Acer 3002WLC IDE Controller

Hi,

In two previous posts, under Lumpy20, I describe the basic issue with the 3002WLC Laptop.

My thanks to Cy and James for their help.

There appears to be an issue with the IDE contoller in the 3002WLC that results in the error message 'Operating system not found'.

Using an MBR edit and repair program I discovered that this error message is actually stored on the WD 80Gb Scorpio HDD in the MBR area as below using HDHacker.

Logical Drive:
"3.Ž...|.P.P....|...PW...........8n.|.u.ƒ......‹.ƒ..It.8,t......‹..<.t..........ˆN..F.s*.F.€~..t.€~..t....u.€F..ƒF..ƒV...!.s......>.}U.t.€~..t......‹..W‹.....ŠV.....r#Š.$?˜Š.Š.C..‹.†.....B..9V.w#r.9F.s......|‹N.‹V...sQOtN2.ŠV.....ŠV.`..U.A..r6.U.u0...t+a`j.j..v..v.j.h.|j.j..B‹...aas.Ot.2.ŠV.....a..Invalid partition table.Error loading operating system.Missing operating system..........................................................,Dc......€.......?...‚‘..................................................U."

So I placed the effected? 80Gd WD Scorpio HDD into an Acer 2303Lc Laptop and performed a Recovery Cycle using the 2303LC's Acer Recovery Disks [i.e. Norton's Ghost] restore disks. The HDD worked fine in this Laptop and booted the Laptop to Xp Home.

Although they are different machines, hardware wise, I then took the WD 80Gb Scorpio HDD out of the 2303Lc Laptop and installed it into the 3002WLC Laptop. The 3002WLC Laptop went throught its Bios routine and then on to the SiS Network Boot cycle finally coming up with the usual 'Operating System Not Found' error.

A check of the WD 80Gb Scorpio HDD after this operation shows that the MBR record is intact at Disk 0 ID 0 as above.

I then re-installed the WD 80Gb Scorpio HDD into the Acer 3002WLC and began a recovery cycle on this machine using the Acer 3002WLC Recovery disks. After about 30 minuites the Recovery Cycle began and the Laprtop addresses the recovery disks in the DVD-Combo drive. However after some time and part way through the first recovery disk load the Acer brought up the error message; Cannot find Disk 0 and ID 0?

I then loaded and ran the Western Digital Hard Disk program WinDLG and performed all three tests with short and long variables and came up with YES on each test which should seem to confirm that the HDD is physically OK?

Finally I had the Wd program write Zeros onto the Wd HDD and the following is the MBR record, using "HDHacker" after this:

Physical Drive:

".................................................................j..........?...C.P.................................................U."

Logical Drive:

".XMSWIN4.1.. .........?...?.....P..•..........................€.)pk.iNO NAME FAT32 3.Ž...{Ž.Ž...|ˆN.ŠV@....s....Š.f...@f...€.?..†....Af...f..f‰F.ƒ~..u8ƒ~*.w2f‹F.fƒ....€....+..H...}.}‹..„.t.<.t............}....}..˜....f`f;F..‚J.fj.fP.Sfh....€~...… ..A..UŠV@...‚...U..…......„...F..BŠV@‹.....fXfXfXfX.*f3.f..N.f....Š.f‹.f....v.†.ŠV@Š...........fa.‚T....f@I.…q..NTLDR ...................................................NTLDR is missing...Disk error...Press any key to restart........................U."

During operations with HDHacker I made no alterations to the HDD MBR area.

My question is:

a. the Acer 3002WLC Bios boot cycle recognises the WD 80Gb Scorpio HDD by manufacturer, drive ID, serial number, capacity and format i.e. NTFS/Fat32.

b. the MBR record appears to be intact and correct [it works unaltered in the 2303LC, can be read, formatted [either as FAt32 or NTFS] and partitioned using a USB caddy or IDE adaptor cable attached to an XP Pro PC.

c. the same HDD will boot to XP Home when installed in the Acer 2303LC laptop.

How then can the Bios routine recognise a healthy disk and not find the MBR at Disk 0 ID 0 sector?

How can I verify that the Bios in the Acer 3002WLC is OK without an operating system loaded?

Is there any other way, software – firmware, to determine if the fault is with the Acer 3002WLC IDE Controller or the WD 80Gb Scorpio HDD

With thanks for your time.

KH