Hard drive doesn't work as master, only slave

[jasmus]

My parent's computer started acting strangely last week. It would continually reboot and appear as if it were trying to boot into safe mode, but would never get very far. Now, when you turn their computer on, you can hear the hard drive spinning, but nothing ever appears on the monitor...ever. It has Windows XP as the operating system.

I disconnected the hard drive and put it into my windows xp computer as a slave and I can see everthing just fine. It appears to be completely normal. I ran some disk checking utilities on it and I didn't get back any errors whatsoever.

I have an older Windows 98 machine that I don't use so I hooked the non-working hard drive up to that computer and tried to boot, but same thing, nothing ever appears on the screen even though you can hear the hard drive spinning. Also, I hooked up my windows 98 hard drive to my parent's computer and it still wouldn't boot or show anything on the screen.

So, in summary, could both the computer and the hard drive both have something wrong with them that won't allow it to boot with that hard drive or the hard drive from my old windows 98 computer?

It's all strange and I'm no hardware expert by any means so any information on this dilemma will be most appreciated. Thanks!

- Jared

[Panama Red]

Swapping the drive between your parents' machine and the 98 machine will no doubt create problems as the hardware is all different and Device Manager and 98 can't manage that without a repair install or reformat/reinstall. If their XP hard drive won't boot in either machine there's possibility of a couple of problems. Since it will test ok in your machine, put it back there and run a full virus scan on it with your AntiVirus program as well as an online scan at Trendmicro's Housecall free scan site. Once any virus contamination has been eliminated, try the drive back in it's original system. If it still won't boot, it's time for a repair/ install. Set the Boot sequence to CD rom first in the bios, save the settings and put the XP CD in the CD drive. When it boots to the cd, select New installation (not the Recover Console repair option). It will find the existing XP install and offer an option to repair that installation. Follow the prompts to do that repair. This assumes their computer came with a true XP disk and not just a Restore Disk or Restore Partition on the Hard drive.

[jasmus]

Ok, I will definitely do the virus scan thing. How do I change the BIOS setting when I can't even get anything to come up on the monitor when I turn the computer on?

With that hard drive hooked up, when I turn the computer on, nothing displays on the monitor. In fact, the little light on the power button on the monitor doesn't even turn green to indicate it's getting a signal. It blinks orange, when I turn the computer on it turns to steady orange, but it never turns green.

[Panama Red]

Ouch, that sounds like the video is gone. Are you sure the monitor is ok? Does the monitor cable attach to a separate card area or to a connector on the motherboard thru the i/o shield? That'll tell whether it's onboard video or a separate card. Might be a good idea to post the full system specs so everyone will know what we're dealing with.

[jasmus]

Ok, I will try to get the specs for the computer, but I think it's onboard video. The monitor is fine because it works with my computer and my old windows 98 computer.

[Heon2574]

How can nothing show up on the screen? No POST?

Even if the hard drive was damaged, something should show up on the monitor nonetheless. Since the monior works, I'm assuming the onboard video is gone.

Tell me: do you see hard drive activity when you power on the computer (Computer is booting but nothing shows up on the screen)?

[jasmus]

Ok, tonight I will look at the onboard video scenario and also see if there is hard drive activity. At the very least I know it hard drive is spinning because I checked that before.

I really appreciate all the help and I'll get back with more information!

[jasmus]

Ok, a little bit more information.

The hard drive light does not blink when I turn the computer on.

There is no picture and it is onboard video.

I will try to find a spare video card somewhere to test the video part, but I guess that doesn't really solve the problem with the hard drive light not even coming on....

[glc]

Before you start sticking video cards in there, disconnect ALL drives (hard, floppy, CD) - disconnect both the data cables and power cables - and see if you can get video when you power it up. You may have to do "out of the case" troubleshooting - look in the Tips and Tricks forum. You may have a bad power supply or defective ram, among other things.

[jasmus]

Ok, I'll try that next.

I feel bad that my parent's compter is down (since I can see their drive as a slave I was able to copy over all the important information they had to my old windows 98 computer to use temporarily), but in a way it's kind of cool because I've never really worked with the inside of a computer before and hopefully I'll learn a thing or two in the process.

I'll keep you posted on my testing.

