Packard bell, AARGHHHH

botheredbothered Manchester UK
edited July 2003 in Hardware
A lad I work with asked me if I could sort his PC out.
The HDD is knackered so I've put a new one in. Start with floppy, Run FDISK, ok uptill this point. The PC is a clockwork Packard bell that doesn't have a reset button, FDISK say's I have to restart then format the drive. I've done this loads of times on other PCs, No problem but there isn't a reset button! The only option is to turn the PC off then on again after which it has forgot it has run FDISK and tells me to run it again.
How can I restart the PC without turning it off? The only option in the 'bios' for the power button is on\off or suspend (tried both) There is nothing in there to restart the thing.
Help. :banghead:

bothered.

Comments

  • TBonZTBonZ Ottawa, ON Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    How about a good ol' ctrl-alt-del once back at the command prompt?
  • mondimondi Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    ctrl-alt-delete

    edit - heh, TbonZ beat me to it
  • botheredbothered Manchester UK
    edited July 2003
    Tried it, doesn't do anything.
  • TBonZTBonZ Ottawa, ON Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    ctrl-alt-del doesn't work?!? Are you sure it was the HDD that was knackered in the first place and not the stinkin' HP mobo?
  • mondimondi Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    or you may want to try an alternative .. say FreeFdisk ... or Partition Manager if you have that lying around .... also check the drive cables, they may be causing problems too
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Um.... Errr.... Replace CMOS coin cell(battery, not IC) or let it run for a week as-is if it has a Dallas chip.

    It lost its CMOS table probably. HD might be bad also, but might also be just fine with a situation where CMOS table entries are missing. If battery for CMOS table and clock is dead, then the BIOS has no idea what drive is in computer as settings get lost whenever the computer is off for more than 15-30 seconds or so. The old PBs BIOSs also do not always default to autodetect by themselves.

    So, if you can, please try the "dead" drive in another computer. I once monkeyed with a PB for days, finally realized it was not autodetecting, gave it a new $2.00 battery and it was happy for another 3 years after I told it what HD it had in the BIOS setup routine and let it then store as the BIOS rebooted when I told it to save settings . Another PB had a Dallas clock chip-- battery in those is rechargeable and if not left on more than off gets drained more than recharged adn thus ends up dead untilleft plugged in long enough to trickle charge (4-12 DAYS). Dallas chips say Dallas and have a clock face graphic on them.
  • NecropolisNecropolis Hawarden, Wales Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    There is also <a href="http://www.aefdisk.com/&quot; target="new">aefdisk</a>

    If I recall, the shareware version still does what you need.

    Or what OS you installing on it? You could use that.
  • botheredbothered Manchester UK
    edited July 2003
    He gave me a copy of ME to put on it but I can't get form FDISK to format.
    Thanks for the tips guys, I'll try again later.

    bothered.
  • teflemingtefleming
    edited July 2003
    bothered said
    He gave me a copy of ME

    And you took it??? Why???
  • NecropolisNecropolis Hawarden, Wales Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Ok,

    Boot off an installation floppy (you can download anyone off the web, www.bootdisk.com is always a good place to start.)

    Boot to a command prompt with the cd drivers loaded.

    Go to your cd-rom (usually D:\)

    Go into the winme (or win9x I cant remember) directory

    Type oemsetup (there where some flags to make things a little quicker but I cant remember them)

    It will fdisk and format your drive for you :D
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2003
    Stick a XP bootable in it and format it there.
  • botheredbothered Manchester UK
    edited July 2003
    Wow, I came back to say I've given up but there's a few other things here to try. I took the ME disk because that's what he wants. Don't ask me why????
    Auto detect does work in the bios, it correctly detected the drive.
    Ctrl, alt delete DOES work, but only after you do it several times and wait, But, tried both the new and original HDs, It runs FDISK and creates the partition then asks to restart so I can format. Whatever I do when it restarts, It tells me I have to run FDISK!! If I try to format it anyway it wont. It runs FDISK then forgets it has.
    I'm begining to wonder if there's a virus in the bios or something else wrong with it.
    I'll try the format from the ME disc as Neo suggested tomorrow. It's my time to play now.
    Thanks for all the help guys.

    bothered.
    ps, I'll let you know tomorrow.
  • nekromancerusnekromancerus New
    edited July 2003
    All fdisk does is partition the drive. In a properly working PC, the HDD cannot 'forget' that it's been partitioned, even during a power down or reboot (especially since fdisk wants you to reboot after you partition anyways). Sounds like a bad HDD. Have you tried running check disk (or whatever it's called that comes with Windows)?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    What size is the new hard drive?


