[Wynn_M]

Quote 'When you say it is booting but stubbornly what do you mean exactly?'
I mean -persistently- (only humans can be stubborn)

Before I attempt the task you've set, what do you mean by "If you have more than one RAM module installed, try starting computer with one RAM stick at a time". I don't know the answer to that. Do you mean USB sticks?? The USB connections don't function. No external drive or printer.

You are right about the auto booting into Windows XP Home Edition CD Rom - I have 10 seconds to choose that one or (2)to go to Restore and that's it. I tried Restore once but the default choices I mentioned before didn't show up. I opted to go with what worked - Home Edition.

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Hello Rshaffer61
I went for the Device Manager option - less painful! Strangely enough in the DVD\CDROM
drives, Phillips DVDR1640P was named drive 1 and Pioneer DVD-ROM DVD-106 named Drive 2.
That is not the case on booting as MSWinHomeEdition is the one that boots the system.

Still with Device Manager: IDE ATA/ATAPI expanded into:
1. Primary IDE channel
2. Ditto
3. Secondary IDE channel
4. Ditto
5. Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
6. VIA Bus Master IDE controller
1-6 do not expand
There were 7 or 8 duplicates in the secondary IDE which were uninstalled and for some unknown reason I left one duplicate installed - I guess my untrained brain was thinking - just as a precaution. No problem if it has to go as well - just tell me.

I tried the F8 bootup in the BIOS and it displayed all the right and previous good bootup sequences - great, all I had to do was select from the boot sequence, save f10 and Home Edition would go away. IT DIDN'T HAPPEN - still booted with Home edition/restore choices.

If its any help to you, the bios setup read as follows:
Primary IDE Master - Pioneer DVDRom ATAPI. (Tried to save into this one).
Primary Slave - Phillips DVDR 1640P.
Secondary IDE Master/slave - not detected.
Third IDE Master - STM 3250318AS.
Entries after that were greyed out.
System info was also greyed out. Now my head aches.

Wynn_M

[Wynn_M]

Hello Rshaffer61
I went for the Device Manager option - less painful! Strangely enough in the DVD\CDROM
drives, Phillips DVDR1640P was named drive 1 and Pioneer DVD-ROM DVD-106 named Drive 2.
That is not the case on booting as MSWinHomeEdition is the one that boots the system.

Still with Device Manager: IDE ATA/ATAPI expanded into:
1. Primary IDE channel
2. Ditto
3. Secondary IDE channel
4. Ditto
5. Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
6. VIA Bus Master IDE controller
1-6 do not expand
There were 7 or 8 duplicates in the secondary IDE which were uninstalled and for some unknown reason I left one duplicate installed - I guess my untrained brain was thinking - just as a precaution. No problem if it has to go as well - just tell me.

I tried the F8 bootup in the BIOS and it displayed all the right and previous good bootup sequences - great, all I had to do was select from the boot sequence, save f10 and Home Edition would go away. IT DIDN'T HAPPEN - still booted with Home edition/restore choices.

If its any help to you, the bios setup read as follows:
Primary IDE Master - Pioneer DVDRom ATAPI. (Tried to save into this one).
Primary Slave - Phillips DVDR 1640P.
Secondary IDE Master/slave - not detected.
Third IDE Master - STM 3250318AS.
Entries after that were greyed out.
System info was also greyed out. Now my head aches.

Wynn_M

[rshaffer61]

Before I attempt the task you've set, what do you mean by "If you have more than one RAM module installed, try starting computer with one RAM stick at a time". I don't know the answer to that. Do you mean USB sticks?? The USB connections don't function. No external drive or printer.

Skip it and move on to the software testing. A lot less stressful.
If a issue is found we can target that later.


What you want is the

3. Secondary IDE channel
4. Ditto


Right click on each of these and then click on Uninstall.
Reboot and when the system boots back into windows it will reinstall each of them and hopefully the issue will resolve itself at that time.

