Computer won't boot

SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
edited June 2005 in Hardware
I would have put this in the Emergency help forum which is probably a more appropriate place for it, but its not really an emergency.

Today I found a computer at the dump and figured "what the heck, I'll bring it home and if it wont work I'll use it for parts." I brought it home, hooked everything up except the keyboard (the keyboard didn't have the right plug on the end to fit into the port), and hit the power button. *beep* It turned on and it loaded up to the BIOS. At the BIOS screen it said something like this. I may have the letters wrong in the error message and its not the exact wording. I am just reciting it off the top of my head from a few hours ago when I tried it.

"Reading DPI Information
Boot failed, insert system disk and press Enter"

I'm not sure what the problem is, but I know it's not the RAM. It didn't come with a system disk (I found it in a scrap metal pile), so I can't use that. Also the keyboard isn't hooked up so I can't press Enter anyways.

Since then I have taken the RAM (64MB PC100) out and put it into my Celeron 566 which now has 95MB :). Laying next to the computer I found a bunch of SIMM RAM but I don't think I have any use for it. I also found another hard drive but it had some sand in it so I figured it was no good and left it.

The computer I found is pretty crappy actually, except that I found the RAM useful, so I don't really care if I get it working. Its got a 300MHz AMD processor and an 850MB hard drive. I was going to use it as a folding machine since my friend has some extra Ethernet cables he might give me but 300MHz won't be much help :(.

Any help would be appreciated, but if you can't help its no problem.

Comments

  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    Is the HDD set to boot first? Is it even detected?
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    How do I check that? It only loads to the BIOS screen.

    I read online that it could be the cable going from the hard drive so I disconnected it and plugged it in securly. I'm going to try it in a little while and see if it works.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    A missing "System Disk" simply means it can't find a drive with an OS to boot from. If you've got an old copy of Win98 laying around and a HD that's bigger than 850MB you could try a fresh install.

    850MB HD's were the big deal about ten years ago. Chances are the drive that's in there croaked and the guy tossed the rest of the machine out because it wasn't worth upgrading. From the description of the keyboard connection it looks like you have an old AT system. If I were you I'd be happy to have the free ram and not mess with it too much, unless you have lots of spare parts lying around and want to use it as a learning experience. A system of that vintage might make a good print server or linux router, but that's about it. I threw three computers just like that in the trash when I moved a year ago. :vimp:

    PS - I saved the ram from them. If you want more for your Celery machine send me a PM. :)
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    I don't have a copy of Win98 but would a boot disk work?

    I just compared it with the Celeron and I found that the original owner connected the wrong part of the IDE cable to the HD, so I changed that, but it still made no difference.

    I am happy that I got the RAM from it, but I was just hoping that I could fix it (even with help). I don't need any more PC100 RAM. All the banks in the Celeron are full now. Thanks for the offer though.

    So the probelm is the HD then? I could try the 6.96GB out of the celeron but I don't really want to go through the mess of it all.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    SpywareShooter wrote:
    I don't have a copy of Win98 but would a boot disk work?...
    All a boot disk will tell you is that the floppy or cdrom drive (whichever you boot from) is working. You could try making a diagnostic disk for the HD (get the program from the HD manufacturer) and see if the drive is OK. In that case you've got yourself a linux candidate. You'd be hard-pressed to find anything else that would fit on there, unless you go back to Win95 (or maybe Win98).
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    OK... I found this site for diagnostic software but the computer needs Internet Access to run them.

    http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

    How would I go about running them on the computer that wont boot?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    Download the utility on your main computer, make a bootable floppy, copy the program to the floppy, then boot from the disk you just made and run the utility. :)
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    How do I make a bootable floppy?

    Also my main computer doesn't have a floppy drive so I'll have to drag the old Celeron upstairs and use that to make one. Is that OK?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    One thing to mention first is that some company's diagnostic program will make the boot disk for you. I'd try running the program and see. If it tells you to insert a blank floppy disk then you can ignore the next part.
    SpywareShooter wrote:
    How do I make a bootable floppy?
    Open Windows Explorer or My Computer. Put a blank floppy in the drive. Right-click on the Floppy Drive icon, then left-click on format. You should get a new window like the one in the attached pic. Put a check where the red dot is located. You've now created a bootable floppy disk.

    attachment.php?attachmentid=15637&stc=1
    Also my main computer doesn't have a floppy drive so I'll have to drag the old Celeron upstairs and use that to make one. Is that OK?

