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Magistr8

Compaq computer question.

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Normally I would have had this figured out by now but compaqs give are a pain.

Last night after fixing numerous other problems, I finally got this compaq deskpro 400 to boot into windows.

This morning, the hard disk is nowhere to be found.
Boot disk don't load tools anywhere because there is no drive to mount and I cannot seem to get into the bios to check on the disk controller.

If anyone has any ideas please pm me or post them below. If you need more info, I'll be back from my exam in about 3 hours.


"Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools." Napoleon Bonaparte

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Questions:

1- Can you access the BIOS? (on Compaq is pressing F10)
2- If you can access the BIOS, do you see the HD?
3- What Windows version are you running?
4- Can you boot from a floppy?
5- Why in the hell did you buy a COMPAQ? :P
__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

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I was hoping you would get back to me.

1-No. Nothing ever happens. The compaq screen just sits on the monitor until which time it tries to find a boot disk or it goes to the network boot.
2- See above
3- Windows 98
4-Can boot from a floppy, but only to dos where no tools will load. I cannot even change drives.
5- Compaq was a second hand computer bought by a friend of mine. It isn't mine, I know better.


"Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools." Napoleon Bonaparte

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I'm with nightengale on this..open her up and check your connections. If you can get to dos you should be able to switch drives... your boot disk should have all the utilities you need to get going...

try another boot disk after you check the connections throughout.

sometimes the freaky stuff can happen when they are too hot... check for crud/dust near the fans, and clean that out carefully...

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Those were some of the very first things that I tried. The cables are definetly in there properly. As for the Dust bunnies, I spent about 5 mins with an air can blasting ones that were about the size of my hand out from the fans and inside the PCI slots.

I am pretty sure the problem is with the disk drive controller because the first message that I got was this drive does not contain and valid FAT partition information. On reboot the message didn't come but the computer would boot with a disk in the drive.


"Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools." Napoleon Bonaparte

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Quote

I was hoping you would get back to me.

1-No. Nothing ever happens. The compaq screen just sits on the monitor until which time it tries to find a boot disk or it goes to the network boot.
2- See above
3- Windows 98
4-Can boot from a floppy, but only to dos where no tools will load. I cannot even change drives.
5- Compaq was a second hand computer bought by a friend of mine. It isn't mine, I know better.



Well, if you hit F10 while the logo is on the screen you should access the BIOS, that'd be very important to discard other options, and to make sure the system sees your HD

Is that a NEW HD? if it is have you partitioned it and format it?
__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

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Not a new hard drive, it has been in use a very long time. When I hit F10 on the logo screen nothing happens at all. it just keeps booting like nothing is happening.

I tried using F8 and Del as well as Backspace and F1 to get into the bios but nothing seems to work. It's as if the keyboard isn't giving any input to the system but clearly it is.


"Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools." Napoleon Bonaparte

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