Re: System restarts and then BIOS can't see disk
- From: Sunny <sunny@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 00:26:30 -0500
Barryco wrote:
My XP Home system has increasingly been showing the following behaviour:
* it is all working fine then suddenly just stops whatever you are doing and spontaneously reboots.
* when it restarts, the BIOS at this point can't see the disk - the Primary disk master is "none"
* if you select the Primary master and hit enter at this point it automatically finds the disk and then reboots as normal and works OK til the next time it happens
This behaviour is unpredictable and seems completely independant of what you happen to be doing on the computer at the time. It is also starting to happen more often - at least a few times a day.
Is this indicative of an impending hard disk failure or does anyone have any other thoughts?
The system is a fairly old PIII but has always been reliable, the BIOS never flashed etc.
Thanks, Barry
I trust you have current backups!
Your deteriorating symptoms are typical of a PIII motherboard whose filter capacitors have failed. Take the cover off and examine the motherboard to see if capacitors are the problem - there's a good picture of what you're looking for here:
http://www.careyholzman.com/caps/images/bad_caps.jpg
The picture shows a couple of good capacitors, which are flat on top, and others in various stages of failure, ranging from slight bulging on top to severe bulging and leakage.
Sunny .
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