Motherboard error?

attackingmoose

A while ago I was trying to find something on a CD. However, the CD drive kept hitting the bed, making it stall and annoying me. I get off my lazy arse and drag the computer backwards only to hit the OH SHI- button my surge protector. Everything connected gets powered down, including my computer which was just loading a CD (stuff spinnin' like my rims, yo). I boot back up only to find it won't recognize the harddrive. Fine, second HD lost, I can deal with that. I grabbed the extra one (which works, tested it on another computer) which has XP loaded on it. Hmm. It's set to master, the cables are awwwright but it won't boot. Damn.

I checked the date/time (F2 on boot) and it was set back to '04. I changed that to the current one and it stuck so right now, it's nothing more than a big clock.

If there are any trouble shooting tips or programs I could run to get my motherboard working again (assuming that's the problem), I would be most pleased.

Thanks for your time.

(Also, I probably forgot little details, if you want/need them, I'm perfectly able to fill you in. You just have to ask.)

profdlp

Try unplugging the computer, removing the CMOS battery, then leave the CMOS jumper in the reset position for twenty minutes. Then reverse the process and immediately go into the BIOS and reconfigure everything properly.

Siggy

I have seen a lot of these - if clearing the cmos doesnt work I really think the mb is toast. Is the drive recognised when you go into the BIOS at all?

You will probably need to do a repair install of xp on the drive to get it back up and running, once it is recognised by the motherboard.

attackingmoose

Siggy wrote:

I have seen a lot of these - if clearing the cmos doesnt work I really think the mb is toast. Is the drive recognised when you go into the BIOS at all?

You will probably need to do a repair install of xp on the drive to get it back up and running, once it is recognised by the motherboard.

If I were using the original crashed harddrive, yes. This one was in a computer I found on the side of the road (:|) and was tested on the computer I'm on now (and worked, if you reread the original statement). The harddrive that was in it is pretty crashed and I NEED to find a way to get the files back but I don't know who, since I don't trust anyone :| (and paying 1k or more for some files isn't worth it, yet. I'll wait, thank you.).

EDIT-Took out the battery and left it out for an hour or so and put it back in. Struck F2 [BIOS, mirite?] quickly and despite that, it alerted that it was running an automatic fix of something or other. I let that run, rebooted and it wouldn't get past the error screen 'a disk read error has occured, ctrl-alt-delete to restart' which is all I had before.

So unless I fouled this up, more tests needed? Thanks for all your work, it's not going unappreciated.

Siggy

attackingmoose wrote:

If I were using the original crashed harddrive, yes. This one was in a computer I found on the side of the road (:|) and was tested on the computer I'm on now (and worked, if you reread the original statement).

still not too sure what you need:
What date is showing on the motherboard when you go into it - in other words is it retaining the changes you make to it - if not maybe the battery was affected?
Is the hard drive recognised correctly in the BIOS - make and size?
the hard drive you have in now has XP on it and works if you plug it into another PC as the sole drive?

attackingmoose wrote:

The harddrive that was in it is pretty crashed and I NEED to find a way to get the files back but I don't know who, since I don't trust anyone :| (and paying 1k or more for some files isn't worth it, yet. I'll wait, thank you.).

I have a handy tool that may get your data back - costs about $50 off the website - but has 30 day trial to see if it works - www.handyrecovery.com

attackingmoose wrote:

Fine, second HD lost, I can deal with that. I grabbed the extra one (which works, tested it on another computer)

But before you do that - am I right in assuming you have another PC?
If so why not take the disc with the data on it and put it in as a slave drive and see if you can get windows to recognise it as a "D" Drive - if so just copy your files across

attackingmoose

Siggy wrote:

still not too sure what you need:
What date is showing on the motherboard when you go into it - in other words is it retaining the changes you make to it - if not maybe the battery was affected?
Is the hard drive recognised correctly in the BIOS - make and size?
the hard drive you have in now has XP on it and works if you plug it into another PC as the sole drive?

Yes to all that. The battery is fine and unaffected. The BIOS recognizes the drive but it won't boot on this computer. It boots fine as a sole drive although won't get past login as I have to validate XP for it but since it's not going to be on this computer, why bother. It's the same version as the old harddrive so the data's all stored. Etcetera. tl;dr version - I tried that all already.

Siggy wrote:

I have a handy tool that may get your data back - costs about $50 off the website - but has 30 day trial to see if it works - www.handyrecovery.com

I have plenty of freeware already. I'll check that out but I'm guessing that you have to pay before it'll do anything but say 'well, we know your data's there and we CAN recover it butttt we want money'. Which is all good and fine for their profitting but does little for me, especially if I can get it back using freeware.

Siggy wrote:

But before you do that - am I right in assuming you have another PC?
If so why not take the disc with the data on it and put it in as a slave drive and see if you can get windows to recognise it as a "D" Drive - if so just copy your files across

Because I tried that already. One harddrive will show itself but won't be accessable and the other hasn't even shown up (although, I might've botched it, I don't even have space on this harddrive to take files off, tbh).

Swing and a miss but thanks for your time.