[Wynn_M]

Hi
Task completed: Result: PC detected new hardward and reinstalled. Checked Device Manager: two Primary IDE and two Secondary present. Booted into Home edition. Should it have booted into Phillips or Pioneer?

Wynn_M

[rshaffer61]

Nope shouldn't boot into cd drive unless there is a boot disk present in it and it should ask you to push any key to boot to cdrom.

[Wynn_M]

No Windows CD in drive - what now?

Wynn_M

[rshaffer61]

Have you run the memtest86 test for the memory as i suggested in post 18?

[Wynn_M]

MEM TEST

Hello, Sorry I've taken so long with this. Problems I'm afraid. I have the disk prepared but the problem is with booting from it. I managed to change the BIOS boot priorities back to 1st CDROM Pioneer with 2nd HDD 3M....... 3rd disabled but it rebooted back into WINDOWS HOME EDITION AGAIN - and yes, I saved the changes with F10.

I retried the BIOS settings and they were still in place but greyed out on reboot with the following setup utility options: CPU config, Chipset config, Onboard devices config and PCIPnP. I've spent hours on this task with no results except for the info on the disk. Disheartening isn't it. What else can I do??

Wynn_M

[Wynn_M]

Hi, I'm back to amend my previous post. I finally managed to complete the MEM test - I did 5 passes and there were no errors. That's a relief - so the RAM is good. While fishing in the BIOS I noticed that the GART Error Reporting was disabled by default so I enabled it till the test was over and disabled it again. Was that a right or wrong move? I also noticed that the chipset was disabled but couldn't/didn't do anything about it.

I'm glad we can move on now - at this rate I'll soon be joining the Geeks!!

Wynn_M

[rshaffer61]

OK going back through the topic I found something interesting.
Can you disconnect which ever cdrom is the 1st one. Turn system off and then open the system and disconnect power from that cdrom. Then reboot system and let me know if the issue continues. According to one of your logs the cdrom is throwing bad block errors.

[Wynn_M]

Hi,
I'm willing to try but you will need to be more explicit in your request. Are you asking me to physically disconnect the Phillips CDrom drive from within the machine or from BIOS? If so, either way I will require directions/guidance. Thanks.

Wynn_M

[rshaffer61]

Shut the system down
Disconnect power cord from your system
Open the side of the system.
Find the power connector to the 1st cdrom drive and disconnect it.
Reconnect power cable to your system
Restart the system and allow it to boot into windows normally.
Do you now get the issue with your system.
I am attempting to determine if the 1st cdrom is the issue here by not allowing it to power up while windows is running.

[Wynn_M]

Hello rshaffer61

Yes, it was helpful to know the tech behind the exercise but I'm afraid that little exercise had dire consequences. So here's the bad news.

Unplugged the first CDrom drive as suggested and PC rebooted into Win Home Edition. On the second try the reboot could not find any boot media and requested/suggested manufacturers boot CD. Unfortunately I don't possess one.
Anyway I couldn't get any sense out of it from then on and accepted that the beast was dead. There was obviously something very screwed up in that box and I know the feeling.

The good news is that I bought myself a new PC and am now enjoying the wonders of Win7. A bit earlier than I had hoped but probably a blessing in disguise. I must pay tribute to your dedication to my PC problems, the time you spent educating me with helpful advice and for all that I thank you very very much rshaffer.

Finally I would appreciate any last comments you may wish to share.

Wynn_M

[rshaffer61]

Sounds like the hd failed on the second boot. Might be a loose connection also and rechecking it to make sure nothing may have vibrated loose.
Great to hear you are in Win7 now and I hope it wasn't to much of a shock going from XP to Win7.
I do thank you for the kind words and comments like yours is why I do this. I do enjoy it but the satisfaction of a happy OP is all the thanks I need. Please let me know if there is anything else I can further assist with or if you want to continue trying to get the original system running again.