PC won't boot into windows

[Al_Capown]

Well recently I was just messing around with my computer and I decided to change the stock NB heatsink to a passive zalman. So I go about with that, attach it, put the as5 in there. So then I put everything back together, put the ide's back in their respective spots.

Boot up and it reboots at 100x5 :scratch: Odd, I never pulled out the cmos battery so it should still have my previous bios. Then I notice something else that's weird. For the IDE Secondary Master where it should say something like LiteOn DVD blah blah blah it simply says !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and for the IDE Secondary Slave where it should say LiteOnCDRW blah blah blah it simply say -|.

So I say, ok no big deal, so something's wrong with my optical drives, no biggy, I should be able to get into windows. So I hit f10, enter, and it goes through the boot process. Then it gets to the windows splash screen and it's faded and it just hangs there.

Well, I'm gonna investigate and check all the simple things but if you guys can think of anything it might be.

Also on the bootup screen where it says cpu speed, ddr speed, detecting ide drives, etc it says Secondary IDE Channel no 80 conductor cable installed. Now I've been getting this message for quite sometime and I didn't expect it to be any big deal, but perhaps it has something to do with this.

The cable the 2 optical drives are hooked up to is a 3 head generic ata 133 rounded cable bought from newegg. I'll try swapping it out.

[Al_Capown]

Update...

I'm scared. I just turned on the computer and some weird DOS screensaver popped up with all these smiley faces. Guess the computer won't even boot now. Also when I was in the bios I could not select 1800+ speeds, instead I had to use the user define option.

Also, the drives do open, close, and blink and from what I'm seeing appear to be functioning properly.

I also just unplugged the cable going to the drives and at the bios screen it said Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed, but it did boot into windows fine.

[primesuspect]

That sounds really bizarre - esp the part about the smiley faced screensaver... Almost sounds like a virus or even a BIOS virus :confused:

[Al_Capown]

primesuspect had this to say
That sounds really bizarre - esp the part about the smiley faced screensaver... Almost sounds like a virus or even a BIOS virus :confused:

Yea you have no idea what was racing through my mind the entire time, but I definetly don't see how I could get a virus. I typically keep my computer fairly clean, I don't see anything inparticular hogging my resources, and I haven't noticed any decline in performance whatsoever. But then again, searching for that paris hilton bible study may have gotten myself a virus or two. I'll have to give AVG a try tonight. Are there actually such a thing as a bios virus?

Any help is appreciated.
Al

[Black Hawk]

Al_Capown had this to say
primesuspect had this to say
That sounds really bizarre - esp the part about the smiley faced screensaver... Almost sounds like a virus or even a BIOS virus :confused:

Yea you have no idea what was racing through my mind the entire time, but I definetly don't see how I could get a virus. I typically keep my computer fairly clean, I don't see anything inparticular hogging my resources, and I haven't noticed any decline in performance whatsoever. But then again, searching for that paris hilton bible study may have gotten myself a virus or two. I'll have to give AVG a try tonight. Are there actually such a thing as a bios virus?

Any help is appreciated.
Al Kazza Lite + AVI preview ;) I found a real copy in 10mins (slow bandwidth) :D

[Al_Capown]

Black Hawk had this to say
Al_Capown had this to say
primesuspect had this to say
That sounds really bizarre - esp the part about the smiley faced screensaver... Almost sounds like a virus or even a BIOS virus :confused:

Yea you have no idea what was racing through my mind the entire time, but I definetly don't see how I could get a virus. I typically keep my computer fairly clean, I don't see anything inparticular hogging my resources, and I haven't noticed any decline in performance whatsoever. But then again, searching for that paris hilton bible study may have gotten myself a virus or two. I'll have to give AVG a try tonight. Are there actually such a thing as a bios virus?

Any help is appreciated.
Al Kazza Lite + AVI preview ;) I found a real copy in 10mins (slow bandwidth) :D
ygpm

[Dexter]

If you want AVG, why not just d/l their trial edition from their website, instead of looking for it on Kazaa?

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

**Dexter scratches head and mutters something about Rule #4....

[Al_Capown]

We were talking about the Paris Hilton bible study, not AVG already got it running right now. so far 9.22 GB tested 0 infected files.

[Al_Capown]

Update: No virus. Going to switch the cable out.

Al