    It doesn't matter where you make it. Once you've finished the above steps, copy the HD diagnostic program to the floppy you just made. Reboot the computer, go into the BIOS, then set your Floppy Drive as the first boot device. Continue booting, taking you to an A:\ prompt.

    Type in the name of the HD diagnostic program and hit enter. The program should start. After that, just follow the instructions to run the test.

    Good luck. :)
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    I found that the program creates a bootable floppy and I am working on making them now (it requires two). The only problem is that minimum system requirements on the diag tool say 386MHz processor and the dump computer is only a 300MHz, but its worth a try.
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    I made the floppies and put the first one in. It loaded into Memory fine but then it asked me to insert Disk 2 and press 'c' to continue. I don't have an AT Keyboard, and the only place to hook up a PS2-style keyboard is in the mouse port. I tried it there but it doesn't detect the keyboard, so I can't press "c". Is there any way around this?

    Also, just before it gets to the BIOS screen and stops booting it says this:
    "Detecting IDE Primary Master: None"

    Does that mean anything?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    Until the bios can detect the HD you will have no luck running the diagnostic program. Try setting all the IDE Channels to "Auto", or use the autodetect function if it has one.

    You can buy a PS/2 to AT keyboard adapter for a couple bucks.
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    How do I set the IDE channels to auto?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    Look for something like this in your bios:
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    Too bad I can't access the BIOS :(. I guess I'll just use the computer for spare parts and not get it running. Even though its just a couple of bucks I don't want to go all the way to the nearest computer store (about 30 minutes away) just to get an AT/PS2 adapter.

    Do you think that the graphics card and sound card in it would be good to put in the Celeron?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    SpywareShooter wrote:
    ...Do you think that the graphics card and sound card in it would be good to put in the Celeron?
    Depends on what they are and what you have in there now. :D
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    How can I tell?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    What cards are in your Celeron rig and what cards are in the one you hauled off the trash heap? Look at them and see if there is a Brand & Model#. Tell me what the FCC ID # is and I can look it up. You can also learn a lot by looking at the chips on the cards. Post all that info here and I could give you an idea which is better.

    The chances are good that what you already had is better than what was in the junked rig. Unless it's significantly better it probably wouldn't be worth the hassle of swapping them out.
  • DonutDonut Maine New
    edited June 2005
    You could swap them out just to check and see if they still work. If they're good save them for spares. If you wanted to go thru the effort, you could set the old drive as a slave in a curent machine, then check it.

    I just put an old ATI mach 64 into one of my folding boxes. ;D (replaced the old tnt2 that was in it)
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    ok, how do I set it as a slave? I'll give that a try.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    Look at the jumpers at the end of the drive. Hopefully there will be a mark of some sort (often M-S-CS, for Master-Slave-Cable Select). Just follow the diagram.
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    I just did but the Celeron has no place to mount a second drive. I'm going to put it between the floppy and disk drives and unplug the floppy since its outdated.
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    I found that the floppy cable is smaller than the hd cable so it wouldn't work and I had to disconnect the CD drive to do it. Its not being detected.

    Next I'm going to try to hook up the two hard drives together on one IDE cable and see if it works then.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    Leave the original drive as Master and make sure it's at the end of the cable. Set the drive you're adding as slave and put it on the middle of the connection. Make sure your Primary IDE Channel is set to "Auto" for both Master and Slave in the BIOS. :thumbsup:
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited June 2005
    I tried that but it gave me a message that no OS was detected and it wouldn't boot. So I have given up and took the dump computer apart. Here is what I was able to salvage from it:

    ESS Sound Card
    Winbond Graphics Card W27E257-12 (14.31818MHz)
    US Robotics PC Card 1.012.0236-B
    Mitsumi Floppy Drive D359M3
    Toshiba CDRom Drive 838A012049

    And I'm trying to figure out how to get the CPU Fan out of it.

    Can someone tell me if any of this is any good and worth keeping for backup?
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