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March 7th, 2009 18:00
4400 clicking, memory dump, no boot device
My husband uses my old computer upstairs for Online poker, e-mail and Yahoo messenger, just basic programs nothing else. About 2 days ago it started making a clicking sound, then it stopped gave a blue screen with a bunch of text and was saying something about computer not safe or something and memory dump ... he being totally computer illiterate said oh no and hit the power button and shut the pc down. He called a friend and they said maybe hard drive shot ... so he took it out and took it to the only PC repair place in our small town. Asked hubby some questions and said he would have to check things out probably would be between $150 but no more than $180.00 .. well we do not have the money ... hubby has been laid on/off from his job of 23 years for the last 14 months... so he came home with the hard drive and put it back in.
Lights on back of computer show ABC: green D: yellow After he put the hard drive back in we get a black screen with No boot device detected: system halted
so I got on the internet and learned what to do to do a Dell Diagnostic thingy .... ran a full test and everything passed except for some things that look like had to do with not having a floppy disk in or dvd in when ran test.
I would really like to know what is wrong and get this fixed for him ... as he is driving me nuts about not being able to play all his free/fake chips on Poker Stars LOL
What should I do or try next?
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RoHe
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March 7th, 2009 21:00
Unfortunately, ABC green, D yellow means "other failure" which isn't helpful, but you already knew that! The error message after the diagnostic tests means you didn't have a floppy disk or CD in those drives when the tests ran. If you rerun them with a disk in each of those drives, they will probably "pass" so you can ignore them for the moment. It's certainly possible the hard drive failed. What color is the power button when it won't boot? Green/Amber, solid/blinking?
Was the hard drive correctly reinstalled and connected to both the data and power cables inside the PC when you put it back? Depending on size, you can probably get a decent drive for less than $100 and install it yourself, if the budget allows. You will need the Windows CD that came with the system to install XP on a new drive.
Before you go in that direction, when was the last time you replaced the battery on the motherboard? If it's more than ~2 - 3 years old, you might want to replace it. You need a 3-Volt CR2032 coin cell battery. They're about $2-$3 at places like Walmart, Target, Radio Shack etc. You can find the location of the battery on the motherboard here. Be sure to unplug the PC from the wall and press/hold the power button for ~15 sec before working inside the case. Carefully remove the old battery and install a fresh one, RIGHT-SIDE-UP! Hold the battery by the edges and wipe off any fingerprints from the surfaces when you install it. Close up the case and see if it boots now, with fingers and toes x'd. :emotion-5:
Ron
Mom2Three410
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March 8th, 2009 09:00
Ron, Thanks for trying to help us! When he pushes the button on the front to start the computer it is solid green. He just left to got o Walmart to look for the battery. Will keep you updated! LOL
Mom2Three410
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March 9th, 2009 11:00
Ron, He put in the new battery you suggested and we heard a loud continous sound like large static. We shut the PC down and the sound went away. I put theWindows CD in (don't know why ... had to try something)
It said Press to run setup
Hit F12 if you want to see a boot menu. Tried both but nothing really happened.
Tried I believe F2 where is should tabs with a bunch of stuff
Didn't see any choices to boot from CD or Hard drive
One area said the following:
IDE Controller (Disabled)
PCI IDE Bus Master (Disabled)
Primary IDE Master [WDC-WD400BB-75CLB07]
Primary " Slave Not installed
Secondary IDE Master Not Installed
" " Slave " "
I could of swore the day before there was more stuff on the above lines but I am so confused now from looking at things ... I head is spinning.
We have tried so many things I just don't know what else to do ... he wants me to look on the internet for a new hard drive but I am afraid if that is not the problem he will through the PC down the stairs.
Any other idea's ...? Do you feel it is the hard drive or could it be something else? What was the crackling/static sound after we put the new battery in?
RoHe
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March 9th, 2009 14:00
Was that the read/write head on the hard drive scraping on the magnetic surface?? I SURE HOPE NOT! :emotion-12:
When you removed the battery, you cleared all the BIOS settings. So reboot and press F2 to run BIOS setup. You'll have to go through each of the entries and set it to your system's requirements.
BIOS is recognizing the hard drive since you see its serial number [WDC-WD400BB-75CLB07], which is a good thing, but that doesn't necesarily mean it's still bootable. The IDE controller should be set to enabled, otherwise it won't detect your drives. Go here and you'll find details about each of the BIOS settings and what the different settings mean. You should be able to get it set up correctly. Be sure to save your changes before exiting BIOS setup.
When that's done, try booting again from the hard drive. If it won't boot from the hard drive, try booting from the XP CD again, but don't run setup, because you don't want to format the hard drive and install XP. Just press enter at the first screen. If it boots and you get to a C:\ prompt, you'll at least know the system is bootable. Then we can figure out what happened to the hard drive.
Ron