Faulty HDD???

[french253]

I'll try to keep this brief. About a week ago my wife's custom build (4 years old) began having some issues.  At start-up it would beep as normal, then go through the normal posting, but it would stop short of loading Windows XP.  I have read several message boards and tried various things including unplugging all devices and plugging them back in.  I have not installed any new hardware and hooked up a working HDD drive to try to rule it out.  When I did this, Windows started to load, but the screen faded and eventually went blank.  Monitor is new and was working fine for months before the computer started acting up.  Any help would be appreciated.  THANKS!
Rob

[xavier]

If your monitor is OK?  Do fans continue to spin? I would say its a video pblm,or power supply not in order. Is this a on board video or do you have a video card?

[xavier]

One thing to keep in mind when the hard drive id dis connected, & the cd rom drives & you power up the PC it should post [Display]

[french253]

Monitor is okay... I just added that to rule it out as display problem.  Fans continue to spin.  It has on board video (Biostar P4VMA-M motherboard)... no video card.  When unplugged I get a "Disk Boot Failure:" message at posting.

[xavier]

What i am trying to get across is if you had 1 stick of ram in board, cpu & heat sink hooked up, video hooked up to monitor & when you turn on the pc you should get a display on the monitor, if you dont you then know it has to b one om the components that are hooked up.forket your rom drives & HD for the moment

[french253]

I've got you... I think... I have a display but the computer goes no further.  So, since I have a display you think it must be CD Rom or HD?  Thank you in advance for your help by the way...

[xavier]

You should get a bios display? [ANYWAY ]hook up the HD & cdrom drive. Do you hear the  HD spining? Do you have a spare HD to test?

[french253]

Yes, I get a BIOS display (as in Bus NO, Device No, Funct NO, etc across the top of the page) and HD is spinning.  I can pull the HD out of this computer and hook it up, but it is SATA.  I'll check the motherboard to see if it can do my SATA hard drive.  I'll get back ASAP. 

[french253]

No go on hooking my HD to the computer, but I put that HD in mine and it works fine.  All files are good.  So?

[xavier]

Do this re hook up like was before, if you can get into bios set bios for default or best known config. If you know how change boot order , boot from cdrom, re boot with windows XP disc & press enter.

[french253]

I've actually tried booting from everything (and setting BIOS for best known config.) minus using the boot disk... My wife misplaced the disk when she moved in.  I thought about loading Linux on a flash drive and booting from it.  I've been told it works but never done it before.  If not, I will try to dig through old boxes and find a copy of Windows.  Thanks again for your help!

[xavier]

Let us know back

[french253]

Will do...

[french253]

Update... I located a copy of Windows that was exactly like the one my wife used originally.  Booted like a champ from disk.  NOw I have to change boot sequence and see if it will boot from hard drive... We shall see.  Thanks again for your help Xavier.  I am ashamed (but am also thrilled) that it turned out to be something so simple.

[french253]

AAARRRGGGHHHH... Now that I said something, the computer reset itself and now will load past the Windows XP page but restarts at "Welcome."  Is this a power supply issue?