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From: Al-hphdx on 18 Dec 2009 12:48 Hi, The PC is in the dumpster so the pressure is off. compaq 7000H setup: P3 800, AMD duron 1.2 GHz, 3X256 PC133, 20 GB drive, XP home. Symptom: error msg on power up, no operating system found. what I did: 1: check bios to see if hard drive was there, sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't 2: tried different EIDE cables 3: tried different drives with different os on them down to win95 4: cleared cmos 5: replaced cmos battery because it measured 2.7 Volts. 6: got bios flash from mobo manu website. 7: put same on floppy disk 8: booted with win98se disk 9: couldn't flash bios, why? no hard drive found. 10: removed optical cable and used 2nd eide controller 11: put in dumpster no matter what I tried, oh yeah, also stripped it down to only one stick memory, and the hard drive, I could not get the system to boot. I also could not get the bios to save the changes i made and sometimes I was unable to make changes to the bios. So, I thought the bios chip on the mobo was either bad, or its information corrupted. Did I make a wrong diagnosis? Did I miss something? Thanks for taking the time to read the above. Al
From: GlowingBlueMist on 18 Dec 2009 15:31 Al-hphdx wrote: > Hi, > The PC is in the dumpster so the pressure is off. compaq 7000H > setup: P3 800, AMD duron 1.2 GHz, 3X256 PC133, 20 GB drive, XP home. > Symptom: error msg on power up, no operating system found. > > what I did: > 1: check bios to see if hard drive was there, sometimes it was, > sometimes it wasn't > 2: tried different EIDE cables > 3: tried different drives with different os on them down to win95 > 4: cleared cmos > 5: replaced cmos battery because it measured 2.7 Volts. > 6: got bios flash from mobo manu website. > 7: put same on floppy disk > 8: booted with win98se disk > 9: couldn't flash bios, why? no hard drive found. > 10: removed optical cable and used 2nd eide controller > 11: put in dumpster > > no matter what I tried, oh yeah, also stripped it down to only > one stick memory, and the hard drive, I could not get the system > to boot. I also could not get the bios to save the changes i made > and sometimes I was unable to make changes to the bios. So, > I thought the bios chip on the mobo was either bad, or its information > corrupted. > > Did I make a wrong diagnosis? Did I miss something? > > Thanks for taking the time to read the above. > > Al No where did I see a swapped power supply or checked for bulging or leaking capacitors. Either of them can cause the symptoms you write about.
From: Paul on 18 Dec 2009 15:58 GlowingBlueMist wrote: > Al-hphdx wrote: >> Hi, >> The PC is in the dumpster so the pressure is off. compaq 7000H >> setup: P3 800, AMD duron 1.2 GHz, 3X256 PC133, 20 GB drive, XP home. >> Symptom: error msg on power up, no operating system found. >> >> what I did: >> 1: check bios to see if hard drive was there, sometimes it was, >> sometimes it wasn't >> 2: tried different EIDE cables >> 3: tried different drives with different os on them down to win95 >> 4: cleared cmos >> 5: replaced cmos battery because it measured 2.7 Volts. >> 6: got bios flash from mobo manu website. >> 7: put same on floppy disk >> 8: booted with win98se disk >> 9: couldn't flash bios, why? no hard drive found. >> 10: removed optical cable and used 2nd eide controller >> 11: put in dumpster >> >> no matter what I tried, oh yeah, also stripped it down to only >> one stick memory, and the hard drive, I could not get the system >> to boot. I also could not get the bios to save the changes i made >> and sometimes I was unable to make changes to the bios. So, >> I thought the bios chip on the mobo was either bad, or its information >> corrupted. >> >> Did I make a wrong diagnosis? Did I miss something? >> >> Thanks for taking the time to read the above. >> >> Al > > No where did I see a swapped power supply or checked for bulging or leaking > capacitors. Either of them can cause the symptoms you write about. > I can't positively identify the PC from the description given, but on some ancient Compaq machines, wasn't the executable code for the BIOS, stored on the hard drive ? There would still have to be some kind of bootstrap loader in flash on the motherboard, but the visible interface for the BIOS, could have been stored on the hard drive. And that might result in different symptoms than you'd see on a regular PC. Maybe the replacement hard drive needs to be "primed" before it can be used ? Is it Compaq "Presario" or some other model ? I couldn't match the 7000H part. Paul
From: Al-hphdx on 19 Dec 2009 10:47 I checked the caps, but didn't swap out the power supply. "GlowingBlueMist" <GlowingBlueMist(a)truely.invalid> wrote in message news:hggor4$4d0$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... > Al-hphdx wrote: >> Hi, >> The PC is in the dumpster so the pressure is off. compaq 7000H >> setup: P3 800, AMD duron 1.2 GHz, 3X256 PC133, 20 GB drive, XP home. >> Symptom: error msg on power up, no operating system found. >> >> what I did: >> 1: check bios to see if hard drive was there, sometimes it was, >> sometimes it wasn't >> 2: tried different EIDE cables >> 3: tried different drives with different os on them down to win95 >> 4: cleared cmos >> 5: replaced cmos battery because it measured 2.7 Volts. >> 6: got bios flash from mobo manu website. >> 7: put same on floppy disk >> 8: booted with win98se disk >> 9: couldn't flash bios, why? no hard drive found. >> 10: removed optical cable and used 2nd eide controller >> 11: put in dumpster >> >> no matter what I tried, oh yeah, also stripped it down to only >> one stick memory, and the hard drive, I could not get the system >> to boot. I also could not get the bios to save the changes i made >> and sometimes I was unable to make changes to the bios. So, >> I thought the bios chip on the mobo was either bad, or its information >> corrupted. >> >> Did I make a wrong diagnosis? Did I miss something? >> >> Thanks for taking the time to read the above. >> >> Al > > No where did I see a swapped power supply or checked for bulging or > leaking capacitors. Either of them can cause the symptoms you write > about. >
From: Al-hphdx on 19 Dec 2009 10:48
I checked the caps visually, they looked ok. didn't check ps thinking issue was in bios. "GlowingBlueMist" <GlowingBlueMist(a)truely.invalid> wrote in message news:hggor4$4d0$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... > Al-hphdx wrote: >> Hi, >> The PC is in the dumpster so the pressure is off. compaq 7000H >> setup: P3 800, AMD duron 1.2 GHz, 3X256 PC133, 20 GB drive, XP home. >> Symptom: error msg on power up, no operating system found. >> >> what I did: >> 1: check bios to see if hard drive was there, sometimes it was, >> sometimes it wasn't >> 2: tried different EIDE cables >> 3: tried different drives with different os on them down to win95 >> 4: cleared cmos >> 5: replaced cmos battery because it measured 2.7 Volts. >> 6: got bios flash from mobo manu website. >> 7: put same on floppy disk >> 8: booted with win98se disk >> 9: couldn't flash bios, why? no hard drive found. >> 10: removed optical cable and used 2nd eide controller >> 11: put in dumpster >> >> no matter what I tried, oh yeah, also stripped it down to only >> one stick memory, and the hard drive, I could not get the system >> to boot. I also could not get the bios to save the changes i made >> and sometimes I was unable to make changes to the bios. So, >> I thought the bios chip on the mobo was either bad, or its information >> corrupted. >> >> Did I make a wrong diagnosis? Did I miss something? >> >> Thanks for taking the time to read the above. >> >> Al > > No where did I see a swapped power supply or checked for bulging or > leaking capacitors. Either of them can cause the symptoms you write > about. > |