PC Booting Issue

[Bucket]

Thought maybe you could help me with this issue...no one seems to have been able to give me a plausible answer..

When i cold boot my computer, it passes the BIOS POST check fine...gets to the next screen displaying the DMI and IRQ stats...and then the following appears "Boot Disk Error, Please insert Disk or Restart"

SO... I restart and everytime...it never fails...on a warm boot, it goes right through to windows fine!

Some people say my something in My PC is close to dying but that aint true i think..Its been doing this for over a year and i havent had time or been bothered to do anything about it til now...

Any one have some advice?

Any would be much appreciated!

[EA2BA]

Check the Bios boot sequence, make it boot C drive first and see if that fixes it.

[Bucket]

No, that doesnt fix it..

Here are some of the things in the past i have tried


I've flashed the BIOS and upgraded it
I've Changed Boot Priorities
I've Reduced Voltage to the RAM

[S3SR]

Originally Posted by Bucket

Thought maybe you could help me with this issue...no one seems to have been able to give me a plausible answer..

When i cold boot my computer, it passes the BIOS POST check fine...gets to the next screen displaying the DMI and IRQ stats...and then the following appears "Boot Disk Error, Please insert Disk or Restart"

SO... I restart and everytime...it never fails...on a warm boot, it goes right through to windows fine!

Some people say my something in My PC is close to dying but that aint true i think..Its been doing this for over a year and i havent had time or been bothered to do anything about it til now...

Any one have some advice?

Any would be much appreciated!

does it have a floppy disk in it if so remove it

alsso what mobo, CPU and ram - sometime i get glitches from dirty ram

if a PC is gonna die u'll hear it grinding noises from ur HDD, beeping from your ram, CPU loud whirring noise

i had a similar problem with my ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe i falshed it and it did that but then i flashed it again and it works fine....

also try checking connections, IDE cables, power cables, CPU fan .....theres almost no such thing as a cold boot for a comp as its electricity not an engine electricty heats up real quick few seconds so dont worry about heat

also check ur hard drives..do the disk checking thing (windows), defrag, run an antivirus or repair windows or whatever with windows disk

[Simmo]

dont reduce your ram volts unless youre overclocked already. instable ram can cause massive data corruption on your hard disk. i was going to suggest you flash your BIOS but youve done that. have you cleared CMOS lately? resetting the CMOS cant hurt.

[bathurst77]

IF you're using XP, boot from the XP CD and do a repair install

[BlueRaven]

The problem sounds like its happening before Windows is having its say, so I wouldnt try repairing it.

Do you run more than one device on the same ide channel? eg, do you run 2 hard disks or 1 hard disk, one cd-rom?

If so (or even as a precautionary measure anyway), make sure the jumper on the hdd is set to master. Sometimes cable select acts a bit strange...

[bathurst77]

IF it cant find the active partition XP repair will re-instate it.
IF its a physical HDD problem then XP repair will tell you.

[Bucket]

Hmm...ill give The CMOS and the Cable ones a go...

When i talk about cold and warm boot, its just terms...Cold boot being a Power up and Warm Boot being a reset when the computer has already been running...

[S3SR]

yeah i no the terms just i dont think it shoould be used it causing confusion in some thats all but i understand

[Black XR6]

This is an interesting issue.

It gets past the bios post test and basically when it goes looking for a hard drive to boot from it fails first try. But reboot straight away and it works.

Sounds to me like a possible faulty hard drive in a way. Maybe the hard drive from cold start isnt getting up and running fast enough before the pc goes looking for it. Have you tried just putting another hard drive in there and removing the current one to see what happens?

As I said, its a strange one.

[S3SR]

Originally Posted by Black XR6

This is an interesting issue.

It gets past the bios post test and basically when it goes looking for a hard drive to boot from it fails first try. But reboot straight away and it works.

Sounds to me like a possible faulty hard drive in a way. Maybe the hard drive from cold start isnt getting up and running fast enough before the pc goes looking for it. Have you tried just putting another hard drive in there and removing the current one to see what happens?