[KilluminatiStyle]

If I'm following this right.... The drive in question was the MASTER drive on a computer that ran WINDOWS XP, it just up and quit working on that computer. You took the drive out and set it up as a slave in your old 98 machine and you had FULL access to the drive, ran a barrage of tests and everything seemed ok. You then tried to use that drive as a MASTER on your 98 and it again wouldn't boot.

Is this correct?

If this is the case let me just clear one thing up.... you CAN take a drive running XP from one machine to another WITHOUT PROBLEMS! It'll migrate to the new machine just fine. If you did try that and it still wouldn't work... my guess is a BOOT SECTOR virus or some other virus.

[glc]

A bootsector virus, etc. will not knock out POST video.

[Heon2574]

Originally Posted by glc A bootsector virus, etc. will not knock out POST video.

Try turning on the PC without the hard drive. It should POST video then right?

[glc]

Originally Posted by Heon2574 Try turning on the PC without the hard drive. It should POST video then right?

Yep - and I already suggested that.

[jasmus]

Ok, here is the rest of the story...

I disconnected all drives and then tried to boot again. Still, no picture. However, since I had the case open and everything pulled apart I noticed something else, the case fan wasn't working. There is a big fan over the CPU and that fan still works fine. So I'm wondering, could all these problems be related to the case fan not working? My fear is that it is and that something got too hot and that's what killed everything.

Something else, when I reconnected everything back up and tried to boot again, I noticed the hard drive light comes on (it's a steady red light) for about 10 seconds and then goes off. Of course, this could be that I just hooked the cable for that light up to the wrong spot, but the power light still comes on green so maybe not.

Anyway, does anyone suspect that maybe the motherboard is shot? If so, could I buy another one and put the chip from this one in that one (It's a Pentium 4 1.8 ghz)? If so, how can I tell what the motherboard is?

I've attached some photos for your perusal, but the one of the entire motherboard is kind of fuzzy...

Well, that's about it for now, I await your comments!

[glc]

Now that you have the motherboard out of the case, please read this thread:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=12753

I'm thinking that either the power supply or the motherboard has gone south. That motherboard looks a lot like a PC Chips board - it has a Via chipset and PC Chips uses those gold colored heatsinks a lot. Not a quality board - and whoever builds with those boards generally builds with cheap power supplies too.

That's also a micro ATX board - is the case a micro with only 4 rear slots, or is it full size with 7 or 8 slots? If it's a micro, most micro case power supplies are pretty lacking when it comes to power too.

[Heon2574]

Hehe sorry glc, long threads like this makes it hard for me to remember everything that's happened.

Adding onto your previous post glc...
In my experience when power supplies go bad, it usually takes the motherboard with it too (and everything else attached to it too).

I remember when my brother's Athlon 850Mhz power supply broke. What you're describing is reminiscent of my brother's prior computer. Simply put- no post whatsoever. Simply getting a new power supply and video card didn't do it. As far as i think, your motherboard may have died. Also, the power supply fan on my brother's computer was non functional. Is your power supply fan okay? Does it sound differently than before?

Try this: If you had an optical drive attached to this motherboard before and after this incident, try it out in another computer. If it acts funny (for example, the led is constantly blinking) then it may have been due to a (cheap) power supply frying out your PC.

Since your hard drive still works, I may be completely wrong. Then again maybe your power supply spared your hard drive in the process.

[jasmus]

Ok, thanks for all the information. I will read the supplied thread. Also, I don't think I did hear a fan on the power supply (it is a 300W power supply if I remember correctly). The case is larger I think, 7 or 8 slots, even though the motherboard doesn't support that many. As for the quality of the motherboard, I'm assuming it's not that great since the video, audio, etc. is all onboard.

[Heon2574]

Originally Posted by jasmus Also, I don't think I did hear a fan on the power supply (it is a 300W power supply if I remember correctly).

Can you tell us if the fan is spinning and air is blowing out the back? If the fan in the power supply does not work, the heat generated will break the unit. Then again it may have already. You need to get a new power supply.

Again this is no guarantee the system will work after installing a new power supply.

[jasmus]

I will check on that power supply fan tonight. Also, is it possible for a hard drive to work as a slave, but not as a master because something on it has gone bad?

I guess my real question is, if some controller or something is bad on the hard drive, but as a slave all the data seems to be there, can I copy the hard drive over to another one using some exact copy software and have it work fine as the master?