Boot failure

redmonp · Feb 25, 2003

New to this, Help required...

Problem every 9 or 10 boots with a failure to boot, prompts for boot from floppy. Turn off at plug and reboot, boots with promts but does not pick up primary hard disk driver??

Win 98 se
Amd duron 1.1
ati radeon 7000
k7s5a motherboard

Any help appreciated.

jroc · Feb 25, 2003

...is your CPU overclocked??...could be Bad Ram...corrupt MBR...What is the Wattage of your Power Supply...is this a new problem that just occured...

redmonp · Feb 25, 2003

Jroc,

CPU not clocked,
brand new crucial 256mb ddr
350 watt psu
Problem occured since hard drive, formatted and system software reloaded, sometimes does not detect hard drive and have to go into bios and re enter time and date and then auto detect hard drive, before it will boot.

Thanks.

RASTABT · Feb 25, 2003

Sounds like you've got a Cmos battery problem.Try once main unit is off open case and take out battery make sure the battery contact surface are clean on mobo. Take note of your battery type and the + &- side's and replace with a new battery and reset you bios. A lot of the time a battery is always over looked with bios problems..

jroc · Feb 25, 2003

When your starting up...and the bio's is posting...is the hard drive being detected...if so...when it goes to boot to windows and fails..then I will say your MBR (Master Boot Record) might be corrupt...or are you getting the Harddrive Failure from a Bio's warning

newby · Feb 25, 2003

Check on the ide & power cables. A faullty or loose cable can cause this to happen.

redmonp · Feb 25, 2003

Thank you for your replies, I will try a new Bios battery, the battery came with the board in October 02, still it could be u/s.
Checked all cables and connections before they seem ok.
I am getting the Boot failure from Bios as it wont boot when it happens. After I have been into bios and detected drive from there it boots ok BUT sometimes does not load the Primary hard disk driver (Slow to load programs and ! in System shows the driver not loaded code 10)
Thanks...

spottydog · Feb 28, 2003

Redmonp
I think you should stop poking your fingers in there and get a life.

svgusta · Feb 28, 2003

Do you have any scsi devices in your pc ?

redmonp · Mar 5, 2003

Spottydog,,, Hmmmm I think I know you!!!!
SCSI devices?? I have a 20 gig maxtor hd, DVD/CDR combo and on the USB a digital camera connection, a serial printer and an external modem..
I enabled SMART for hard disks and its telling me ....STATUS BAD back up hard drive and replace...this would explain a lot I think.

redmonp · Mar 30, 2003

All suggestions failed, bought a WD 40 gig and tested maxtor 20 gig with its own diagnostics and it was goosed (thankx Spottydog). WD performing ok to boot!!!!!!