, if either are the case you will get a Blue Screen (BSOD) at this step. If you never get to this point it is bar-none the Hard Disk.

If you do get this far, however, there is hope. It could be that windows cannot mount the volume, you may even see UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME in the error.

Either way if you want to recover your data it will be a lengthy process. Which is why data recovery techs make so much god awful $$. But if this can save you some cash... happy to help. I would try first to fix the existing file system and see if you can boot into windows again as opposed to scrapping everything and starting over.

What you can do is this: Using your spare Hard Disk, replace the old one directly and see if setup loads to the "Welcome to Windows Setup" screen. If it does, continue and create an NTFS partition and format it. Once this is done feel free to restart or power off or whatever to get setup to terminate.

The above step is very important. Setup will, by default, designate a master disk as the boot (C drive *if and only if* it has a partition already on it. If not, any other connected volume(s) with an existing partition will be defaulted as the C: drive and the empty one showing as D or E as unpartitioned space. Setup will always try to mount the C: drive. In your case, this will not work, because, your existing main HDD cannot be mounted to begin with. With a different volume designated as the C: drive, Windows will mount that volume, and ignore the other one.

Once you've partitioned/formatted the new drive connect the old one as a slave on the same channel. Once that is done try and boot from the Windows setup CD and see if you get to the "Welcome to Windows Setup" screen. If you do, great! Your HDD is not bad. It is simply a corrupt file system. Press 'R' to go into Recover Console. Once there, run CHKDSK D: /F to scan and fix the file system. You may have to do this more than once. Additionally, do a FIXBOOT D: to fix the boot sector of the disk as well. Once all of this is done, try putting everything back the way it was and try booting the system.

If none of the above worked, complete the install of WinXP on the clean disk. Once installed, connect the old Hard Disk as a slave and see if you can still boot into windows. If so, go into Disk Management from Control Panel and run CHKDSK and set it to automatically fix the File System. If it works... shut down, connect everything back the way it was and try booting.

For information on UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME check out the microsoft kb article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297185/en-us

If none of that works and your Hard Disk is in fact toast, my condolences.

 

[Alky]

I am totally lost now.

when i got home, and started looking at it... i got the spare harddrive out and was ready to start taking the old one out and putting the new one in... when i noticed the plugs were different and the HD wasnt compatible with my computer... i reinstalled the other HD and i reset the bios (cause thats what gateway told me to do)

when i started my computer it flashed gateway logo, then about 5 seconds later i get the error message i dont have a function key (atleast nothing that i saw near the esc key) i tried to press F8 to get into safe mode or something... doesnt work and i get the black screen with the errors below.

i turned my computer on.... now i get nothing, nothing on my screen and i get 1 deep and then 5 more beeps.

im pretty lost now on what to do... it seems like i am going to have to shotgun parts at it to make it work. with there being nothing on the screen almost seems like a mother board issue now (which i guess is possible from hard-shutdowns)

before all of this the error code i got was:

TRAP 00000006============EXCEPTION=============

TR=0028 CR0=80000011 CR2=00000000 CR=00039000

GDT LIMIR OFF BASE 0003F000 LDT LIMIT OFF BASE 0003F400

CS:EIP=0008:00422858 SS:ESP=0010:0005F95C ERRCODE=0000

FLAGS=00010082 NOCY NO2R INTDIS DOWN TRAPDIS

EAX=0000000 EBX=00008000 ECX=00008000 EDX=00000000 DS=0010 ES=0010

EDL=0000FFFF ESL=000SF9E4 EBP=00005978 CRO=80000011 FS=0030 QS=0000



i have no clue wtf this means

 

[nobly]

Sounds like you might have bought a SATA HDD when your old one is an IDE HDD.

i turned my computer on.... now i get nothing, nothing on my screen and i get 1 deep and then 5 more beeps.

These beeps are error codes to tell you what's wrong. Either 1 - get your computer manual out and try to find out what the beeps mean or 2 - call support again and have them look it up. Sounds like it might be failing while posting.

Make sure you didn't bump anything when you were messing around with the HDDs. Recheck power cables are plugged in correctly, memory is seated, etc.

This thread may be enlightening to the traps issue:
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=pw_scsi&message.id=746
(go google!)

 

[Alky]

I tried to use my reinstall disc before messing with any of the hardware. it didnt work (it said press any key to continue, so i did and it looked like it was trying to boot off of it but i got the same error with the "TRAP" and nothing happened.) i think i would rather have the error screen now then nothing at all which im experiencing now.

i'll double/triple check my connections but all i did was unplug the hard drive... its possible i moved the videocard a little, but i plugged it into the onboard one *shrug* i guess i will just try a couple other things before i drop kick it out the window... thanks for the help.

 

[ragemonkey]

the BIOS beeps sound like you may have unseated the video card (3 beeps is memory). I would try reseating everything and if that doesn't help you'll probably have to resort to "bare bones troubleshooting", aka, pull all but essential devices to see if it POSTs

 

[nobly]

Just unplugging your video card might not be enough to switch it to onboard video. You may have to change something in the BIOS (this depends on the computer, however). But it may explain your POST failures.

If reseating the vid card doesn't help, you may have to resort to the bare bones troubleshooting Ragemonkey's talking about.

 

[Alky]

OK here is a little update.

I was talking to gateway tech support for 3.5hrs last night as they walked me through the process.

(i think my HD went and with turning my computer off and on pretty much all day the mobo went too)

well i plugged my monitor into the mobo video slot, and unplugged everything except the monitor. memory, HDDs, both rom drives... turned on the computer... this time i get no beeps and no nothing my powerlite on front doesnt turn on anymore, try it with just memory, still nothing, try it with the HD, and still nothing. no beeps no display.

so needless to say gateway doesnt have my mobo anymore... and recommended buying a new tower, and mobo. so now im thinking im going to buy a new computer (barebones) and try and swap over some of the good parts that i have, and upgrade to something else.

