PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: MamaTaz on January 07, 2003, 17:27
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I am using a Compaq Presario 5465 and MS Win 2000 Professional (SP1 and SP2). I downloaded SP3, but had not installed it. The computer went down shortly thereafter. The computer will not reboot. When I turn the computer on it states "Disk Book Failure -- Insert System Disk". I tried to reboot from boot diskettes I had made as well as the original Win 2000 Professional disk. I also tried to repair it through the Win 2000 Professional disk. However, the message I got was ". . . computer's
startup hard disk is new or has been erased, or that your computer is running an operating system that is incompatible with Windows 2000." I had McAfee Virus Scan 6.02 installed and it was updated on a regular basis. I was able to get to the Recovery Console; however, it stated that "The path or file specified is not valid." When I attempted to setup and reinstall Win 2000 Professional, the blue death screen appeared with 0x0000001E which apparently means a memory access violation occurred. I am illiterate when it comes to repairs on computers. I have searched everywhere for some information, but to no avail. Does this mean that my hard drive is bad? I had no problems at all with this computer until this happened. I would appreciate any feedback. Thank
you!!!!!
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Hi MamaTaz, Welcome to PC-Pals! :D
Sorry to hear of your problem. I must be quite traumatic for you :(
I don't think that your hard drive has gone bad. It is more likely that your PC had just forgotten what hard drive is installed. You need to tell the PC to go and look for the drive again in a section of the computer called "BIOS settings".
The BIOS settings are normally available at boot time. Just before Windows normally boots, your PC will display a message similar to "Press F2 to change BIOS settings" (the key to press is different on different PCs). This will take you into a text screen contining a menu system of some sort. From this menu you should be able to find a option which says something like "Auto detect hard drive" which you should select.
You will then need to save the new BIOS settings via another option and hopefully after re-booting the PC evreything will be back to normal.
Please come back to us if you need further help ;)
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Hi Sean! Thank you for your reply!
I went to the BIOS settings (F10 on my computer) and I did not see anything about "auto detect hard drive". The screen did show a menu, to wit: Standard CMOS Setup, BIOS Features Setup, PNP/PCI Configuration, Integrated Peripherals, Load Setup Defaults, Password Setting, Save & Exit Setup, and Exit without saving. Under the Standard CMOS setup it only shows: Drive A, Drive B and Floppy 3 mode support. I looked under each section and could not locate anything about detecting the hard drive. What to do?! Thanks for any additional help!!
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Hmmm....
I'm not that sure of Compaq BIOS screens as they tend to be different from the mainstream clones. I would have expected there to have been something about hard drives in the Standard CMOS setup section ???
I'm not really sure now. I suppose it is possible that your hard drive has failed :(
Hopefully someone else will be able to add to this later ...
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I've got an old Compaq Pentium1 PC lying round somewhere, and a load of printouts about them as I had a similar problem with it. I was given the PC as it was kna ...broken.
Compaq's have a strange BIOS, (or they did) which is slightly different from other BIOSes, in that it resided on the HD, rather than in a chip. Trouble was with the one I have, the drive had been wiped :-
I'll try and find those printouts, and get back to you if I find something .... there is definitely a HD setting in there somewhere.
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Thanks to all for your help! I appreciate your taking the time to respond. I will keep an eye on the posts for any other information regarding my problem. Again thank you!!!
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I'm having a search through the Compaq support forum site ... but its sooooo slowwwwwwww :-
I haven't found the papers yet either, they're all in boxes since my house move and ... erm not filed in any sensible order :-[
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Sorry, I've been through all my boxes now, and can't find the info I hoped I still had ... not sure whether it would have helped mind :-
Have you gone through each option in the BIOS to look for anything that might look like it refers to the HD?
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Yes and I do not find anything at all. I am also searching Compaq help (LOL)! Well, I do greatly appreciate your taking the time to look through everything!!! Thanks! I'll keep looking!
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You're welcome Mama Taz, just wish I could find something ... its soooo frustrating >:(
The fact you can access your BIOS suggests the HD is working tho ... one consolation
Will ask someone tomorrow who might know a bit more about Compaq's
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I'm sure I have a Compaq Presario of some description lying around the office. I'll have a look tomorrow too ;)
Give me about 14 hours MamaTaz ;D
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Y'all are really great! Thanks for all of your time!! I will keep checking the posts tonight and tomorrow. :D
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We try to be the most friendly forum on the net MamaTaz. ;D
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Would'nt entering LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS reset it to auto detect mode or at least user define guys? Then it should detect the drive as it starts up again.
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From the description of the problem I dont think its a bois issue. Do you have a DOS Boot disk with fdisk on it? If you did you could see if the drive is detected. Its not a matter of an active partision on the drive also because win2k setup would set that when you pick the install partition. My money is on some type of hardware issue. But would need to see the system to conclude.
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Hi Mama Taz,
I had a Compaq Presario 7477, and yes Compaq Bios info is crap, Compaq don't want the punters messing with it ::)
It's the old story, unless hard drives have S.M.A.R.T. technology, hard drives appear to work fine right up untill they fail. I'm not saying it is your hard drive that is faulty, but the only PC component that has failed for me is hard drives. As the hard drive is the only component with mechanical moving parts it is understandable. I've had two hard drives fail on two seperate PC's and I've have had one replacement fail, plus one additional new hard drive fail.
So illiminating hard drive failure problems would be wise. I know Compaq have a hard drive diagnostics program that you can download onto a floppy disk. So I suggest you go on to a Compaq tech support forum or email Compaq tech support for the web link to the download. Once downloaded, reboot the faulty PC with the floppy disk, and follow the on screen instructions.
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Hi MamaTaz :)
I'm sorry the Compaq I had in work had had the BIOS program wiped from it :( For some reason, Compaq puts the BIOS program on the hard drive rather than in ROM as other manufacturer's do.
However, Tony's suggestion above is a good one. I am sure that there are diagnostic tools available for download from Compaq, which should help you to get to the bottom of the problem :)
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I do not have a DOS Boot disk with fdisk on it. I did download a Win 98 with DOS boot disk; however, it did not work. I also downloaded the drive diagnostics disk from Compaq and, unfortunately, this did not work either. I did load setup defaults on the computer's BIOS yesterday, but to no avail. I guess it's computer repair time for the old gal. Bless your hearts for trying to help me so much!!!! Y'all have been wonderful!!! Thank you!!!!
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Oh dear,
that email you got that takes ages to download, is the Zipped up diagnostics file. ::)
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Come on guys get thinking we cant let a little Compaq problem be our one and only failur to date,can we ???
If the bios is on the hardrive does that mean she cant even use a utility like seagate disc wizard to wipe the drive and then start with a fresh install using her 98 boot disk for Fdisk stuff then reinstall 2K ???
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I'm not sure that just wiping the drive, will wipe everything BUT the BIOS, I have a feeling that the BIOS partition is protected in some way, however the one I was given, had lost this partition :- so I can't say for definite
The Compaq is a damned awkward beast ... unlike anything else
BUT I haven't given up yet ... don't like to be beaten by a puter >:( >:D
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Isn't Compaq now part of Hewlett Packard.
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The computer also states "couldn't open boot partition" if this helps any. And yes Compaq is now part of HP. Thanks to all many times!!!
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Hi MamaTaz,
I've spoken to a friend of mine and he gave me this site where you can talk direct to a compaq specialist
http://vztxcisccpro.compaq.com/bus-nacons/caller/
Hope this of some help to you but i'm a duffer and don't know much. However they're all very brainy and helpful here at PC-Pals so I'm sure they will sort you out. They always have for me.