As I said, its a strange one.

the hard drive should not be slow enough that it completely misses on the first go if anything its the IDE ribbon or the motherboard thats at fault.. id recommend changing the cables, trying new power supply.. even formatting cause the NTFS or something file - this is the file that windows uses to tell the comp theres an OS dont confuse with the FORMATTING type i dont no proper name for the file - and see what happens

anyways its abit hard to tell when i cant see whats happening

[Bucket]

Originally Posted by BlueRaven

The problem sounds like its happening before Windows is having its say, so I wouldnt try repairing it.

Do you run more than one device on the same ide channel? eg, do you run 2 hard disks or 1 hard disk, one cd-rom?

If so (or even as a precautionary measure anyway), make sure the jumper on the hdd is set to master. Sometimes cable select acts a bit strange...

Yea, it has to be a Hardware issure..not XP...they sound very possible as the cause of my problems..

I'll have a look tonight if i get the chance thanks!

[Bucket]

Originally Posted by Black XR6

This is an interesting issue.

It gets past the bios post test and basically when it goes looking for a hard drive to boot from it fails first try. But reboot straight away and it works.

Sounds to me like a possible faulty hard drive in a way. Maybe the hard drive from cold start isnt getting up and running fast enough before the pc goes looking for it. Have you tried just putting another hard drive in there and removing the current one to see what happens?

As I said, its a strange one.

Wow..lots of good input thanks for all the ideas...i really hope this doesnt turn out to be an expensive repair...i may go to a Hybrid LGA/AGP/DDR Motherboard and new CPU if thats the case

[Bucket]

Originally Posted by FALCONSR

the hard drive should not be slow enough that it completely misses on the first go if anything its the IDE ribbon or the motherboard thats at fault.. id recommend changing the cables, trying new power supply.. even formatting cause the NTFS or something file - this is the file that windows uses to tell the comp theres an OS dont confuse with the FORMATTING type i dont no proper name for the file - and see what happens

anyways its abit hard to tell when i cant see whats happening

Yeah...i think you mean the NTLDR File? If that was at fault in anyway thats a very volatile file...if its corrupted in anyway your buggered and need the XP Repair CD i dont think I'd make it into windows at all...

I think your on the money with the IDE/Power Supply issue...i mean the thing is a 550W power supply...u think it could handle what im Running...

So you all know, my System Specs are as follows

Chris's Computer:

P4 3.0Ghz
Abit IC7 Motherboard
1Gb DDR Ram (Geil)
Geforce 6800GT Graphics Card
120Gb Seadgate hard disk
x2 CD/DVD ROM drives

[AWD Chaser]

Def. Hardware. It has nothing to do with XP. If it finds the HDD, it should so "No Operating System Found"

You may need to replace your HDD, or check your mobo for bulging caps - most common reason for hardware failures.

I would first check for bulging caps, and if that doesn't work, replace your HDD. About $100 for a new HDD.

[S3SR]

Originally Posted by Bucket

P4 3.0Ghz
Abit IC7 Motherboard
1Gb DDR Ram (Geil)
Geforce 6800GT Graphics Card
120Gb Seadgate hard disk
x2 CD/DVD ROM drives

nice computer by the way
not a fan of the Abit, dont have any experiences with Geil never used them before and down the track 120gig is like a floppy disk

My computer
P4 3.2Ghz prescott + std fan
ASUS P4C800-E mobo
1gig dual channel DDR 500 (kingston/kingmax hardcore) + heatsink (x2 512)
ASUS Geforce 6600gt
120gig seagate HDD - windows
20 gig seagate HDD - music
250 gig seagate HDD SATA - games videos
80 gig seagate HDD SATA - linux (NEW)
Samsung DVD+R drive
Lite-on IT CDRW
Antec 550W PSU ver 2.0 ???
CASE: ANTEC plusview? (huge case weighs about 40kg with hardware) + Antec carry straps

MONITOR
SAMSUNG 713N 17" LCD 8ms response resolution 1280 x 1024 at 75hz

all that at something like $2800 but bought in pieces and everything was brand new.....lol its worth nothing now i wouldnt even buy it

[S3SR]

Originally Posted by au3 chaser

Def. Hardware. It has nothing to do with XP. If it finds the HDD, it should so "No Operating System Found"

You may need to replace your HDD, or check your mobo for bulging caps - most common reason for hardware failures.

