Big problem turns into an enormous problem

[scoot15638]

Hello,
Ok i have a Gateway GM5478 running windows vista home premium. This all started when i was installing service pack 1, it installed, then on the restart a weird black page came up, doing all these weird functions, but all of a sudden it stopped at this one thing where it looked like it froze, so i restarted my computer, and when it restarted all it would do is go to the windows loading page with the bar going across the screen, turn black and load back up to the beginning, over and over. After messing with something i turned off the automatic restart, to only get the blue screen of death saying this error 0x0000C1F5.....this is an error when MS SP1 does not install correctly. Alright, so i have the vista DVD, and try booting from it, but this doesnt work, it just goes to the start normally, or automatic repair page. I then read some things and went to bios and disabled startup on everything excelt the dvd drive. Well that still didnt F$%#ing work. did the same thing. Well i read a couple things and figured i would just go plug the hard drive into one of my 6 year old computers in my basement, and just format the hard drive, and start from scratch. i take it out, go downstairs to do it to find out oh wow, they are too junky to plug in an extra hard drive....fantastic. go back upstairs, plug back the hard drive in, and put it back in the case. boot the computer up press the function key to boot to bios, and suddenly i cant, my keyboard and mouse are lit up but cant get a reading to go into bios or do anything. and isntead of loading up, all my computer does is go to a page that says "A bootable device has not been detected. Please refer to product guide" alright crap well something on the bios mustive messed up cause it isnt doing ANYTHING. So i read how to reset the bios took the little watch battery out for 10 minutes reset all the power and whatnot, and still the same thing happened. Took it out again and waited for 15 minutes....and still the same thing, no bootable devices........WTF can i do? replacing a 500gb HD is completely ridiculous, everything works, the software just isnt working. BTW i know how to ground everything, and unplug stuff, so i wasnt reaching into a live computer, i take computers apart and upgrade them quite a bit...........................So if anyone can help me i would much appreciate it, i am on a last limb, when it starts up i can still hear the processor run and everything....so yea....any help would be great, i am desperate. Thanks

-Scott

 

[mhelm1]

Happened to me once, I wasn't real careful handling a HD outside of the computer and I broke a resistor or capacitor off of the drive ckt board and had a dead drive.
If your BIOS can not read the drive then its not properly plugged in and powered up or it's gone bad. The computer should still be able to access the Bios unless something else is wrong. Red on the power plug goes toward the ribbon cable and ribbon only fits in one way. (look for bent pins)

 

[scoot15638]

hahaha, it doesnt even matter now, took it to my colleges tech spot to see if they can fix it....and after resetting the bios, which for some reason i couldnt do. now its giving the mobo beep error of processor is not working correctly. so they are saying i need to buy a new processor......what BS, it all started with a stupid error about SP1, why cant i just go back to yesterday and just install windows 7 instead of updating vista....none of this would have happened. which makes me think its BS that the processor isnt working

 

[scoot15638]

i took my computer to my college tech spot, all of a sudden a new set of beeps start up, which happen to start up soon as i took it there (almost like a dog whimpering when it goes to the vet), the beeps said it was a failure of the processor. The person tried reseating the processor, and this did not work. Got a call from him later that day saying they do not know if its the motherboard or the processor. This is all ridiculous considering this fail started out of a failed service pack installation (thanks vista). I want to know what you would all say, the computer is GM5478 Gateway, Core2 Quad Q6600 Processor socket type is LGA 775. The motherboard is this Intel (Schroeder Town) G33 Motherboard. What would you all suggest? I can get a new Core2 Quad Processor from a store up the street from me for like 60$, or i could buy a new motherboard from newegg, considering most core2quad processors are alot more money than i am willing to spend considering i can get quadcore processors that are better for half the amount from AMD. What MOBO would you all suggest, or suggest the processor? Thank you, i am taking this whole computer process hard because im using the money i was planning on spending on a nice GTS 450 for just being able to fix it in the first place. Btw, it has a 400W PSU, 500gb SATA HDD if that helps at all too.