Compaq Melt Down

[keisha]

Hi, I am new to this forum. I am hoping you can help me out.
I have a compaq s3300nx. When using the built in restore features we had a power outage. Now when I try to rebout the computer all I get is a beeping sound and a blank screen. I have the ten cd restore discs but cannot access system to restore. How can I access my system with this problem?

Regards
Keisha

 

[RJ]

Hi, I am new to this forum. I am hoping you can help me out.
I have a compaq s3300nx. When using the built in restore features we had a power outage. Now when I try to rebout the computer all I get is a beeping sound and a blank screen. I have the ten cd restore discs but cannot access system to restore. How can I access my system with this problem?

Regards
Keisha

Open the case and find the CMOS jumper. It should be somewhere near the battery. Of course, unplug your case first and wait a few seconds. Touch the case frame to discharge any static electricity. There will be a jumper across 2 of 3 pins sticking out of your motherboard. Move the jumper to the other pin and the middle pin for a few seconds, then return it to it's original position. This may not help, but it won't hurt. You're resetting all the info that tells the motherboard what hardware is there and what it should do. It doesn't effect the info on the hard drive.
Sorry to hear about your unfortunate timing of losing power while restoring. I hope this works for you.

 

[keisha]

HI rj
Two ?,s First, there are two jumpers side by side.
Secound, do i try to boot the system after i move the jumpers.
Thanks
Ken

 

[keisha]

Hi RJ
Ok it worked, the beeping has stopped and it can access f1 to the bios but when i hit f10 to restore I get a screen with with the message disk boot failure insert system disk and hit enter. Were do i go from here.
Thanks
Keisha

 

[RJ]

Find the setting for booting. Make sure your hard drive is one of the first items. I don't know if your recovery discs are supposed to be seen first, so have FLOPPY as your first device.

Do you have 2 hard drives? If so, it may be set in a RAID configuration, where 2 drives work together for better performance or data redundancy. There may be a setting for RAID if you've got more than one drive. I haven't had time to look up your system to see what it actually has.

 

[keisha]

Hi RJ
Still not sure were to go from here. I can only access the bios. Tried to use the recovery cds when it get the message disk boot failure insert system disk when i hit f10 but nothing happens?
Thanks
Keisha

 

[keisha]

Hi Rj
I only have 1 hard drive and in the main section of the bios it is the primaty master.
Thanks
Keisha

 

[RJ]

Okay...I see it's got a 120 gb hard drive. See if you can even see it present in the BIOS. It'll tell you it see's the hard drive and the CD drive. If you don't see it present in BIOS, make sure the ribbon cable is seated properly on both ends. Make sure the 4 pin power connector is seated as well.
If it's present, you may have boot file issues. That's either going to be utilizing your recovery discs or using your original Windows disc to do a recovery from there. Since it's obvious you've got another computer available to you, you may want to plug this drive into the other computer as a second drive. You'll need to make it a "slave drive" or just unplug the cable from the CD drive and plug it into the supect hard drive. It won't boot the system, but you can access any valuable data you had on the ill computer to back it up, should this be catastophic.

 

[keisha]

Hi RJ
Thank for your help it is greatly apreicitated. The hard drive is showing. There is no data i need on it as i was restoring it to see if i can speed up the frame rate as i use it as my server for my flight simulator that has 7 compters using wideview. If it did not speed up i was going to purshase a new server as flightsim is becoming very demanding on the server. So if it has boot issues and can not use the recover cds can i buy a copy of windows xp and install it. Would that work! The only thing good with having major computer issues is that you learn alot trying to fix it. Again thanks your for your help as it saved me alot of money as i was going to take it in to a repair place. If your ever in vancouver canada i will buy you lunch.
Keisha

 

[RJ]

Yes... you can buy an OEM Windows XP disc from www.newegg.com. I definitely wouldn't go to Vista, as your computer will make no appreciable gains with this new operating system. I would, however, look into getting another stick of 512 memory, if you haven't got it already. Things run much better with 1 gig of memory. download CPU-Z from http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php. That will tell you the timings your current memory has, which you'll need to match with a second stick. Here's your computer's webpage...
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?product=311362&lc=en&lang=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c00003414

Glad to help.

 

[Dahak]

Sounds like your psu went and crapped out on you.Try replacing it and see what happens.Goodluck.

Dahak

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