Re: Major Boot/IDE issues. Help Please!!!!


Rowlf wrote:

First I'll tell you the problems. Then I'll give you my specs. Get comfy. I think there is a gremlin in my rig.
<B>THE PROBLEM</B>
A typical boot of my computer goes like this:
Boot to bios. The IDE check shows my STA Hardrive and my DVDRW drive.
Primary Master: STA80216 (or whatever my normal Seagate HD id is)
Primary Slave: DVDR Generic
Secondary Master: None.
Secondary Slave: None.

Everything is peachy until it gets to the Verifing DMI Pool. Where . . . it . . . . . hangs . . . . . indefinately.
Reset. Reboot. Press DEL. Auto check IDE devices in BIOS. Where . . . . . it . . . .. . hangs . . . .. . . . .
Reboot. BIOS now reads something like this:
Primary Master: CT^&.. o or some gibberish (not the usual Seagate ID).
Primary Slave: none.
Past the IDE detection and DMI pool, I get this message - Disk failure, unable to boot. Please insert bootable floppy.

As you see, my DVDR is no longer detected, and BIOS seems to have invented an ID for my HD. Grrreaaat. And it won't boot.
So, to stick a bandaide on it, I do this:
Shut down. Open side up. Put my IDE cable that runs both my HD and DVDRW into the secondary IDE slot.

Boot. Primary Master: none.
Primary Slave: none.
Secondary Master: STA80216
Secondary Slave: DVDR Generic

And my computer boots fine. Windows runs fine. Until I get a BSoD very randomly (sometimes right away, sometimes not for days) The cause of the BSoD says something different most of the time, but just recently it was some AVAST! anti-virus file.

Reboot. Repeat everything above.

Except sometimes the only way I can get my HD to boot is by completely disconnecting my DVDRW.

But eventually I'll get a BSoD anyway.

WTF? Can anyone help? Is it a hardware issue? A software issue?

<B>THE SPECS:</B>
As promised, here are my system specs.
Windows XP Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
Asus motherboard A7N8X2.0
AMD 2600 @ 2079Mhz
BIOS - Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS A7N8X2.0 ACPI BIOS Rev 1005, 5/14/2003
768.00 MB RAM
ATI RADEON 9600 SERIES


<B>WHAT I'VE DONE</B>
Have repaired installed numerous times. Have updated every driver I can think of. Have run chkdsk /f
Have run boot virus scans.
Have run Ad-aware thoroughly.
Have run Spy-Bot Search and Destroy thoroughly.

<B>Possible Contributing Factors</B>
I used to have an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 installed. (not overclocked). As you may know, it requires additional power fueled by a cable from the PSU. I noticed a few months ago that the white molex plug on my ATI was dark brown (burnt) at the power lead. At that time I thought it was my PSU, so I swapped it out. It did it again. So I swapped out my the 9800 for my old 9600 (goodbye Elder Scrolls IV).
However, the problems above continue to happen.

I am seriously considering throwing my computer off of the highest cliff I can find.

Need any more info?

Please, can someone please help? Or at least point me in the right direction?

Thanks!


Very briefly, this problem involves both the hardware, viz.,
the bios table for the IDE drives, plug-n-play and Windows
operating system, communicating through the Desktop Management
Interface (or DMI). And all it takes is a 1-bit frameshift in
the bios tables to lead to an unbootable or improperly detected
drive (or drives).

The following URL provides possible solutions:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm

.

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