Michael: I would boot from a CDROM. If everything worked, then I would be very suspicious of the disk. Wayne
Michael Moore wrote: > I'm hoping for a quick diagnosis from someone more knowledgeable about > hardware than me (which is most people on this list, for starters), or > to find out, at least, that there's no obvious solution. > > This morning my computer died while I was using it ... just shut > itself off, as if the power had gone out, except it hadn't. When I > try rebooting, I hear several "clicks" -- probably six or eight, about > a second apart -- as the ASUS BIOS message flashes on screen. Then a > pause, then a few more clicks as it switches to this screen: > > VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT8237 Serial ATA Raid BIOS Setting Utility V2.01 > > Scan Devices, Please wait... > Press <Tab> key into User Window! > > Hardware Initiate failed, Please Check Device!!! > The Bios does not be installed. Press <g> to continue! > > (Yes, it really does say "Hardware Initiate" and "Bios does not be > installed.") > > Pressing 'Tab' does nothing. Pressing 'g' just takes me to a screen > that says insert a bootable device. > > Does this sound like it could be the hard drive that failed? I > thought those commonly gave some warnings, like wonky behavior in > advance of complete failure, but perhaps that's only true when some > sectors of the drive are wearing out. Everything had been working > fine, then kabluey. I have a spare hard drive, but I'm not sure how > to go about replacing the existing drive. Do I have to reinstall the > BIOS? (I have an ASUS disc I've never even taken out of its package.) > > Or could it be something else that has died? > > Any advice on what to try to do? I'm in the dark about this, and now > without a computer. > > Thanks, > Michael > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > > > _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