I would first check for bulging caps, and if that doesn't work, replace your HDD. About $100 for a new HDD.

buldging caps? u mean capacitors? if its capacitors expect more than having to restart comp... but could be i think if u no what to do pull everything out and put it back together this allows connections to be properly made and should eliminate the prob otherwise time for an upgrade its time to move on

[Bucket]

Originally Posted by FALCONSR

nice computer by the way
not a fan of the Abit, dont have any experiences with Geil never used them before and down the track 120gig is like a floppy disk

My computer
P4 3.2Ghz prescott + std fan
ASUS P4C800-E mobo
1gig dual channel DDR 500 (kingston/kingmax hardcore) + heatsink (x2 512)
ASUS Geforce 6600gt
120gig seagate HDD - windows
20 gig seagate HDD - music
250 gig seagate HDD SATA - games videos
80 gig seagate HDD SATA - linux (NEW)
Samsung DVD+R drive
Lite-on IT CDRW
Antec 550W PSU ver 2.0 ???
CASE: ANTEC plusview? (huge case weighs about 40kg with hardware) + Antec carry straps

MONITOR
SAMSUNG 713N 17" LCD 8ms response resolution 1280 x 1024 at 75hz

all that at something like $2800 but bought in pieces and everything was brand new.....lol its worth nothing now i wouldnt even buy it

Thanks man It was a bit of a beast in its day I spent close to 4000 all up though when i initially bought it all...mid 2004...I upped the RAM from standard 1Gb DDR400 ram up to DDR533 Geil Platinum Edition and pumped more volts through it (because it can cope with) and the initial graphics carsd was an FX5900XT which within a few months became a 6800GT Leadtek (a few weeks after release and my research) then came the New Case and a Coolermaster Jet 7 CPU fan damn is it noisy!
I recently broke (fell off a trolly) my 17" Sony CRT so i had to go buy a replacement...19" BenQ LCD with the 8ms refresh

[ON_DUBS]

whoah stay away from rubbish like Windows Repair....

how are the IDE chains configured?
that means, do you have the cd-roms both together on one cable or perhaps the HDD and a cd-rom? how are they arranged on the cables basically.

check that they all have the jumpers configured correctly so that each chain has only one master and one slave.

if you remove a drive, it should show you on a sticker how you can configure the jumpers.

one of the jumpers, perhaps the HDD, may be set to a neutral/auto setting. i recommend you make your HDD a "Master" and plug it into the 1st plug on the "IDE1" cable. if you look on the motherboard, you can see which cable is IDE1 and which is IDE2. most motherboards have different coloured plugs to help you see.

open the first page of your bios. you should see your IDE devices listed. hit enter on your HDD and re-detect it.
you already checked the boot order...
save and exit.

[Bucket]

Originally Posted by FALCONSR

buldging caps? u mean capacitors? if its capacitors expect more than having to restart comp... but could be i think if u no what to do pull everything out and put it back together this allows connections to be properly made and should eliminate the prob otherwise time for an upgrade its time to move on

Im seriously considering an upgrade to a hybrid motherboard and a new Processor (i dont want to get rid of my Graphics Card and RAM just yet...

