Computer wont boot up

[Tom]

That won't work because I already tried it, I can't load windows or even repair windows whatsoever because it immediately tells me there is no hard drive detected.

My favorite fix for this is actually freezing the harddrive. Just wrap the harddrive in a towel to keep mosture out and put it in your freezer overnight. By freezing the harddrive it shrinks any loose connections and it actually fixed my no hard drive detected issue (multiple times actually).

You only try that just to get the data off, not a permenant solution. The OP harddrive is dieing or dead. Even if the Bios was reset mostly all current computers should autodetect the drive (as a default setting ) and try to boot from it.

 

[GMac]

Precisely - it'll work once, maybe half a dozen times if you're really lucky but then it'll definitely expire. Sounds like the OP may have more than one issue to deal with having read the thread right through, but I've seen enough dying discs in eight years as an I.T tech to recognise the symptoms of one that's about to croak (and it not being detected in the BIOS is a textbook one).

GM

 

[smithaa02]

Precisely - it'll work once, maybe half a dozen times if you're really lucky but then it'll definitely expire. Sounds like the OP may have more than one issue to deal with having read the thread right through, but I've seen enough dying discs in eight years as an I.T tech to recognise the symptoms of one that's about to croak (and it not being detected in the BIOS is a textbook one).

GM

I extended the life of one my harddrives this way for over half a year. Eventually it did die though, but I was able to back everything up.

I suppose the moral of the story is make sure everything in your case doesn't get too toasty (as I'm fairly sure heat is the culprit behind the OP's HD and most other harddrive issues). It is definitely worth it IMO to get dedicated hard drive fans to keep things cool.

 

[Jadzia]

Once upon a time, I opened up the case on my computer to fit a new dvd drive after the computer had been running for a couple of hours. I was surprised to find the hard drive was hand hot. -- almost (but not quite) too hot to handle.

So since then I've always a little anxious about heat buildup inside the case. The case has poor ventilation since the only case fan is the one from the power supply.

I've heard that some people do all-sorts of cooling and aesthetic upgrades to their computer cases, plumbing in water cooling systems, extra fans, and little windows with coloured flashing lights going on inside Is anyone here into that stuff?

 

[LaxScrutiny]

You only need a lot of heavy cooling like water coolers if you are overclocking.

If you are running at stock speeds, it can still be worth getting an upgraded fan for your cpu, mainly to reduce noise. A good quality fan will run slower/quieter.

At the front of the case I have a fan blowing directly onto the hard drives, this increases airflow for the graphics fan and also up and through the cpu fan and out the back.

One of the big problems with components getting "hand hot" is that when you power down they cool, then they heat up again, expand, contract, expand, contract.... This can make your components come loose and also is probably what happened to Tachyon's hard drive that he was able to fix it in the freezer.

So if you spend $20 or $30 you can have a quieter, longer lasting computer, which is great.

Another point, clean the air holes in the front of the case regularly, as well as around the fans and heatsink. Even in a clean house, there will be dust build up, your computer is really an air filter, it pulls air in and lets dust get caught in all those nooks and crannies and as it builds up the dust acts as an insulator keeping the components warm and toasty.

As far as modding cases, this is the finest case mod I have ever seen, I forget if I actually came across the link here or on another site, but it's always worth another view!

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I bought a new CMOS battery and that sorted the data loss problem for BIOS and that's about all that has been fixed.

I bought a new hardrive, fitted it but once again it couldn't detect no hardrive and the usual message of "boot failure" came up.

I bought a new SATA cable and fitted it between the Hardrive and motherboard (tried it with both hardrives) but yet again it could not detect no hardrive and the usual message of "boot failure" came up.

My last assumption is that the problem lays with the motherboard. I guess i'll have to go out and purchase a new motherboard. I might aswell have bough a brand new computer, less hassle and I get a faster better computer.

 

[USS KG5]

I bought a new CMOS battery and that sorted the data loss problem for BIOS and that's about all that has been fixed.

I bought a new hardrive, fitted it but once again it couldn't detect no hardrive and the usual message of "boot failure" came up.

I bought a new SATA cable and fitted it between the Hardrive and motherboard (tried it with both hardrives) but yet again it could not detect no hardrive and the usual message of "boot failure" came up.

My last assumption is that the problem lays with the motherboard. I guess i'll have to go out and purchase a new motherboard. I might aswell have bough a brand new computer, less hassle and I get a faster better computer.

Seriously - as I posted earlier on some mobos you can disable SATA and this is the default - have you checked for a setting like this on yours?

 

[smithaa02]

I bought a new CMOS battery and that sorted the data loss problem for BIOS and that's about all that has been fixed.

I bought a new hardrive, fitted it but once again it couldn't detect no hardrive and the usual message of "boot failure" came up.

