Computer Help Needed

[Todd Wilson]

Got an odd situation and wanted to see what others know..........Got a free Compac/HP machine. 3ghz P4.  ATA HD. Pretty hot machine. It was said to have a worm/virus on it. Was running XP.  Fire it up and it booted to XP and then promptly shut off. Like you turned it off.  Not a big deal. Put in a MS DOS boot disk and proceed to boot to DOS and FDISK it. Then I format C:  and some time later I got a raw DOS machine with 80gigs waiting to go.  If I start setup off the CD ROM  it reads some stuff off the cd and as its time to hit the HD and start installed the computer shuts off.  Only way I can access the HD without the machine shutting down  is with the old skool DOS disk.

Is there a worm/virus out there that could put itself on say a boot partition area of the HD that I couldnt get to via FDISK and its creating havoc with the system forcing it to shut off? If so what would/could it be and how to fix it and start over?


Todd

[Foreman72]

whipe the entire drive from a different computer and start over...also, are you sure that the computer isn't turning itself off due to a power related or temp related issue?

[Todd Wilson]

whipe the entire drive from a different computer and start over...also, are you sure that the computer isn't turning itself off due to a power related or temp related issue?

It an'nt hot  and I dont have another computer with ATA.


Todd

[Todd Wilson]

This thing is really odd.  Will boot to DOS via floppy. I can FDISK and format the harddrive with no troubles. I can have the bios test the HD with no troubles.  If I go to have the floppy boot with CD ROM support it will start to boot and shut off. Does it with a cd drive plugged in or not. Everything is cool to the touch. Will run for an hour booted from floppy and c drive. Boot from a win2000 cd and it takes off and when its about to start laying down stuff to the HD it shuts right off.


Todd

[ChgrSteve67]

Have you tried setting the bios back to defaults?
There are some bios settings that can affect system performance and cause it to reboot.
Resetting the bios to defaults (not fast mode) is quick and easy to see if a bios setting is messing things up.

I have seen this with bad IDE controllers durring large data transfers.
Hard drive with bad cache.
I have also seen the same thing when the processor switches from Real-mode to Protected-Mode. If this is the case your screwed so we will assume this is not the case.

Of course its easy if you have spare parts to swap but since you don't your kind of stuck with just jacking around with it.

Also since the drive is IDE check the master Slave settings on the drive to make sure its set as a master drive and is detected as a master in the Bios.

Also swap ide cables with the CDRom maybe there is a bad pin in the cable or the connector is loose.
you should be able to run the CDRom as a master or slave with no master drive on the cable.

I generally don't recommend running the CDRom and Hard Drive on the same IDE channel\cable.

Also just for the hell of it take out the memory and reseat it.
If there is anything else in the system like a modem, Network card or anything else take it out and set it asside.

Start with board, processor, memory, video card, HD and CDRom to see if the OS will load.
Also if you have a bootable dos disk boot the system and perform a FDISK /MBR to rewrite the Master Boot Record.

If you think you still have a virus messing it up (very low percentage of chance) download a low level format utility and format the drive. This will completely re-address it and destroy any virus that my be hiding on the drive.

It is also posible the power supply is going bad. If the system does not maintain steady power it will reboot or shut off when system load increases.

Remember computers make our lives easier.

Good luck.

[Todd Wilson]

Have you tried setting the bios back to defaults?



Also since the drive is IDE check the master Slave settings on the drive to make sure its set as a master drive and is detected as a master in the Bios.

Also swap ide cables with the CDRom maybe there is a bad pin in the cable or the connector is loose.
you should be able to run the CDRom as a master or slave with no master drive on the cable.

I generally don't recommend running the CDRom and Hard Drive on the same IDE channel\cable.

Also just for the hell of it take out the memory and reseat it.
If there is anything else in the system like a modem, Network card or anything else take it out and set it asside.

Start with board, processor, memory, video card, HD and CDRom to see if the OS will load.
Also if you have a bootable dos disk boot the system and perform a FDISK /MBR to rewrite the Master Boot Record.

I have already done all this with the exception of the /mbr. I'll give that a shot.  The cdrom is IDE and the HD is the ATA so they are on seperate cables.


Todd

[Todd Wilson]

I'll fdisk /mbr later on. Doing another format right now. Computer has been on now over 2 hours booted to a dos prompt with no troubles. IDE tested fine.



Todd

[bakerhillpins]

whipe the entire drive from a different computer and start over...also, are you sure that the computer isn't turning itself off due to a power related or temp related issue?

I'm with Forman72 on this one. Its not that it is actually hot... it just thinks it is and shuts down. I have seen several Laptops here at the office afflicted with this failure.

If you think its the HD go buy a new one for $50 and just chuck the old one.

Bryan

[1970Moparmann]

I would suggest putting in a new hard drive first.  Seen my fair share of this in the industry that I'm in.  Good luck.

[Todd Wilson]

Its something on the motherboard doing it. I think its junk.  The HD is fine. Its been worked for 30 minutes straight on a test several times. When the ram is swapped out the computer does the same problem only at different times.  Not heat related. It will do it the first 10 seconds its on after sitting all night off. No part of the computer even shows warmth to the touch as it has 3 fans.


Todd

[bakerhillpins]

Have you changed out the power supply?

Not heat related. It will do it the first 10 seconds its on after sitting all night off. No part of the computer even shows warmth to the touch as it has 3 fans.

We are not suggesting that it is hot, but rather that the sensor on the motherboard thinks it is and shuts down.

Bryan