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Off Topics > question for the computer experts
 
 
Travis F
Senior Heliman
Location: Battle Creek, MI

Hey all,

This morning I went to restart my computer after running disk defrag last night. After it passed the POST test I got a non-system disk error. Checked all drives for disks, but nothing was there. Hit the reset button and it wouldn't clear POST test. Turned power off and on a couple times and it still wouldn't clear POST. My final attempt resulted in no power being supplied to anything.

I have had problems booting for the past couple of months. But if I kept cycling power off and on it would pass POST and boot normally.

My question is. Is this a power supply problem or motherboard problem?

I believe the board is an older VIA KX133(?) Slot A
Power Supply 250W

Thanks for the help
Travis
02-01-2004 Over year old.
 
 
helicopter
Senior Heliman
Location: Omaha, Nebraska

PS

Personally, for the small change required for a new Power Supply,
I would pop in a new one.
Particlarly so since you've been noticing prbs lately.
Give it a shot...can't hurt.
Go for a 350 to 400 VA supply.
Byron

I love gravity, it always keeps my feet planted when I fly! Byron 2 Peter 1:3 The Bible is True.
02-01-2004 Over year old.
 
 
ScareCrow_Delta
Veteran
Location: Sebastian, FL

Problem 1: When you defraged the computer, more likely it did not completely finished. It moved a few things, on your case, a critical system file and probably got disrupted in the process. When you boot up, the BIOS is looking for the files it need to boot up but is no longer in the last known location(BIOS's perspective).

Problem 2: Shutting power on/off plenty of times may have tripped the breaker (or fuse) on your power supply. Look for a fuse a a switch on the power supply and replace or reset it. If you have one of those that have a selector switch for 120V/220V, switch it to 220V then SWITCH IT BACK to 120V. If that don't fix the prob, power supply=bad.

~~~~ Defy the laws of gravity....gracefully ~~~~
02-01-2004 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Travis F
Senior Heliman
Location: Battle Creek, MI

Scarecrow_Delta

The defrag did in fact complete. At least that is what the dialog box stated this morning when I checked.

I will look into the PS more thoroughly when I get home from work.

Thanks
02-01-2004 Over year old.
 
 
Data Android
Senior Heliman
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL

Quote 
Problem 1: When you defraged the computer, more likely it did not completely finished. It moved a few things, on your case, a critical system file and probably got disrupted in the process

critical system files are not being moved in a defrag (these are the red spots)
PS would be the first and cheapest to check for.
02-01-2004 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
ScareCrow_Delta
Veteran
Location: Sebastian, FL

I stand corrected, Data Android is right about the critical files . I would look more thoroughly on your PS. Also when you power it up(when you get it to power up), listen for that BIOS beep. IF it beeps diffently than normally (normally just one long beep but it depends on MOBO) then there is something wrong with your Basic Hardware (AGP, CPU etc...)

That no system disk error mesage you got entails a bad HD or a connection to the HD(assuming you checked the floppy drive or checked the CD drive)

~~~~ Defy the laws of gravity....gracefully ~~~~
02-01-2004 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
voksboy
Senior Heliman
Location: Manila, Philippines

you say you've been having problems with booting up.

First off make sure your ps is okay

then check your memory (I had mine replaced the other day and everything works fine)

check you video card is secure

lastly your processor

I had problem booting up, blank screens/long bips. I changed my memory and everything is a okay
02-01-2004 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Har
Senior Heliman
Location: Springfield MO

Another thing to check is the capacitors on your motherboard. There have been several different boards that have had the caps go bad and cause problems. One of which is as you describe. Check and see if the tops of the capacitors are flat or swelled up(dish shaped). If there are then the motheboard is the problem. I have seen this with Abit, Epox, Asus, SuperMicro, and a few others. Worth looking into.
02-01-2004 Over year old.
 
 
hyperlink
Senior Heliman
Location: N.E

lx200, If your getting a non-system disk error, first check your Cmos set up. Make sure the settings are correct for the hard drive you have in your system. Use the auto select mode. Make sure the system is booting the c: drive, most common setup is check a: then boot c:.

Try reseating your cards. Remove one at a time and slide back into proper slot. If you really want to do a proper reseat. Once the card is removed clean the contact strip on the card with an(ink eraser) then wipe the contact strip with a clean cloth using 90% alcohol. Make sure computer is unplugged and keep touching the chassis to make sure you do not build a electro-static charge. Use a ground strap if you have one.

If this doesn't do the trick, I'll let you know how to check your boot sector, F.A.T.

Hyperlink
02-01-2004 Over year old.
 
 
Travis F
Senior Heliman
Location: Battle Creek, MI

Thanks guys,

I will check all suggested fixes when I get home from work. If I don' have any luck I will let you know tomorrow. I only have one computer at home.

If something works I will post that also. Just in case someone else sees this same problem.

Thanks for the help,
Travis
02-01-2004 Over year old.
 
 
Travis F
Senior Heliman
Location: Battle Creek, MI

Up and running

Just thought that I would update to say that I got it running again!

I replaced the power supply and got power back, but still had invalid system disk error. I changed the CMOS set-up to boot to cdrom first and reinstalled windows. This got me running. But because I had updated to IE6 on the previous install I couldn't get internet explorer to run (windows ME installs IE5.5). I went to add/remove programs internet explorer-repair. This took care of the DLL error that I got everytime I launched IE. For reference the error was: WMPDXM.DLL caused an error explorer will now shut down.

I am not really sure if I had a PS failure or not. After I got power back with the new one and still had problems I tried again with the old PS and had power there too. Oh well I'll keep the new PS for the added wattage.

Hope that this helps someone else in the future.

BTW- Any suggestions on a new board/CPU combo?
I have been looking at the XFX boards with nVidia chipset bundled with an Athlon 2600+ from tigerdirect.com. Any comments on that?

Thanks everyone for the help,
Travis
02-02-2004 Over year old.
 
 
Peter65
Key Veteran
Location: Roxby Downs, South Australia.

Just a little thing

If it's at the point where you have tried everything and the system still wont boot from a drive.

Try this at the cmd prompt

fdisk/mbr

This will rebuild your master boot record and it may save you considerable time rebuilding.

Worked for me a number of times.

Also entering the bios and checking the drives were set to auto detect. For some reason it may have changed from the original settings
ie LBA or large when it should be normal? or vice versa

Laughing at yourself will lengthen your life. Laughing at me will shorten it...
02-02-2004 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Travis F
Senior Heliman
Location: Battle Creek, MI

cmd prompt

Peter,

The invalid system disk error wasn't giving me a command prompt. The only option there was to strike any key and try again (man I hate that).

Quote 
I changed the CMOS set-up to boot to cdrom first and reinstalled windows


Did I enter the BIOS then? I always get confused on which is which

It is always nice to get tips on these types of problems. So I would like to again say Thank You to everyone that offered their help and input!

RR is your one stop shopping place indeed!

Travis
02-02-2004 Over year old.
 
 
Peter65
Key Veteran
Location: Roxby Downs, South Australia.

That's where a DOS boot floppy still comes in handy at times. Unless you are running NTFS

Sorry forgot to add the part about a boot floppy

And yes to change to boot from CDrom you changed it in the bios.

Laughing at yourself will lengthen your life. Laughing at me will shorten it...
02-02-2004 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
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