 

[nobly]

Wait, so now your computer doesn't even turn on? Uhhh that's never good.. heh.

If your power light doesn't even come on, and your fans don't turn on, something is really out of place.

Does your power supply even turn on? (You can tell by the PS's fan spinning).
If it doesn't, double check the connections to the front power switch - it should be routed through the motherboard, so just make sure those front panel connections are snug (hopefully you didn't pull any out). Double check the PS's hard-wired switch in the back - make sure its on.

Now if everything is ok, and your power still doesn't come on, that tells me 1) your motherboard is dead or 2) your PS is dead or 3) both are.

Another thing you can try is to pull out all your memory and make the POST fail (it should beep a few times). That should tell you if the power is flowing through the motherboard.

If you PS died, hopefully you can replace it for not too much $. If the motherboard died, I'd say just get a barebones like you said and bring over parts - plus it'd be alot better than any gateway motherboard.

Another idea is to try another PS in your system. (Don't try your PS in another system since its questionably bad and may fry things.) Or see if you have a friend w/ a PS tester.

 

[Alky]

oh sorry for the confusion, my PS turns on, the green LED light on my MB turns on... my HDD indicatior lite turns on. but the "power button" on the front of my tower does not (which gets the power through the MB) everything that is connected to the PS is getting power... fans, HDD, videocard ect ect, no video display (even when the monitor is plugged into the mobo directly) instead of through the videocard... i get NO BEEPS when no rom drives, no HDD, and no memory are connected (which is odd cause i was getting beeps before hand) so i believe my mobo is fried now. even if it wasnt before hand and it was the HDD problem (so now i believe both are broken)

i was trying to hold out on getting a new desktop until the conroe came out but i cant wait 2-3 months for one.... or just buy a cheap desktop that can tide me over until the conroe is released... but a lot of people are trying to clean there stock and make room for the conroe so i might get a good deal on something

 

[ragemonkey]

Wow, it is hard to believe that so many things are going wrong on your system. Have you tried popping out the BIOS battery to see if a full fump of the settings gets you back up and going?

Try booting the system with only the following:

1 memory stick
video card
no hdd or cdrom installed
no peripheral devices (usb printer, etc) connected except kb and mouse

also verify that all the case connectors (especially speaker and hdd led) are plugged in and didn't get unplugged by accident

 

[Alky]

Yes i unplugged the battery on the mobo let it sit for about a half hour.

and i made sure that the speaker was plugged in before i did anything else. i took everything off that was connected to the mother board and re-seated it and started up my computer. i didnt get any beeps here (the fans are spinning, and the green LED on the mobo is on.

i took everything off agian that was connected to the motherboard.

i plugged 1 memory card in, and i used the motherboards onboard video with my monitor and started it, no beeps here either, aswell as no display on my monitor (i still have the light)

i install the HDD and see what happens here... i get the HDD indicator light, and the green light on the MOBO. but no beeps and no display

 

[nobly]

Erg its turning into one of those crappy situations where one component might be bad or all of them might be.

i get NO BEEPS when no rom drives, no HDD, and no memory are connected (which is odd cause i was getting beeps before hand) so i believe my mobo is fried now.

This is a bad sign. If its not even posting, either 1) PSU is dead - but supplying enough power to spin things or 2) your motherboard is dead.

Or... both.
First things first, I'd try to get your hands on another PSU or PSU tester. Its the least expensive to troubleshoot first.

If your motherboard's fried, your CPU could have gone with it.... Although the motherboard shouldn't usually fry just by you turning it on and off. Motherboards usually die (especially after being ok for 1.5yrs) when there is a power surge. I've never seen a motherboard die just from sitting there and people poking the power button.

Have you had random reboots or anything previously? Any strange or random things happening to the computer?

Edit:fix typo

 

[Alky]

Yes...

Same situation where i was playing a game and it froze up and my mouse would move... but i couldnt click on anything and when i tried to minimize it wouldnt... i could still see things on my monitor moving and the computer was still playing music, yet i couldnt press any keys, or mouse clicks or anything. i waited a minute or 2 and it eventually caught up to its self and all was good... it had been hot in the area. and with my new videocard (geforce 7900gt) my computer was running a little hotter so i suspected that was the problem... i put one of the floor fans next to it for a little better airflow... im thinking this really had nothing to do with it and this should have been my first sign to actually look into things a little more.

i was also running my computer all day all night without it going into sleep mode. also my computer is about 2yrs old. i mess around with it some more last night to try and get some signal to my monitor. but didnt work. im thinking the mobo+processor are bad and they are first on my list to replace. and i can test the HD in a friends computer see if those 3 have failed, or just 1 has failed

 

[nobly]

I would really urge you to test the PSU first.
I had a similar situation a few years back, and after ordering practically a whole new barebones computer (and 6wks of pain), we finally isolated the PSU as the problem. The problem was we had an extra processor and motherboard we didn't even need!!! argh!

Also if you added a 7900, it could be straining the PSU.

 

[Alky]

Yeah i can probably do that.

Its hard cause i live in a small town on an island about 2hrs north from seattle so its hard to get to a place that i can get stuff for my computer so i have to order a lot of it online... so i would order that and then wait for it to get here and then figure out the problem... and then order the parts agian.

i'll probably get a new barebones system... and then when i have a little bit more time off work (since im military) try and fix the old one and sell it and hopefully make up some of the difference.

it would be awesome if i had a frys within an hr of my location.