2 Questions

rctneil

rctneil

rctneil

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Joined
31 Jan 2007
Posts
1,860
Hello

My grandads computer has developed two issues. They could be related but not too sure.

1.) When the pc is switched on, it starts to boot Windows XP but the XP loading scrollbar under the xp logo boot screen just keeps on scrolling and never seems to stop. Left it going for 15 -20 minutes and never goes any further.

I was going to attempt to use the Windows XP cd to boot from and run the repair wizard to see if that could cure it but then we noticed problem 2:

2.) When you go into the BIOS and go to boot order. the cd drive does not show up in the list to boot from like it should do and has done in the past.

Things tried in order to fix:

- Tried replacement dvd drive and that doesn't show up in boot list either
- Tried replacement sata cable from dvd drive to mobo
- Tried replacement sata power cable from dvd drive to PSU
- Tried plugging dvd drive into different sata port on mobo.

The specs are:

Asus P4V8X-X motherboard
2.8 Ghz P4
2 Gb RAM
200 Gb Maxtor sata HDD
Asus sata DVD drive


I wouldreally appreciateyour help in attempting to fix these issues.

Thanks

Neil
2 Gb
 
The reason the DVD drive is not showing is most likely because the SATA ports are not set as IDE but perhaps instead AHCI/other.

In the BIOS you can change this mode, make sure SATA is set to IDE, save changes then exit and then re-enter the BIOS, DVD drive should show up now.

Depending on the BIOS there may also be other legacy options for SATA.
 
thanks for the reply.

I understand what you are trying to say but when i view the options for the sataports on the main bios screen, They all give the 3 options:

-Auto
-Cd Rom
-Not Installed

Each sata port was set to Auto and the cd drive did not show in the boot list

When i change the secondary master port to cd drive, it still doesn;t show in the boot list (after restart) but if i leave it to attempt to boot windows (whcih still fails), I get a message stating:

"Secondary Master Drive - ATAPI Incompatible, Press F1 to continue"

It has said this for a while and my grandad has learned to accept that he has to press F1 as his computer is booting. It used to work fine as we installed windows xp originally via this cd drive in the first place so just ahve absolutely no idea why it's not showing up in the boot list.
 
I'd say if the BIOS setting doesn't detect it even in CD-ROM mode then a duffed SATA controller/port is the problem. You can still boot the HDD from both ports yep?

Maybe a able fault too so might be worth checking this.
 
hmmm

we have tried new sata cables, tried dvd drive in both ports

The dvd drive shows up as connected in post but just wont let you boot from it in bios.

hdd boots from both ports but still fails to load windows
 
In POST is there an option to press an F button to choose boot options? This may be the alternative as some laptops have it by default, press F10 or whatever to boot off CD/USB etc.
 
Right, uptime time:

I looked and found there is a simple boot options menu when tapping F8. I do that and the dvd drive doesn't show up in there either.

I went to the asus support site and downloaded the latest bios file and put it on a floppy disk along with the afudos exe to install it with. I made the disk with Driver Free Disk For BIOS Flashing from bootdisk.com and then copied the above files onto it.

I managed to boot from floppy, ran the correct command but it has an error when trying to open the rom file. no idea why so I left it like that for today.

I have obvisouly had to come back home but if ANYONE has any ideas how how this can all be solved then please do shout :-)

Thanks

Neil
 
I'm out of ideas now man, especially if BIOS update is failing!

Does sound like that mobo has had its time though.
 
rctneil said:
I was going to attempt to use the Windows XP cd to boot from and run the repair wizard to see if that could cure it
Click to expand...

if you have a usb key kicking around you might be able to make it bootable using your XP cd. have a look on google for instructions.
 
quick way to check - plug it in and see. :p

even when you haven't bothered to prepare the usb stick for booting it should appear on the boot device list of some sort.
 
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