PVR PC won't even boot to the point of starting windows?

[mixedup]

Hi Guys - wondering if you can help out.

I just rebooted my PVR PC after the windows update (but it won't have been rebooted for several days) and now it will not boot up properly. What I see is:

- reboot PC
- gives a "floppy device not found" error
- F1 to continue
- displays device information but then stops here, AND on the device information screen there's some weirdness with some of the letters on the screen disappearing (this is before it even gets to trying to start windows I think)

I can boot from CD drive and I've just booted using the Utimate Boot PC to run the memory tests in case it might be this. I was having memory issues before but I thought I'd fixed these (http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=1...tcount=40).

Anyway, any advice/trouble-shooting suggested would be great. It does seem to be a quite fundamental issue (hardware, BIOS corruption?, just guessing, hopefully not a virus?)


Thanks

[mixedup]

PS. Can't seem to boot via the windows CD either to go to recovery - it goes to the command problem and when I do a DIR it says "was unable to enumerate directory" (or something like this)

[SWK]

Hi Mixedup

Can you boot into safe mode ? You need to keep pressing F8 (it might when the PC beeps just before starting to boot windows. Then select 'Safe Mode'.

If that fails and you can get into the BIOS/CMOS setup I would suggest loading the default settings as a first step. There may be to options like failsafe and performance. Then re-detect your hard disk(s).

Let us know what happens and we can direct you further.

Sean

[mixedup]

Can you boot into safe mode ? You need to keep pressing F8 (it might when the PC beeps just before starting to boot windows.
Sean

No..it seems that I can't get this far on this disk drive.

If that fails and you can get into the BIOS/CMOS setup I would suggest loading the default settings as a first step. There may be to options like failsafe and performance. Then re-detect your hard disk(s).
Sean

Seems like there is still issues here. See below.

I've tried to do a Windows Repair and even this is not working. From what I've read online this indicates a windows clean install is probably required, however you may be able to retrieve data first by booting from a separate windows disk. This was by the way the first reboot after I extended the size of my main partion using PartionMagic (the change worked fine for several days, but I think this was the first reboot)

Note that during this I've also been getting at boot up "can't find floppy drive".

I pulled out an old disk drive and connected this up and booted. Still get the "can't find floppy drive" however windows boots up ok. When I then plug in my latest HDD (setting it to slave) then the BIOS doesn't seem to detect the 2 HDDs at all properly. Only one is listed and even then the name seems to be corrupt.

It almost seems theres a fundamental hardware error kicking in somewhere. The PC is about 4 years old so perhaps its time for a replacement?

[mixedup]

What if you make the latest as a secondary master? It could be that the old drive cannot handle the latest one as a slave (usually happens when the primary is MUCH smaller (i.e. older) than the slave)

There're all reasonably recent drives. I've not seen such a problem with them before.

IF you can get the drive up as a secondard master (also try disabling it in the BIOS, windows should still be able to see it later) try checking the partition structure with PM.

I can't seem to get the system (at BIOS bootup level) recognising the drives when I connect the latest one (at fault) onto the system as slave.

I'm also worried about the missing floppy drive. Is this windows or BIOS that is reporting this? Do you have a floppy?

Yes I agree. This is what makes me suspect hardware or bus cables or something (at a guess), or the fact the PC is about 4 years old now and it's been running continuously on for the last year. I might try swapping cables around. Oh YES it is the BIOS that is reporting this. Is there a way to try to find out why the PC BIOS is not detecting the floppy at bootup?

Maybe you had a power surge that damaged both the floppy and the HDD?

Oh..hopefully that's not the case. I really need to look into a better means to get my system more robust (e.g. UPS + network storage device for daily backups/image perhaps?)

[mixedup]

#1
Is your copy of Windows XP legal? If not all none legal versions will act like this after the update. To fix try going into safe mode and remove the updates.

#2.
Clear the CMOS if you have jumpers follow the MOBO manual it will show you how. Or you can remove the watch type battery from the MOBO for 10 secs Also unplug the PC at the time.

#3.
Disable the FDD in the BIOS. Try removing the HDD and replace it with another one. Insert Windows XP CD and see if it sees the replacement HDD

#4
There are a lot of things you can try, check the memory, the video, HDD, powersupply, the MOBO itself an etc..

Thanks Tipstir - I've just tried 2 separate HDD's (i.e. not including my recent one in question) and still even here when I boot and detect there is weirdness in the setup menu. The master is not detected and the slave detected drive name is a corrupt string of sorts. Really seems like a fundamental hardware issue whenever I have a 2nd slave HDD connected. Also the fact that the floppy drive not being detected occured at the same time as the HDD issue.

Re #1 - Legal yes, but it doesn't seem to get to the windows stage. Windows repair also doesn't work/isn't an option.

Re #2 - Interesting.....I'll look into this. What would this accomplish however? i.e. what's the aim

Re #3 - could try this, I did try booting from windows CD originally however even then the repair option was not available - windows was reporting there to be problem with the partion (i.e. when using the windows repair console)

Re #4 - I did run memory checks and this was ok.

[mixedup]

thanks tipstir - quick question of clarification. Re "Add one HDD to Master IDE" - what do you mean by "Master IDE" - I'm assuming that you can connect any of the ribbon cable connectors to any HDD and that it's just the jumpers on the HDDs that determine how it is detected by the PC. Is this correct?

[mixedup]

PS - Any suggestions for (once I get say windows booting on a separate drive, with the problem drive being successfully detected as slave) partition recovery/file recovery tools?

[SWK]

Mixedup

Are any of the hard disks Western Digital ? If so, they require that the drive is set to Single Drive, Master (two drives) or slave.

I agree with tipstr about clear the CMOS, if the reseting it has failed. What are your floppy drive settings ? Check the cables are not lose.

Also how many connectors does your floppy data cable have ?

If your cable has three connectors (including the one to the motherboard), you should be using the connector at the other end of cable, not the one in the middle.

You obviously have access to a second PC, can you try attaching the hard disk to it, to isolate problems with your PC ?

Sean

[mixedup]

- no western digital drives

- I cleared the CMOS but no luck, still get a corrupt HDD name in SETUP, e.g. under BOOT IDE HDD = "E@@ G@ 2"

- tried disconnecting floppy cable (1 connector) which doesn't help

- my 2nd PC is a laptop unfortunately

Very strange. In summary I can:

[1] 1 good HDD - boots OK to windows (my old HDD windows disk)

[2] 1 good HDD + either of my other 2 HDDs as slave ==> PC SETUP doesn't recognise either of the drives properly and displays only one which is labeled "E@@ G@ 2".

?