I bought a new SATA cable and fitted it between the Hardrive and motherboard (tried it with both hardrives) but yet again it could not detect no hardrive and the usual message of "boot failure" came up.

My last assumption is that the problem lays with the motherboard. I guess i'll have to go out and purchase a new motherboard. I might aswell have bough a brand new computer, less hassle and I get a faster better computer.

Does your new HD even appear in the boot order from BIOS? Does anything else appear on the boot order section? Do you have an extra IDE drive to test, to ensure this isn't just a SATA issue?

 

[GMac]

You would get a 'boot failure' message with a new, unformatted drive (nothing to boot from on the drive) but it does appear to be a BIOS issue or a bad board. Have you tried all the available SATA ports to see if if the symptoms persist? Or have you got an old IDE drive to hook up to see if that's detected in the BIOS?

GM

 

[Jadzia]

I bought a new CMOS battery and that sorted the data loss problem for BIOS and that's about all that has been fixed.

I bought a new hardrive, fitted it but once again it couldn't detect no hardrive and the usual message of "boot failure" came up.

The boot failure indicates the lack of a boot sector on the drive. Since it is a new drive this is naturally the case.

If your bios has been resetting, it may have scrubbed the boot order.

Make sure in bios you have your boot order set:

1. cd/dvd drives
2. primary hard drive
3. other drives (*)


(*) Optional. For example, the floppy drive can be omitted from the boot order since it's rarely used nowadays.

At this stage try inserting your windows cd and it should prompt for installation. (CD comes before hard disk in the boot order so it should boot)

Also did you (or will you) try the Knoppix cd I mentioned. It should be able to boot without any hard drive attached. Even disconnect the hard drive for the test. This will confirm that your motherboard is a-okay.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Just posting to say that I know the new hardrive obviously won't boot because there's no windows loaded on it but when I say it still won't detect the hardrive it is because I put the windows CD in (it always detects the CD) and when I click to install windows (onto the new hardrive) THAT is when the message says 'no hardrive detected' same like it did with the other one.
I've tried the SATA cable (both old and new) in all the other four SATA sockets on the mother board and still no luck.
In BIOS everything that needs to be enabled is enabled and the boot order menu has my HD in second place but i've already tried re-organising the list to see if that helped but still it would not boot or detect a HD even when it was set to be the first thing to boot.

I'm going to buy a new motherboard anyway just to try and see if it works, by the time i've tried sorting this out i'll have a completely new computer.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

My original response stands.

 

[Noname Given]

Just posting to say that I know the new hardrive obviously won't boot because there's no windows loaded on it but when I say it still won't detect the hardrive it is because I put the windows CD in (it always detects the CD) and when I click to install windows (onto the new hardrive) THAT is when the message says 'no hardrive detected' same like it did with the other one.
I've tried the SATA cable (both old and new) in all the other four SATA sockets on the mother board and still no luck.
In BIOS everything that needs to be enabled is enabled and the boot order menu has my HD in second place but i've already tried re-organising the list to see if that helped but still it would not boot or detect a HD even when it was set to be the first thing to boot.

I'm going to buy a new motherboard anyway just to try and see if it works, by the time i've tried sorting this out i'll have a completely new computer.

You might need to download SATA drivers for the HD and load them (I believe the WinXP load screen asks if you have any outside or 3rd party divers it may need at some point - been awhile as I have an Image I load these days myself, and I haven't used the WinXP installer in a while). It sounds like the WinXP install disk you have doesn't have SATA drivers so it can recognize your HD.

 

[GMac]

Yep - haev had that problem a few times with newish motherboards. And to make matters even more interesting, one AsRock board I had for a rebuild job at work refused to recognise the (IDE) CD drive I wanted to use for the install - ended up having to dig out a floppy drive from the spares pile adn hook it up so I could load the SATA driver onto a floppy disk and install it that way. Took a lot of cursing and fiddling about before I got the HDD detected and the install process running.

GM

 

[All Seeing Eye]

UPDATE:

Took it to the comp repair shop last monday and the guy has tried everything and it still wouldn't work so it's now assumed that the motherboard needs replacing. My 3 year old motherboard however is only available to buy as second hand with no warranty so i've decided to have a new motherboard fitting instead which has a 2 year warranty, unfortunately my old AMD processor won't slot into any of the new motherboards because they don't have the required socket or something so i'm having to have a new processor fitting aswell and i've decided to go for a Pentium because apparently they don't change the sockets or something as regularly as AMD so when it comes to repairs it's likely to be easier.

I get my comp back sometime Friday.

 

[Rii]

You only need a lot of heavy cooling like water coolers if you are overclocking.

Or if you own one of the higher-clocked G5 PowerMacs. Apple's PR on the Intel-based Mac Pros following the shift: "It's so efficient, it doesn't even need water cooling!"

To be fair the implementation was very, very slick.

 

[SupAJ1M]

dont we all hate the bsod's lol