-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Saturday 27 September 2003 08:24 am, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hello all, here's my dilemma: > I recently purchased a barebones system. The specs are: > > Motherboard: MS-6533 Micro ATX Mainboard > Hard Drives (HDs): 20Gb EIDE Maxtor & 30Gb EIDE AT Maxtor DiamondMax VL 40 > 5400rpm (the 30gb Maxtor was the hard drive from my old system that I had > bene using) > > Processor: 2.4Ghz Pentium 4 > Memory: 128Mb DDR PC2100 RAM & (extra purchase I added) 256Mb DDR PC2100 > RAM CDROM: (out of my old computer) ATAPI 44x CDROM (don't know > manufacturer; hand-me-down) > > > Problems: First, I thought I might try to set up the new 20Gb HD as slave > and use my old 30Gb HD as master. Also, I did not order a new CDROM with > the new system (though I have a new DVD/CDRW combo drive on the way), so I > thought I'd just transfer my 44x CDROM into the new system as well. Well, > after I transferred the 30Gb HD and the CDROM over to the new system, the > computer recognized my hardware and then tried to boot; however, linux > wouldn't have that. So, linux tried to adjust to the new hardware and > format the new HD, but it froze up. So, I tried to reboot and load WinXP > (sorry, just seeing if it would work so I could dual boot) off of CDROM. > Well, the windows set up recognized the hard drive and formatted the master > (30Gb) HD, but then when it tried to start copying windows files to the HD, > it wouldn't do it. Well, then I tried to reboot again, and that's when > everything just went to hell. After the reboot, the BIOS would recognize > the HDs and the CDROM, but would not read from the CDROM. It gave me a > "failure" message when it got to the step to read from the CDROM drive. > Then, because I could not load from the cdrom and the system files had not > been written to the HD yet, I get the error message "NTLDR is missing. > Check to see if a bootable disk is in the drive or put a bootable disk in > the drive and press enter." Well, when I put either the Mandrake 9.1 disk > in or the WinXP disk, I get the same error. Basically, the BIOS has quit > reading from the CDROM. I don't know how to get it to read. Did I lose > the driver? Did I somehow kill my CDROM? I don't know. That's problem > one. > > Problem 2: Well, after the old HD and CDROM would not work in the new > machine, I tried putting them back into my old PC and loading Windows or > Linux back onto the HD that way. Now, when the old pc starts to boot up, > it gives the message "Hard drive failed". Did I kill my hard drive? > > Problem 3: The MS-6533 motherboard requires, inter alia, PC2100 DDR RAM, > and,from what I've seen in the manual, there is no requirement of symmetry > of chips (i.e., it doesn't seem to require 2 128Mb chips, but will work > with a 128Mb and a 256Mb). However, the computer won't read my 256Mb chip > at all and it IS PC2100 DDR RAM. I probably just got a bum stick, but, > just in case, I had to ask if maybe I should be doing something more than > just popping the memory into the motherboard. Any ideas? > > Thanks in advance > Jack
Hello Jack, Looks like you're really shooting yourself in the foot... with an Uzi! ;p Well, the problems are quite complex, so let's start localizing it one by one shall we? 1. Your hdd and cdrom were fine when they were still in the old pc 2. You installed them on the new pc and problems began arising 3. You put back your hdd and cdrom into the old pc and hdd was failing! - From those, we can deduce that it is very likely that your new motherboard is the cause. Whoooa! Wait a minute, before we jump into that, we need one CRUCIAL information from you: "was there any chance that the new motherboard has been tested before you bought it? Did you see any system running on that motherboard? or you just bought it wrapped nicely in a box?" If the answer is that you haven't witnessed any running system on that motherboard, then it is VERY LIKELY that you've got yourself a defect product, and it might also have ruinned your hd (check both hds in the old box, see if the new hd survives). For the memory issue, try put the memory into another box, see if it works. - -- Fajar http://linux.arinet.org Linux mdk91.sistek.kom 2.4.21-0.13mdk GNU/Linux 09:48:27 up 2:25, 10 users, load average: 1.93, 1.49, 1.29 Quote of the day: In 1968 it took the computing power of 2 C-64's to fly a rocket to the moon. Now, in 1998 it takes the Power of a Pentium 200 to run Microsoft Windows 98. Something must have gone wrong. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/dP8OUrYxG8KGMVERAuDOAKCn1yDe9BwOQsVa+o/SkU09FVj3xwCglzVF f1yjBNQEKxJBoxiWhSdw52U= =nhs6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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