[dinofh1]

I have checked the cables , and the machine has seen alot of on off lately due to a new graphic card, and the fact its a pci cardm, and I cant seem to shut down the onboard graphics so we need to boot everytime we switch the monitor cable from the card to the mobo port. but thats another issue ,. The main problem now is that all I can do is get the dell screen, then bang right to black, and the invalid boot diskette / insert bootable disk in drive A,. I did make a few varieties of the boot disk, but none worked, I thought they did but it was only booting because the machine was off for 20 mins or so. sorry for the long post, it doesnth help that this is my kids puter, so who really knows what happened.

Its a dimension win 2000, 256 ram. 1 gig p3. Any suggestions? Thansk, and Nice board you have here I think im gonna be around alot

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dinofh1...

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode by tapping the F8 key during boot up and running some system tools?

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

dinofh1...

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode by tapping the F8 key during boot up and running some system tools?

wannabe1

[dinofh1]

no can do, it goes from the dell screen, right to a black screen with the diskette message. It did boot 2 times this a.m., one time I ran some utility programs, the next time it got me as far as loading and I was able to f8 it but then she quit and hung till I tried to reboot again, then black screen invalid disk message.

[wannabe1]

dinofh1...

This almost sounds like a heat related problem in that it will seemingly boot up when it's cool and fail when it's warm. Have you tried cleaning the CPU cooler? Sometimes a can of compressed air can go a long way toward fixing problems of this kind.

Next time you get it running, download Speed Fan (Click on the SpeedFan 4.27 link in the second paragraph), install it, and run it to monitor voltages and temperatures.

Check the temperature readings right after startup and after it has run for a while...post them here for me.

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 18 January 2006 - 09:17 AM.

[dinofh1]

There are no temp readings jst fan speed??? do i need to set up anything?

[dinofh1]

ok its running cleaned the fan and heat sink, lets see if it reboots. Stay tuned.

[wannabe1]

dinofh1...

You shouldn't need to set up anything...some motherboards just don't support this kind of monitoring. Let's see if the cleaning resolves the problem.

wannabe1

[dinofh1]

its up again, and im still running some utilities, I have a problem with the A drive, when I undid the the heat sink, it must have come unplugged, now when i plug it in it gives me a problem with A drive hit Del to continue, thats fine I have little use for the floppy anyway, but I need to disable it, and get into my set up so I can skip it during boot up, at startup I can get into f8 and go to safe mode, but not f2 which is set up. Now the truth spills out, i talke with my wife, and she was on here last night (this puter), we bought the kids a game that required more than the on board graphics could allow, so she called my brother in law who is a IT guy, and she started messing with things, we have been unable to disable the drivers, and controls for the on board graphics, now oddly enough it will (when it wants to) boot but only if the monitor is plugged into the graphics card, wheras it used to only boot in the on board port. Can you shed any light as to how I can disable the onboard alltogether?? Its an intel 82810e graphics controller, dc-133 I think it may be bridged to other accys on the mobo, but not sure, since i blew of work today, id like to at least try and get this thing right, Im a contractor, and its 60 mph gusts outside here in mass. so there isnt too much I had to do anyway, Thanks for your help!!!

[wannabe1]

dinofh1...

Heat Issue:

when I undid the the heat sink

Did you use thermal paste between the CPU and the cooler? You'll need to do that to get good thermal transfer from the CPU to the cooler. Arctic Silver or Arctic Aluminum are both very good products and should be available at most computer repair shops.

___________________________________

Video Issue:

Let's look at a couple of things...don't change anything, though...we don't want to leave you without a display until we get this sorted out.

Right click on the desktop and choose "Properties" then click on the "Settings" tab. Click on the "Advanced" button and then click the "Adapter" tab. What video adapter is listed?

Go to Device Manager by right clicking on "My Computer", selecting "Properties", click on the "Hardware" tab, and click the "Device Manager" button. Expand (click +) "Display Adapters"...what is listed here. Scroll down and expand "System Devices"...is your onboard video listed here?

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 18 January 2006 - 11:54 AM.

[dinofh1]

dinofh1...

Heat Issue:
Did you use thermal paste between the CPU and the cooler? You'll need to do that to get good thermal transfer from the CPU to the cooler. Arctic Silver or Arctic Aluminum are both very good products and should be available at most computer repair shops.

___________________________________

Video Issue:

Let's look at a couple of things...don't change anything, though...we don't want to leave you without a display until we get this sorted out.

Right click on the desktop and choose "Properties" then click on the "Settings" tab. Click on the "Advanced" button and then click the "Adapter" tab. What video adapter is listed?

Go to Device Manager by right clicking on "My Computer", selecting "Properties", click on the "Hardware" tab, and click the "Device Manager" button. Expand (click +) "Display Adapters"...what is listed here. Scroll down and expand "System Devices"...is your onboard video listed here?

wannabe1

OK the display lised in the settings is for the on board intel , which the monitor is currently plugged into.

The device manager lists both my onboard and the new Nvidia card, I have tried to uninstall the intel from this point but it keeps comming back everytime I re boot. Proceed please

[wannabe1]

dinofh1...

Right click on the desktop and choose "Properties" then click on the "Settings" tab. Click on the "Advanced" button and then click the "Adapter" tab. In the "Adapter Type" box, click the "Properties" button. At the bottom of the window, in the drop down menu, select "Do not use this device (disable). Click "Ok"...Close all other windows that are sill open related to this setting by confirming the change (Apply or Ok).

Open Device Manager, expand "Display Adapters", double click on the new Video Card, and select "Use this device (enable)" from the drop down menu, and click "Ok". Close Device Manager and Reboot.

Let me know if these settings remain set or if the onboard re-enables itself on boot...

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 18 January 2006 - 12:28 PM.

[dinofh1]

I cant use the drop down device usage for either one it wont let me like if it were not an option.

[wannabe1]

Ok...

Can you go into the BIOS setup on reboot (usually by tapping the F1 or Delete key...it will tell you what key to press at the bottom of the first screen..."Press [key] to enter setup") and see if you can disable the onboard video from there? You'll have to hunt around a bit to find the setting (if it is there) and because all versions of BIOS are a little different, I can't point you right to it. Instructions for navigating in BIOS should be on the right or on the bottom of the BIOS screen...be sure to save any settings you make when you exit (usually by pressing F10).

Let me know what you find...

wannabe1

[dinofh1]

I know its version A.11 I have had no luck getting into it, but I will try the f1, and delete key and see what happens.

[wannabe1]

The Dell site says it's the Delete key...