    Prof
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Given all that, I did run across a few Stealth viruses that did this, but they were boot sector viruses. I ende d up zero packing one HD, too many stealths. Others, I floppy booted with a write-protected boot floppy, then fdisked. Someone had tried before with an un-writeprotected floppy, we virus scanned floppy and promptly killed a stealth on the floppy boot sector.

    So, scan the floppy also for viruses if you used one to boot. The virus might have hopped from HD onto the boot floppy.

    Then it would hop onto the HD of whatever it was stuck into unless the computer was running an antivirus at the time to intercept it-- and that was how a whole computer lab found half its boot floppies and half its computers had gotten stealthed. We checked one boot floppy and then a whole slew of boot floppies, grade floppies, teacher stations, 40 computers used by students.

    Ten computers were total reloads.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    Ageek said
    ...scan the floppy also for viruses if you used one to boot. The virus might have hopped from HD onto the boot floppy.

    Then it would hop onto the HD of whatever it was stuck into unless the computer was running an antivirus at the time to intercept it-- and that was how a whole computer lab found half its boot floppies and half its computers had gotten stealthed. We checked one boot floppy and then a whole slew of boot floppies, grade floppies, teacher stations, 40 computers used by students.

    Ten computers were total reloads.

    My first boss (as a tech) would make us physically destroy the floppy used for virus detection if any virus was found on a customers computer. This was in the day when virus definitions fit on one floppy disk.

    He didn't believe in taking chances. Excellent point, Ageek!:thumbsup:


    Prof
  • botheredbothered Manchester UK
    edited July 2003
    Well thanks everybody, Tried everything but no go. Before A:\FDISK it says there is no partition on drive C but if I opt for option 4 in FDISK (Display partition information) it correctly lists the drive, It wont format, It says there isn't a partition??? There must be something else wrong with it. I'm on holiday next week and I'm not going to spend anymore time on it, He'll just have to buy a 'proper' PC. There's a mark on the side of this one left by the water wheel before it was converted to electric.
    Packard bell? AARRGGHHHH.
    Thanks again.

    bothered.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    If he's a good friend, you'll use this as an opportunity to get him to ditch the PB. One of my hobbies is putting together computers from old parts, then offering them free to friends who think their old computer is still decent. It usually is a wake-up call when they realize that people have trouble giving away computers which are better than theirs.

    I did find this, if you are in a masochistic mood:
    Lose time
    What would you need to get rid of a virus in the MBR of a hard disk? A boot disk. What happened if you entered the Packard Bell boot disk and boot your PC? It installs a complete system without giving a fdisk /mbr. Conclusion? You still have a virus.
    But wait I hear you saying, When you install Windows 98 ( or Win95 for that matter) you are asked to make a new boot disk, so use the that new disk instead of the Packard Bell. Good thinking but you assume to much.
    Packard Bell assumes you know nothing about computers and gives you one boot disk and three cd-roms with all the software on it you need. They know all their software is bullet proof. So they think let's get rid of all the embarrassing questions Windows 95/98 asks when you are installing it, including the making of a new boot disk with all the tools you are too stupid to use. As a plus the installation will take about one point five hours minus one point five minutes which is a good thing because you have won 1.5 minutes to fool around in Windows 98 and lose the vital utilities you eventually need.

    So my brother was getting pretty desperate. I can't blame him. He just couldn't make a new disk and he had forgotten to take one with him. He asked me if I could come and fix the dammed machine. I said I would come in the weekend.
    End of the story? No, I went and I too forgot to take a Windows 95/98 boot disk with me. I had taken Linux with me and the DOS 6.22 installation disks. How to proceed? Boot Linux from cd-rom. Use the Red Hat fdisk program to kill the offending Windows 98 partition and make a Linux partition. Kill the installation of Linux. Boot with the DOS 6.22 installation disk and install DOS 6.22. After that you install the Packard Bell boot disk and boot the machine. After some wonderful coffee and soup the machine worked. I than proceeded to make the Windows 98 boot disk and knew I would be considered a wizard by all.
    Read on... or Go back...

    Got it here.


    Prof
  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    as far as i know partitioning the hdd can be done without the reset button.

    just make sure u have the file "format.com" inside that bootable floppy of urs tho
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