[Bucket]

Originally Posted by aussiefalcon

whoah stay away from rubbish like Windows Repair....

how are the IDE chains configured?
that means, do you have the cd-roms both together on one cable or perhaps the HDD and a cd-rom? how are they arranged on the cables basically.

check that they all have the jumpers configured correctly so that each chain has only one master and one slave.

if you remove a drive, it should show you on a sticker how you can configure the jumpers.

one of the jumpers, perhaps the HDD, may be set to a neutral/auto setting. i recommend you make your HDD a "Master" and plug it into the 1st plug on the "IDE1" cable. if you look on the motherboard, you can see which cable is IDE1 and which is IDE2. most motherboards have different coloured plugs to help you see.

open the first page of your bios. you should see your IDE devices listed. hit enter on your HDD and re-detect it.
you already checked the boot order...
save and exit.

Cheers, will give it a go too

[Black XR6]

I thouhgt of the jumper thing but if its a jumper problem it would happen every time, or atleast on warm and cold boots. Not just cold boots.

This issue is preety bizare. Computers usually fail or work. They dont generally fail on cold boot and work on warm boot.

It looks like its got something to do with the hard drive or the mobo's ability to communicate with the HD. What else is on the same IDE cable? Is that also playing up, working in windows or not all the time etc? One of the easiest thing to try is a swap of hard drives just to see if it gets past that stage. You could also try swapping the IDE cable for the other one in your computer and test this. If this dosnt work, try plugging it all into the other IDE channel and see if it does it again.

Diagnosing PC issues is an elimination process. Swap things around one at a time to see what works and what dosnt and narrow it down from there.

[red_hotxr6]

I had this problem about a year ago and it was either the cable going to my A: drive or the A: drive it self. Hope you sort it out.

[jonk]

Bucket, all I do when this happens is re-install XP over the top of the old/previious install of XP. This will nine times out of ten fix the problem if you've already determined that you've checked all hardware stuff ups.

[BlueRaven]

Originally Posted by aussiefalcon

whoah stay away from rubbish like Windows Repair....

how are the IDE chains configured?
that means, do you have the cd-roms both together on one cable or perhaps the HDD and a cd-rom? how are they arranged on the cables basically.

check that they all have the jumpers configured correctly so that each chain has only one master and one slave.

if you remove a drive, it should show you on a sticker how you can configure the jumpers.

one of the jumpers, perhaps the HDD, may be set to a neutral/auto setting. i recommend you make your HDD a "Master" and plug it into the 1st plug on the "IDE1" cable. if you look on the motherboard, you can see which cable is IDE1 and which is IDE2. most motherboards have different coloured plugs to help you see.

open the first page of your bios. you should see your IDE devices listed. hit enter on your HDD and re-detect it.
you already checked the boot order...
save and exit.

Yeah, that was basically what I was trying to say earlier, but didn't go to all the effort to type.

I seriously doubt its swollen capacitors as someone suggested earlier. They tend to be more...fatal.

[Bucket]

Originally Posted by BlueRaven

Yeah, that was basically what I was trying to say earlier, but didn't go to all the effort to type.

I seriously doubt its swollen capacitors as someone suggested earlier. They tend to be more...fatal.

swollen capacitors sounds wrong...like varicous veins! :

[ON_DUBS]

Originally Posted by jonk

Bucket, all I do when this happens is re-install XP over the top of the old/previious install of XP. This will nine times out of ten fix the problem if you've already determined that you've checked all hardware stuff ups.

please... don't install xp over xp. format it and install it fresh.


bucket, have you checked on the jumper settings yet?
if you have there is more things to try..

[BlueRaven]

Originally Posted by Bucket

swollen capacitors sounds wrong...like varicous veins! :

Good point

We had to replace all the Dell GX270 motherboards at work because of this issue. It came to the point where 30 odd motherboards where replaced by the guys at dell in one hit. I can't imagine how much money they would have lost worldwide because they used cheap capacitors.

[Bucket]

Originally Posted by aussiefalcon

please... don't install xp over xp. format it and install it fresh.


bucket, have you checked on the jumper settings yet?
if you have there is more things to try..

On the To Do list for this weekend. Im going to open the box up and have a good squizz..