Yesterday I dropped a surge protector and the switch got turned off and it apparently CAUSED a surge because my secondary computer is screwed. It boots through bios but hangs as XP is loading. I tried to boot BART PE but it hung before loading. I tried to boot in Safe Mode and it hung while loading. I tried to boot XP repair disc and it hung while examining the HD.
Are there any diagnostics with a light footprint (I'm on dialup here) that I can use to figure out what's fried?
HDD is probably toast - if you have an old spare do a refresh on that one next.
If that is the case then get a nice big new HDD for it.
Incidentally boot to bios first <del> and check the cpu temps are not high ... causing an instability at load. If so the remove the HSF, clean off the grease , reapply then reseat it ... then reboot.
---------------
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Flood attempt detected. You cannot post this message.
If XP starts to load then I highly doubt clearing CMOS with do ****, but you can try. I would take parts out of your secondary computer and test them one-at-a-time in your primary computer. Well, at least test the parts that are compatible between the too. I would look towards the HDD and RAM first from your symptoms, and they are the easiest to test. Just put your HDD in your other computer and see if it'll boot into XP. If it gets to the login screen then you're HDD is probably alright. You can login if you want, just XP will ask for drivers for your new hardware since it won't know your primary computer's parts. Same thing with RAM, assuming your two computers are similar generation hardware?
Good Luck,
Arson94
Message edited by arson94 on 05-17-2008 at 08:21:14 PM
Okay I plugged it into my first rig and it's not showing up. I went into Disk Management and it isn't showing up. Should I assume it's fried?
If so... my second rig has (had) two HDDs, 0 was a 40 GB drive, and 1 is a 300 GB drive. Is there any RELIABLE free software I can use to partition the 300 GB drive (using my first rig) so I can set up XP on it without going through the whole rigamarole?
If not I'll probably buy another small HDD instead.
"If not I'll probably buy another small HDD instead."
Actually, come to think of it I'll probably just plug it into my first rig, move everything I need onto another HDD, format/partition it, move everything I need back onto the HDD, plug it back into the second rig, and install XP. That'll probably be fastest and easiest.
Message edited by JQP on 05-17-2008 at 08:58:48 PM
I would think that if your second computer actually starts to load XP and then hangs, then the same hard drive should still show up on your primary computer.
I would think that if your second computer actually starts to load XP and then hangs, then the same hard drive should still show up on your primary computer.
Arson94
Some OEMs use a non windows partition. If it shows up in bios but not window$, that is probably the case.
I'm having problems getting XP install disk to run. I created 3 partitions on the HDD with my first rig: two 20 GB partitions, and one large partition, in that order. All are primary partitions. I didn't name the first partition, but the second and third I did name for whatever reason (moving data around). Does that have something to do with why my XP install disk won't work? The bios just hangs at "boot from cd." I switched second and third options in bios over to boot from cd but it didn't help. I was able to boot from disc with Bart PE (and all 3 partitions showed up, renamed to c, d, and e) after a looong wait at the "boot from cd" stage. But I've been waiting fifteen minutes now and the dvd drive has been spinning the whole time but the light isn't on and it's still stuck at "boot from cd."
Hmm, looks like ye old "cd drive doesn't like sharing ide cable" thing. I put the HDD and cd drive on different cables and now the XP cd is booting right up.
Which is odd because the rig worked for well over a year with the now-fried HDD slaved on the same cable. It was probably a jumper thing but the 2nd HDD had no jumper and it says on the label that no jumper means slave. Ah, what the hell, who cares.
